New Lockdown Rules

[eve1974]

So what has really changed?

Pubs closed at 10pm (again)
Table service only (I think that’s how it was anyway?)
Weddings reduced to 15
Office workers to work from home if poss (which most were doing anyway).
Higher fines for non conforming individuals and businesses who allow that.

Have a missed something? To me not a lot has changed?

[dave50]

But Boris is still threatening us with another national lock down if we don't comply, is he insane? I just hope it's just an empty threat, if not he has totally lost the plot.

[teacake44]

What has really changed? nothing, still no productive testing

[Gromit2]

I can’t see Johnson ever recovering from this. He has quickly become one of the most hated Prime Ministers. Covid is an act of god, and not really his fault, but today, virtually every one I talked to was scathing about Johnson (to the point I was almost feeling sorry for him).

[Jackdaw33]

Johnson has no choice but to act upon the advice of his scientific advisors and I think most people realise that.

[ichkeria]

However the tenor of the question above seems to be: he’s not actually doing very much. There’s a feeling that these measures are not really in keeping with the “scientific advice”. Personally I’m glad, because I think the picture painted by those two particular scientists was over-pessimistic (they more or less admitted as much)
Plainly there’s a disconnect between science and Johnson’s pseudo-Churchillian nonsense with its twin weapons of blame for the fifth columnists we are now seeing along with the continued doses of empty rhetoric.

[Peter Pedant]

yes - no
I agree eve
be sensible and dont have sex in public type of stuff
ok frighten the horses....

[Cloverjo]

Nothing and everything has changed.
Stay in and work from home. No! Go to the office to work and buy a sandwich and coffee for your lunch! No! Stay in your home. What are you doing?! Just don’t do whatever you’re doing.

[dannyk13]

jo, as the severity of the virus changes so must the rules to counter it change.

[jno]

I don't think the severity of the virus has changed, dannyk, but the attempts to curb its spread have failed, so the survivors have to start again.

[dannyk13]

jno //I don't think the severity of the virus has changed//
So what would you call the exponential rise in cases both here and in Spain and France.

[EdmundD]

"Covid is an Act of God".

Really?

[pixie374]

I don't hate him at all, gromit. I think they have been launched into an impossible situation, where the entire public are never going to be happy with every decision made.
Who do you think would have done better? And how?

[jno]

dannyk, there was a story last month saying one strain has become more infectious but less deadly

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8637821/More-infectious-coronavirus-mutation-good-thing-says-disease-expert.html

But on the whole the rising infection rates seem to be due to public policy and its enforcement that hasn't worked

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/19/rise-in-bolton-covid-cases-linked-to-holidaymaker-who-didnt-isolate

[ichkeria]

I disagree that the virus is spreading because enforcement hasn't worked.
It is spreading because it will, given half a chance.
It was right to loosen the grip on the neck of the country caused by the lockdown. Other countries did the same, and other countries are experiencing the same rise in cases now, to different degrees.

[jno]

ichkeria, I don't buy the idea that viruses "will" spread. They spread because people spread them. Government attempts here and elsewhere have been aimed at stopping people doing so. You might think that was doomed to failure from the start; but fail they have.

[ichkeria]

Which, as I say, is doomed to failure ...

[pixie374]

It is people that spread them, yes, but short of keeping the entire country in total isolation for 3 weeks, including key workers and shops etc, there is no real way to prevent it.

[ichkeria]

Yes people spread viruses but you cannot stop that unless you stop people interacting completely All you can do is limit it, but in so doing you cripple the economy, and people's mental wellbeing and livelihoods. As soon as people start inteacting again, the virus starts spreading again. The test and trace approach was supposed to help, but I really cannot see how any sort of test and trace would work to the extent required. It'll recede when herd immunity is achieved, and only then. I'm happy for them to try and restrict the spread in the meantime, but a bit of realism is needed

[Cryptical]

All you Boris bashers are getting boring.
The alternative would be a disaster.