Local lockdown in Greater Manchester, East Lancashire and parts of West Yorkshire - Discussion

[yorksrob]

It won't survive a trip through the dishwasher, so to be honest a bottle of sanitiser at the start of the buffet should do. If you're going to stick the spoon out of the potato salad in your gob then you're disgusting anyway.



De minimis.

Ah, but you will have handled the potato salad spoon. A reminder to sanitise !

 

[Bletchleyite]

Ah, but you will have handled the potato salad spoon. A reminder to sanitise !

If everyone sanitises before using the buffet and doesn't stick their hands in their gob during their progress along the table, there won't be any spread there. It doesn't pass the skin. Though for ultimate protection sanitise at the end too.

 

[yorksrob]

If everyone sanitises before using the buffet and doesn't stick their hands in their gob during their progress along the table, there won't be any spread there. It doesn't pass the skin. Though for ultimate protection sanitise at the end too.

Yes I would agree.

 

[Ianno87]

If everyone sanitises before using the buffet and doesn't stick their hands in their gob during their progress along the table, there won't be any spread there. It doesn't pass the skin. Though for ultimate protection sanitise at the end too.

I'm from Bolton. I wouldn't count on Boltonians applying that much common sense all in one go.

 

[bramling]

I presume something like this has to rely largely on voluntary compliance.

I wonder how good that will be?

If it's largely due to households meeting and not social distancing, is this going to change behaviour?

(Rhetorical questions)

I’d say it relies entirely on voluntary compliance, perhaps with the exception of places of worship if that is what this is partly aimed at?

The question is, who is listening to Boris any more?

 

[Saint66]

Arrived this evening in one of the designated areas to visit a friend and stay at their place for the weekend... It's taken us both by surprise as you'd expect!

 

[Jamiescott1]

Do people actually follow these rules ?

 

[Crossover]

No

There will be more barbeques arranged at houses. More ale consumed...

There has been some suggestion that private gardens are included under the restrictions

 

[Jozhua]

Unfortunately for those of us in reality with plans, suddenly announcing something at 10pm with no concrete details is not so helpful. Let's hope the flat viewing goes ahead...

More likely due to a combination of high density housing and more instances of multi-generational homes.

Possibly, although I'd probably say over-capacity instead of high-density, as ultimately if there are walls partitioning the different properties and separate ventilation in them then I don't really see much more opportunity for spread in say an apartment building vs single family home. I barely pass anyone when entering and exiting my building.

There are a lot of poorer areas in Greater Manchester, some of which are the most deprived in the country. This will definitely have an effect.

So everyone pees in the bushes then...?

Honestly, I've seen a lot of people peeing in the bushes or one time in the middle of the street...

But yeah, most people will need to head inside for the loo at some point.

Arrived this evening in one of the designated areas to visit a friend and stay at their place for the weekend... It's taken us both by surprise as you'd expect!

Lol, guess you'll have to get out before midnight . You have 45 minutes...

 

[Mojo]

There will be more barbeques arranged at houses. More ale consumed...

I also don’t think the concern is about BBQs, and I don’t think the participants are likely to be drinking ale either...

 

[Jamesrob637]

Arrived this evening in one of the designated areas to visit a friend and stay at their place for the weekend... It's taken us both by surprise as you'd expect!

Stay. Do as you had planned. Hardly your fault, is it?!

 

[ainsworth74]

Must admit for a Government famed for its utterly appalling communications strategy and penchant for announcing things last minute (including the laying of regulations) tonight has been an utterly spectacular farce.

 

[Saint66]

Stay. Do as you had planned. Hardly your fault, is it?!

Yeah, this hasn't affected our plans really. We were always going to be sensible with social distancing if we decided to go out for a walk or whatever and weren't planning any grand parties which involved every bob, dick and harry! Just annoying to have something like this sprung upon millions of people without warning.

 

[PG]

Must admit for a Government famed for its utterly appalling communications strategy and penchant for announcing things last minute (including the laying of regulations) tonight has been an utterly spectacular farce.

I seem to recall a breaking news banner appearing on the BBC news website sometime between 9-10pm. Does seem extremely odd for the government to have taken a decision after the end of the working day then attempted to get the word out very late in the evening. An object lesson in how not to do things.

 

[Saint66]

It certainly smacks of someone in Gov thinking at 8pm tonight 'Oh crap it's Eid tomorrow in these areas with higher rates. What should we do?'.

 

[bramling]

I seem to recall a breaking news banner appearing on the BBC news website sometime between 9-10pm. Does seem extremely odd for the government to have taken a decision after the end of the working day then attempted to get the word out very late in the evening. An object lesson in how not to do things.

Wouldn’t be the first time. The lockdown came at 8pm I seem to remember.

Must admit this is starting to feel like deja-vu.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

I think the Government has made a substantial misjudgment with this. Especially in extending the purported restrictions to cover the entirety of Greater Manchester, which has a population of nearly 3 million. The best part of 10% of the population are affected by these measures. Even if we don't see the same sort of riots as there have been in the US over Covid restrictions, there will be considerable disquiet and underlying ignorance of the restrictions, which will only make things worse.

It's disappointing but unsurprising that the Gov couldn't bottle it to admit that really this is a measure aimed at large multigenerational households and those being reckless with parties and the like. Celebrations like Eid will no doubt have been a factor, but of course it would be seen as discriminatory to ban these. So instead everyone up there gets to suffer. All those affected have my sympathy for the problems the blanket and ludicrous application of the measure will cause. I don't even want to think about what the TOCs and the BTP are probably already planning in terms of 'essential travel' interrogations at Piccadilly.

The publication of new Restrictions Regulations after they have come into effect is unfortunately legal but is nevertheless a thoroughly digusting practice. The short notice nature of this and several other changes that have happened this week have shown the government is no longer content to be accused of acting slowly, but in this case I think they have rather tripped over their untied shoelaces in their undue haste.

How much longer will it take for them to accept that the genie is well and truly out of the bottle, and general community spread is inevitable this time, given that vaccines are still months off public availability and that the first lockdown's hardships will not be tolerated again...

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Wouldn’t be the first time. The lockdown came at 8pm I seem to remember.

Must admit this is starting to feel like deja-vu.

BoJo 'instructed' everyone to do so, but his fiat only became legally enforceable IIRC on the Thursday following his Monday announcement.

 

[Andyh82]

Do people actually follow these rules ?

Well those who have been following the rules, will continue to follow the new rules

And those who haven’t been following the rules, who are the reason for these new measures, won’t follow these either

 

[Llandudno]

Another excuse for Northern to cancel more trains!

 

[Crossover]

Another excuse for Northern to cancel more trains!

If they cancel any more they may just as well get the tracks removed now

 

[bramling]

Well those who have been following the rules, will continue to follow the new rules

And those who haven’t been following the rules, who are the reason for these new measures, won’t follow these either

That’s exactly it.

Boris needs to get people to buy-in. All this talk of “rules” and “restrictions” is starting to seriously annoy people now.

Some good comms explaining exactly *what* is going on, and how they think we should act to get round it would help a lot. Unfortunately the two scientists who seem best able to put things in a manner people can relate to, Van Tam and Harries, both still seem to be well and truly off the Downing Street Christmas card list, and we all know why that is.

 

[Saint66]

From a Sky News journalist on Twitter:

‘NEW FROM GOVERNMENT SOURCE:
“Eid was discussed in the gold command meeting today, and was a factor towards the decision to implement these restrictions particularly because of household transmission.”

 

[Crossover]

Press release now out

New rules on gatherings in some parts of Northern England

Government announces changes to rules on gatherings in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and East Lancashire after increase in COVID-19 cases

www.gov.uk

Key bit:

The areas that these changes apply to are:

• The Greater Manchester area
• Pendle
• Hyndburn
• Burnley
• Rossendale
• Blackburn with Darwen
• Bradford
• Calderdale
• Kirklees
• Leicester City

It means people in these areas will not be permitted to mix with other households (apart from those in their support bubbles) in private homes or gardens.

Some exemptions will be put in place, including for the vulnerable.

The government will sign new regulations to make these changes legally enforceable.

The regulations will give local authorities and police forces the powers to enforce these restrictions and more details on these will be set out when the regulations are published.

Households may go to hospitality, for instance bars and pubs, but new guidance will make clear that two households should not go to hospitality together.

 

[Mojo]

Press release now out

New rules on gatherings in some parts of Northern England

Government announces changes to rules on gatherings in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and East Lancashire after increase in COVID-19 cases

www.gov.uk

Utterly insane. So gardens are now “indoors?”

 

[Saint66]

So you can go to a pub or restaurant and mix with however many people in there in relatively close proximity, but can’t sit in your garden with a friend? I can’t see compliance being too successful with this one...

 

[al78]

A bit of a sudden surprise for me. I am visiting my father in Salford at the beginning of September who I bubble with, but this presumably means I can't visit my sisters when I am there.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Utterly insane. So gardens are now “indoors?”

They don't come into the category of indoors, it's just that they are included in the definition of "private dwelling" (assuming these new Regulations use the same definition as all previous ones).

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

A bit of a sudden surprise for me. I am visiting my father in Salford at the beginning of September who I bubble with, but this presumably means I can't visit my sisters when I am there.

Who knows, perhaps you might be in a bubble with your dad when visiting him, then in a bubble with your sisters when visiting them. Without any form of registration of bubbles it's left down to your common sense whether or not you observe the restrictions.

 

[al78]

So you can go to a pub or restaurant and mix with however many people in there in relatively close proximity, but can’t sit in your garden with a friend? I can’t see compliance being too successful with this one...

The difference is restaraunts have staff who can direct people and keep people separate, and tables can be set up with the required social distancing. This can't be enforced in a private house, and private houses massively outnumber pubs and restaraunts.