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Speaking anecdotally from my friend group of professional adults with kids on London, it really feels like the government has lost the cooperation of even the m

Speaking anecdotally from my friend group of professional adults with kids on London, it really feels like the government has lost the cooperation of even the most law-abiding and willing-to-cooperate people at this point. I mean they spent the last month giving the entire country a month-long 50%-off "Groupon" to every restaurant and telling us to go out more to prop up the economy. Then a couple of weeks later, they open schools without sufficient testing capacity and say it's our fault for a disease spreading because we aren't complying with the ever-shifting and often nonsensical rules. I'm sure nearly everyone in London has had the experience of being required to wear a mask on a train and then walking 5 feet into a coffee shop where you can sit in an enclosed space smaller than a train car without a mask. Or you've seen two restaurants next door to each other where one has their staff wear masks and the other takes literally no precautions. Or you've been told you can't have another family of 4 over to your house to eat dinner but you can play full-contact rugby with them if you like. Combine that with the fact that COVID rates have been so low for so long now that must of us don't have personal experience with COVID and of course people are losing their will to cooperate. It would be one thing if there was an exit strategy on the horizon, but without one clearly defined, I think most people are just starting to give up on the idea of stopping COVID if it requires them to indefinitely suspend living their life. This is just my impression of how my friends are reacting - I'm not saying that the situation isn't serious.

mytailorisrich 6y ago
In fairness, with the advice on social distancing, face masks, etc. being what it is, to go to a restaurant or coffee shop is lacking common sense. I think this is an important issue: The government has enacted 'strange' guidance, and offered that £10 restaurants handout because it does not want to anger anyone. But one would have hoped that the public could see through that and focus on the key advice (face masks and don't get too close to anyone)... Alas not. I did not "eat out to help out", I have not set foot in a pub or coffee shop since March, and I haven't had a professional hair cut yet this year. Why? But I think that the priority is distancing and avoiding crowds in enclosed spaces, not saving £10 on a curry.
mercer 6y ago
It's exactly how my friends are reacting here in The Netherlands. The haphazard rules just don't seem to make much sense, everyone is tired of it, and nobody we/they know has died from COVID. Just last Friday, our PM announced that we're clearly dealing with a 'second wave', and to fix that we will close bars at 00:00 in particular regions. Why? Because apparently people in bars will behave properly until 00:00 and after that they start shouting into each other's mouths. I think to anyone with half a brain it's obvious that these measures don't really make sense, so contrary to the intention more and more people will just say fuck it and go back to doing what they did pre-pandemic. And our PM will wait for a huge surge to implement more serious lock-downs, because at least /then/ he'll have a reason to do so that doesn't make people dislike him. Fucking politicians.

mytailorisrich 6y ago

In fairness, with the advice on social distancing, face masks, etc. being what it is, to go to a restaurant or coffee shop is lacking common sense. I think this is an important issue: The government has enacted 'strange' guidance, and offered that £10 restaurants handout because it does not want to anger anyone. But one would have hoped that the public could see through that and focus on the key advice (face masks and don't get too close to anyone)... Alas not. I did not "eat out to help out", I have not set foot in a pub or coffee shop since March, and I haven't had a professional hair cut yet this year. Why? But I think that the priority is distancing and avoiding crowds in enclosed spaces, not saving £10 on a curry.

mercer 6y ago

It's exactly how my friends are reacting here in The Netherlands. The haphazard rules just don't seem to make much sense, everyone is tired of it, and nobody we/they know has died from COVID. Just last Friday, our PM announced that we're clearly dealing with a 'second wave', and to fix that we will close bars at 00:00 in particular regions. Why? Because apparently people in bars will behave properly until 00:00 and after that they start shouting into each other's mouths. I think to anyone with half a brain it's obvious that these measures don't really make sense, so contrary to the intention more and more people will just say fuck it and go back to doing what they did pre-pandemic. And our PM will wait for a huge surge to implement more serious lock-downs, because at least /then/ he'll have a reason to do so that doesn't make people dislike him. Fucking politicians.