london

Although..... it’s human nature and understandable when things change so drastically at the last minute.Many of those people would have had to have spent a week alone in London,
With nothing open, no friends or family to see, when often they have been living alone and working from home for most of this year anyway.
Johnson made a huge mistake in promising five days of Christmas for three households so early....

Spot on earnshaw, you can`t educate the stupid/morons.

Yes, shocking.
Andrew Marr was blaming the government for 'allowing six, seven hours for people to leave'; were they supposed to have closed the train stations immediately and mounted guards on the streets?
I fear it may come to this because of these selfish people who refuse to act responsibly; 'I want to get home to Mum'.
There will be plenty of CCTv footage; something to do in lockdown would be to identify these people and start taking punitive action.

I suppose some, perhaps many, were being ‘selfish’. But last night I know that some people living alone, already badly affected by tier 3 restrictions, reached the end of their tether. We will see a rise in self-harm and suicide over this. The prospect of tier 4 for months, meeting only one other person outdoors in the cold and rain, may be unbearable. To get out of London might be a survival strategy. I am very worried for family members in London at the moment, and I have encouraged them to break the rules and meet one another in their homes if they cannot face the loneliness and stress. If I could have persuaded them to come and stay with me in tier 2, I would have done.

To be fair to some of those people at the stations, they could well live in the Midlands/North and were returning home after working in London.

They can't all have been fleeing London - to do what, look for a B&B, a campsite?

The tier 4 rules will affect those of us subject to them rather more than just over Christmas. I'm angry that this short notice announcement came from the same government who threatened legal action a couple of days ago, against boroughs who wanted to close schools early due to rising infections. A few hours notice to close so called non essential businesses and close contact services is not enough.
I wish it was against the rules to call others stupid and selfish too. We can't know other people's circumstances.

If they are fleeing London because they live or work there, they're going to have to go back at some point..... especially if they're heading for relatives who aren't supposed to take them in anyway.

Riverwalk

To be fair to some of those people at the stations, they could well live in the Midlands/North and were returning home after working in London.

They can't all have been fleeing London - to do what, look for a B&B, a campsite?

Yes, the M4 commute, just naming one, on Monday mornings and Friday evenings was always exceptionally busy even from as far away as Wales.
People work away all week and return home at weekends, probably not so much now as people have worked from home.

There are huge numbers of young people living and studying in London. They mostly have a room in a shared house or flat. Traditionally they go home to mum and dad for Christmas. Their journey would have been planned for this weekend-presents brought, train booked, no food left in accommodation etc. Add to that only a few more people and you have overcrowded trains.
There will be huge numbers of rich people heading off n cars to their second home. They don't get mentioned.

Riverwalk you and I are Londoners. We know what the mainline train stations are like any weekend in the year, especially the Saturday before Christmas. Most of those people work in London and will be going "home". Our son is one. His head office is in town and he catches the Paddington to Penzance train with his cabin sized luggage along with hundreds of others.
Fleeing the capital is a crazy headline!

Maybe vaccination certificates from those who fly into the country ? Why not ? I remember having to show one in 1974 on a holiday in Tunisia.

lemongrove

Although..... it’s human nature and understandable when things change so drastically at the last minute.Many of those people would have had to have spent a week alone in London,
With nothing open, no friends or family to see, when often they have been living alone and working from home for most of this year anyway.
Johnson made a huge mistake in promising five days of Christmas for three households so early....

Your last statement is so true. I'm lucky to be in Cornwall but DH and myself decided not to do the family get together. My daughter and granddaughter stay for a few days as it's also my birthday on 30th. (They're in a tier 2 area) I had severe doubts about the 5 days staying like that and if it did there would be major repercussions with a third wave.

Our thoughts go out to those, as you said, that will spend a long period now so alone. A friend of ours, who lived by himself) took his own life earlier this year. He could take no more and that was 1 month into lockdown.

Comments that go with the videos published should be read. Not all on that station were leaving to stay somewhere else.

I agree with last two contributors as well, crossed posts.

I mean trisher and * Callistemon*. This thread is going faster than the Express train itself!

Start disinfecting streets/ roads. We're a filthy country. In some parts of Oz when the bins are empties at 3am, the spray wagon does its rounds after them.

Hmm

?

My niece is at uni in Edinburgh , all her flat mates left at the beginning of December but she decided to stay on until 23rd as she had a job in a supermarket for the holidays. Her parents live in tier 2 . We were so worried she would get stuck there on her own but she has managed to get a flight this evening bless her . So relieved ! Goodness knows when she will be able to return which will cause a few problems with 3 people working or studying at home and a very poor internet in their rural village .
It’s the first Christmas since DH died last New Year’s Eve, but I am so fortunate in being able still be with my support bubble of DD and family even though we are in tier 4 . I feel very thankful and my heart goes out to those on their own , it has been such an awful year for so many.

Tier 4 here as well, my daughter also in tier 4 is not going to see myself and my partner on Boxing day, and I fully agree with her. Although I must add I am lucky in that I have a partner, it must be dreadful for those who are on their own and lonely.

I agree with you lemon, too much sensationalism and not enough understanding. My DS lives in London, fortunatly not alone, so they will not be coming home to spend Christmas with us. However, had he lived in shared accomodation and be facing Christmas alone, in an empty house then I am sorry, we would have either driven up to get him or would have encouraged him to get the train. Many people would have been travelling this weekend anyway, when he was up North at University, he would have been travelling this weekend. Johnson made a massive mistake by giving people the impression that the virus was taking Xmas off. Silly talk of cameras and identifying people, get a grip. Perhaps we should be more concerned about the hundreds of lorry drivers sitting on the M20, in a Tier 4 zone.

EllanVannin

Maybe vaccination certificates from those who fly into the country ? Why not ? I remember having to show one in 1974 on a holiday in Tunisia.

There are countries as well where you have to spend 14 days in isolation, in a hotel (and pay for it) if you come from abroad . Australia and Singapore both operate this system. Although some of the measures taken in Australia might be seen as unacceptable here they seem tobe working.

To be fair to some of those people at the stations, they could well live in the Midlands/North and were returning home after working in London.

Wouldn't they have travelled home on Friday?

Trisher it only takes one to break the rules as happened in Oz.

My friend’s son has just been thrown out of his house by his wife. What’s he supposed to do? Camp on a roundabout until everything is back to normal? Of course he’s going to be travelling to his parents!