london

@Trisher, a Singaporean niece of ours at boarding school here had to go home for a knee op that was supposed to happen here, but was cancelled because of COVID, even though it was to be done privately.
She had to be completely isolated in a hotel room for 14 days, regardless of injured knee and the fact that she’s only 17. All at her parents’ expense.

Any manager, teacher or parent would tell you that some people won't ever do as they're told and/or are reckless. Good leaders know that and take steps to mitigate bad behaviour and non-compliance. It seems to me that Johnson wants to be a people pleaser all the time and says what he thinks people want to hear.

Polls and focus groups have reported that the majority of people thought the original Christmas plans were wrong. I wonder whether he would have "followed the science" if he hadn't known that the majority of people would be behind the changes.

I agree with you lemongrove. Johnson should never have made the promises over Christmas he did.

Sensationalist headlines, misleading photos. Time for an accountable press.

My last post was addressing the op

eazybee

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.

Why? They weren't breaking the law.

merlotgran

^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?

Not everyone has a Monday-Friday, 9-5 job and can catch the Friday night train home.

In the past I had any number of nursing colleagues, many well into middle-age, who worked in London, often staying in hostels/room in nurses' homes, who returned home on their days off.

How many of those on Saturday were extra travellers 'fleeing' I can have no idea, but mainline stations are always busy of a Saturday evening. Indeed many are just everyday commuters/shoppers catching their train to Herts, Beds etc.

The press just wanted to show those selfish Londoners spreading their germs all over the UK.

We cannot possibly blame people for trying to get home, there could be any reasons for their travel. Students in Halls of Residence may be in a block which does not permit 52 weeks per year living, people working in restaurants had just lost their work for the foreseeable future, shop workers too. As far as I could see from the possibly sensationalised photos on the fronts of newspapers, this was a normal number of passengers for the Saturday before Christmas, bearing in mind that on my line, at least, there is extensive rail maintenance involving rail replacement bus services most Sundays, and thus Sunday travel is heavily discouraged. Nobody was breaking the law. I assume also that many of the travellers were planning on this day to travel in order to have their 5 days of pre-Christmas shielding, as recommended. The public did what they were told, in general, the government were the ones who changed the rules at the last minute.

Is it so difficult ? and when, since 39/45,have families known the stress and upset of being seperated from loved ones at xmas which thousands in those years did , as now with the present virus.?
You know or should know. ifyou yourself for even once, abide by the rules WHAT is one seperated xmas compared to never ever having another xmas with your loved one /ones ever again.?????.

Oh FFS Beverley, we are not at war.

Nor is this virus as bad as the war was. Which by the way, there are plenty of examples of people not abiding by the rules then!

I live close to a second home small town and yes I believe many are heading there

I TOTALLY blame this incompetent government for ever promising 5 days with 15 family members and then withdrawing at the last moment when people had already made their plans, probably already paid for tickets

It was always a total mismatch of a promise by a stupid man who wanted to appear popular by giving people what they wanted now he’s realised it was an idiots plan and it’s backfired he has to make sure someone other than him is blamed
Easy peasy blame the troops.... more divide and blame

Can I just point out too that the announcement was made on Saturday. Parliament wound up for Christmas break on Friday. Plenty of time for MPs to get out of London before Tier 4 announcement. Plenty of time for that selfish prig JRM to get to church in Somerset. I wonder what his priest thinks?

My first thought was that the virus will now be seeded in the whole country. But I really can't blame anyone for bringing their plans forward a day or two. Literally hundreds of planes took off the day before peppering the world with this variation. I don't know what the answer is.

merlotgran

^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?

I think you'll find there is a huge difference in price. Train at 6 pm after work on Friday nearly £80, same journey on Saturday afternoon/evening £22.

trisher

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.

Unfortunately, despite that, COVID has still managed to escape and spread, probably due to flouting of rules by guards supervising those who were quarantining. The guards were poorly paid and were moonlighting.

I expect we will have to prove we have been vaccinated before we are allowed into Australia.

This variant of the virus was identified in October. It will already hav travelled up th

Eurostar busy too as other countries are closing their borders to UK travellers, it just goes on.

Harriet Clugston, shared a video of the crowds on Twitter and said the 8pm service was "crammed". This is the one that hit the news

This person achieved what?
Increased panic and anxiety - for those living in the Tier 4 areas? - yes
Increased fear and anxiety - for those living in the rest of UK? Yes

East Midlands Railway have pointed out today that that train she referred to was short-formed to five coaches due to an earlier train fault. It changed at Derby to an 8 coach train service. Hence the crammed train.

Trains to the midlands today have been reported as much quieter. Only a handful of passengers could be seen getting off the 9.30am direct service from St Pancras in Derby, which rolled into the city station at around 11.40am.
One lady interview had come up from London to Derby to start work at the Derby Royal Hospital. She said the train was really quiet.

There was obviously some panic by some people last night but today has shown that Tier 4 people are staying put unless they have to travel.

It sickens me to read how much some, on GN, use generalised statements. In that all Tier 4 people have the same labels such as stupid - senseless - idiots.

Well said WOODMOUSE

geekese I live alone in London and can't see my family indoors.

However, I can get out to walk my dog, so can greet other dog walkers. I can also walk outside with one other friend.

When I'm home, I can read, paint, facetime or talk to friends & family, watch TV or just sit & meditate. It really doesn't feel so bad and I'm just grateful I'm well ( so far!).

It's important to enjoy each day.

So the rest of us will be infected after this mad rush to get on a train it’s never ending.

Well here in Wales I am taking advantage of the fact that despite being in a high tier, 4, we are allowed to take a walk - or several - each day which is more than we could in the first lockdown in March when I was (and still am) in the sheltered, high vulnerability group. Every county in Wales has been treated the same, despite the number of cases in each. London and the south east etc are not alone.

It is is sad not to see the family, particularly when they mainly live locally, which is a bit frustrating, we have had some wonderful Christmases in the past. DH and I will enjoy our Christmas lunch together, we have decorated our home and we will catch up with everyone on Zoom and FaceTime. It’s only a day for goodness sake.

Our new rules say you can't walk with a friend from another household. You can go to church though or have your dog groomed.

Our neighbours son,wife and daughter have just driven up from London into our tier two area purely for a social visit.They were last here a couple of weeks ago.They are going home on Tuesday?‍♀️Our neighbours have acted all year as though they are above the rules.We decided early on in the pandemic not to get upset by others behaviour as what is the point but when I saw them earlier I said a few choice words?We are very lucky to live in an area with a low number of cases but that situation isn’t going to last I don’t think.

We'll be lucky in this country to see 2021 virus free ! Meaning this time next year, as a pandemic can exist for a couple of years but it will never be eradicated so the only deterrent is to be vaccinated worldwide. An ordinary 'flu epidemic can last a couple of years.

This new strain that's come about is very much like the pattern of the Hong Kong 'flu infecting thousands in its path, but had the opposite effect of this pandemic in that it killed those under 65. It hit the country for two winters--1968/1970.