The doctor from Bath.

I think it was the virologist who is called The Naked Scientist said the other day that the government can make as many rules as it likes but unless people are going to abide by them things will not improve. I think people must accept that Christmas as they would want it will not happen this year.

Do you mean Dr Bharat Pankhania (not sure on spelling) with the nice garden?

Apologising for what?? For people not adhering to the rules?? Stupid can’t be fixed unfortunately. ?

You've hit the nail on the head milly with "unless people are going to abide by them". I fear it will never happen when so many people refuse to 'be dictated to' and insist on flouting every new rule that's delivered, even to the point of searching for any possible way round the wording.
As a nation we are used to our personal freedoms and cannot be ordered around like the Chinese.
Christmas will be different, we just have to accept it.

It's not that the measures didn't work, it's that people didn't comply with them. As Poppy says "Stupid can't be fixed."

This is not the government’s fault. It’s the people. I’ve asked before for someone who can sort this out, to do so. It’s up to all of us, and that will never happen.

Where did we hear ‘Over by Christmas’ before...

As Dh said to me 'he didn't say which Christmas'.

If things are no better by Christmas, and I am pretty sure they will be as bad, if not worse, I hope we don’t see GN’ers who are determined to spend it with family, come hell or high water, declaring that they must see the children open their presents, share the Christmas dinner, etc, etc.

Thanks BlueSky.

The phrase that has been occuring to me at regular intervals since March is, "Is your journey really necessary?"

As the highest rate of infection is amongst the 15-25s and schools and universities are not closing I don't suppose 4 weeks will make all that much difference. It may allow the NHS some breathing space but it won't stop anything.

I’m very confused by those who think there will be special relaxation of rules by Christmas

That seems like a disaster to me.

Also, why Christmas? Why not the religious celebrations of other religions?

In my opinion, loosening for Christmas completely defeats the purpose of a lockdown now, or ever

There will be a special relaxation of rules over Christmas I’m sure, because the nation invests so much value in it, and the mental health consequences of the Government not allowing families to get together will be as monumental as Covid if they don’t, particularly for students. Imagine being 18 years old, blamed by nearly everybody for the rise in Covid, and not allowed to go home to your family at Christmas either.

You know that covid doesn’t disappear because it Christmas, right?

Imagine being a symptomatic and passing it on to a much loved relative.

Surely that’d be worse for mental health

DH says he saw a report where infection rates are dropping in some Countries - because the population are obeying the rules! Simples?

Summerlove of course, but they will still do it, public pressure will be stronger than prudence.

I think students around us are starting to disappear. They should never have been allowed back.

Kircubbin2000. Dr Bharat Pankhania.

Beechnut. Yes this is the lovely doctor in the lovely garden from Bath.

He is a senior Consultant in Communicable Disease Control and he is in charge of public health medicine at Exeter University.

His advise is to “stay away from other people” and he likes repeating it. Unfortunately there are an awful lot of very stupid people who will simply not be told what to do.

I can’t believe people are saying “it’s not the governments fault”. It absolutely is.

Many scientists remained angry that the government has taken so long in heeding their advice. “Yet again, the UK has been slow to act and delayed decisive action until the last moment,” said Stephen Griffin, associate professor at Leeds University’s School of Medicine.

We get him on local news and he has made a lot of sense right from the start. His views on what to sanitise such as post coming into the house are good too. I would trust what he says.

Yes, that was me Hooty, and on reflection it’s not really what I meant to say. I felt in the beginning, they were just doing what any government would have done, it was all new, but after Dominic Cummings, and now realising they haven’t been taking medical advice, when I assumed they would be, they’re clearly struggling. I do still feel though, that whatever we are told to do, it’s still up to us, the public, to make sure it happens.

I think Christmas will happen as usual regardless of lockdown with many people ignoring any restrictions, so I think the idea is to lower the r rate before Christmas, ease the lockdown over Christmas, and then if need be put it back on.

Casdon

Summerlove of course, but they will still do it, public pressure will be stronger than prudence.

The public then needs to be educated.

Bloody selfish if you ask me.

I think this government failed us from even before the start. We all could see what was happening abroad, and especially Italy, and they did absolutely nothing, no testing at airports . They were then much too slow putting in the first lockdown, absolutely shot themselves in the foot defending Cummings and his shenanigans, the fiasco of SERCO Test & Trace (certainly not NHS T&T) and the billions wasted on that and on inadequate PPE, money given to their chums instead of established suppliers, I could go on but it makes me so angry. ? I see even the Daily Mail (excuse my language) are putting the boot in today so things must be bad.