I have to say once again I feel that your initial comments are a bit out of order and using capitals does not make you right. I think it is very easy to talk about selfishness when you do not know the context of some peoples behaviour - For example, the supposition is that it is the young/ BAME groups who are not complying and they are getting a lot of flack. The fact is the young are no different now to the 80s and 90s where you had illegal raves. parties etc etc. the natural instinct of the young is to socialise, they thrive on social contact and their friends are the centre of their world - I think the younger age groups have been fantastic up until recent times and have abided by the rules far more than I expected and I applaud them. However, there becomes a point where natural instinct does take over and when they are given the opportunity to go out and socialise, meet their friends etc there is no wonder that things may get slightly out of hand - they have been starved of the thing that gives their lives meaning and from talking to a few of my students they are petrified that its going to be taken away again - so they are making the most of it whilst they can. I know this is frustrating for other people who are abiding by the rules, and I have done the same, but I can totally and utterly understand why it is happening and I have some empathy for them. Also if BLM protests were allowed to go on without consequences than you can understand why many feel like they can do the same i.e. meet in groups.
Why would a government manipulate figures? I dont think they are - remember PHE are an autonomous body in the UK and I just think they are truly incompetent! They have admitted there is no cut off point between infection and death in their figures so you could have had Covid in march, totally recovered, then died of natural causes (if you're elderly for example) and they will record it as a Covid death! this HAS been admitted and is subject to review - yet figures are still published when they said they wouldn't be! its pretty obvious to me that if we have 4 deaths in hospital such as today, and care home deaths are now below average that an additional 70 doesn't make sense at all and I question PHE competence.
The Sunday Times tomorrow is now reporting that Boris is considering shielding ALL the over 50s if local lockdowns dont work, and blockading the M25 so no one can come in and out of London if it flares up there!! im sorry but this doesn't seem like rational thought processes to me - he is also suggesting we go back to no social contacts with families - im afraid then I will struggle to comply!
Using capital letters doesn’t make me wrong either! I notice that you have also used them for emphasis as I did!!
I made no mention of BAME or BLM but understand the resentment that participants or non participants may feel towards reaction to their actions.
You say that the young are no different to those who were young in the 80’s and 90’s and I know that friends and interaction are deemed a necessity by many or most. However I believe you squashed your own argument when you referred to illegal raves. They were illegal then and large gatherings are illegal now. Neither should ever occur. That was my time at university and I never did and never have attended anything illegal, it wasn’t hard, just followed the rules. I’m also not a goody goody by any stretch of the imagination!
It is really a rotten time to be young now and I do sympathise.
I understand youngsters fears that the current situation may indeed be taken away from them but abiding by the current rules will make that much less likely to happen. Breaking the current rules will probably make it inevitable.
I agree that until recently most youngsters (a word covering a wide age gap in this case and in comparison to me) have generally been fairly compliant but they had fewer places to go, so was it by choice or just circumstances? I would like to believe by choice.
Like you I have followed the rules to the letter and will continue to do so, to hopefully benefit everyone no matter the personal difficulties. We have so little defence against the spread of the virus that I don’t know what else to do. It appears that all over the world, wherever restrictions are lifted the virus returns and continues its destructive and damaging path.
I agree that it seems ridiculous for the government or PHE to be deliberately massaging figures in an upward direction when we already have such a horrific number of deaths though Yodascousin had a very interesting theory.
If all over 50’s are instructed to shelter at home, that would remove a lot of workers from the economy but would make me think that perhaps something new has been discovered or is being researched about the virus and wouldn’t be a decision taken lightly. At the moment that is supposition as is blocking the M25 so probably best to wait and see before reacting.
At the moment, being in Manchester we are not allowed to meet family, unless living alone and they are your chosen bubble, which is causing us some distress. Our younger son lives in Cardiff, so has been under different rules and was supposed to come up for his birthday in 2 weeks. We haven’t seen him since Christmas so we’re very disappointed but have all agreed to follow the rules, just hoping that they change in time! I would urge everyone to comply as the more people who stretch the rules the longer it will take to go back to even that small, but vitally important, bit of normality.
