Either people have let their guards down due to the bank holiday or due to Thursday's papers but I cannot believe what I'm seeing down my road at the moment. 

People out mingling between households less than one meter apart, kids out all day etc. I've honestly never seen it  this busy in 15 years, let alone during 'mockdown'. 

I fear the chickens will well and truly come home to roost in three weeks time🙁. 

For a start they should have made less of the VE Day celebrations. It's gone, 75 years or 76 years it's just numbers. Kids have had their life ambitions postponed and missed their A' levels because of this. And we've got Street Parties going on up and down the Country in the middle of a Pandemic lockdown !. Not seen anything like it in our Street since the 1977 Jubilee. A neighbour said he saw a Street Party in a small front garden with 20 people and kids. He saw three police cars go by and not stop.

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For a start they should have made less of the VE Day celebrations. It's gone, 75 years or 76 years it's just numbers. Kids have had their life ambitions postponed and missed their A' levels because of this. And we've got Street Parties going on up and down the Country in the middle of a Pandemic lockdown !. Not seen anything like it in our Street since the 1977 Jubilee. A neighbour said he saw a Street Party in a small front garden with 20 people and kids. He saw three police cars go by and not stop.

We had one in the road.

Odd affair - we  strictly maintained 2-Meter distance / household. We brought our own chairs and cups of tea.  A neighbour did some cakes that we went up and helped ourselves to them  one at a time -  we have to hope she isn't infected or  implemented  a strict hygiene regime once they were cooked.

I agree though that  in general  the wheels have come off the whole shooting match.   it's pretty well nailed on the infection rate is going to be headed north  again in 3 weeks time.  We will then be totally stuffed as the choice will be  a massive clamp down or watch the NHS go under and the death rate from Coronavirus and everything else that isn't being treated hit the stratosphere.

 

 

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The lockdown has had zero effect on me financially, since I am still working 40 hours a week on the Danish contract from home, so I have no personal reason for wanting the lockdown relaxed, other than concerns about the economic and social consequences of maintaining it.

I think it has to be eased for a variety of reasons - the first point is that it is fraying at the edges anyway, so clarifying what we can and cannot do would be helpful. The second point is that some businesses are suffering unnecessarily - chief amongst these is the horticultural industry and garden centres - their produce is seasonal and cannot be stored awaiting relaxation - plus the vast majority are outdoor retailers, which combined with social distancing should make them safe places to visit. The third point is that a lot of construction could be reactivated, providing proper social distancing is put in place and that workers can arrive at different times to prevent overcrowding on the transport networks.

We should be getting on with infrastructure work as well - no better time for investing in roads and railways than when traffic is reduced.

Let's see what Boris will announce tomorrow.

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. We have had a rather heated discussion about this tonight. Hubby is HE road inspector, and as such, he is continuing on salary, albeit working from home. (This is driving me crazy incidentally, have decided that he needn’t consider retiring 😂).  I am 61, diabetic and have heart disease ( misspent youth, but I had fun).  I have been at home since the week before the official lockdown started, and I am beginning to struggle. He is quite happy, as he is out at work 2/3 times a week, but I’m not.  I said that if a vaccine is not able to be developed, then what do I do? I said I would go out as the quality of life in a permanent semi lockdown situation would be untenable and I would rather have a shorter life and enjoy it. This ended in a row so I am just pinning my hopes on a vaccination being successful. Family is spread out, 2 in UK and one in Germany so getting all of us together is a rarity but am so missing the grandkids. When we do see them, can I hug them? Who knows. 

On the other hand, no 1 son is self employed and struggling financially, so I see the need to go back to “normal”, no 2 sons partner travels extensively in Europe and the US, he doesn’t even know what is going to to happen with his job, at least they are financially secure for a while. No 3 son is in Germany, well paid but furloughed, but again, doesn’t know how his job will go as he works for Mercedes. He rents his flat, as do most Germans, but he has nothing to come back to here. 

So, do we carry on a lockdown of sorts, let rip, or what? If it stays the same, there will be huge financial hardship, if we let it all go, there will be a huge amount of deaths. Where do we actually go from here?

I think that's a brilliant vignette of the kind of discussion taking place in many households across the country. It sums up both the personal and national dilemmas perfectly. Thanks for taking the trouble to post it. 

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I think VE Day celebrations couldn’t have come at a worse time!  On my street, people have had a very civil afternoon tea on their front gardens, which was lovely.  But I can hear reveling going on in neighbouring streets and it sounds like the booze is flowing well.  

One of my brothers FaceTimed me earlier with images of people partying on his street too!  They are celebrating the end of a war 75 years ago and are forgetting the war we’re currently fighting!  They are in grave danger of losing the current war against this deadly virus!  Absolutely stupid!  

We’d all like to have a bit of a beano, we’d all like to do something ‘normal’ and we all feel we need a break from this!  But some of us are a little more patient and don’t want to have wasted the past six weeks by one night of recklessness!  My brother is high risk and has been shielding faithfully since a week before lockdown.  He’s absolutely appalled that people can be so careless and selfish.   

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For a start they should have made less of the VE Day celebrations. It's gone, 75 years or 76 years it's just numbers. Kids have had their life ambitions postponed and missed their A' levels because of this. And we've got Street Parties going on up and down the Country in the middle of a Pandemic lockdown !. Not seen anything like it in our Street since the 1977 Jubilee. A neighbour said he saw a Street Party in a small front garden with 20 people and kids. He saw three police cars go by and not stop.

Bizarrely our council put on a "fly past" this afternoon. It compromised of a Cessna flying over Tring and Berko with a banner which simply read "VE Day". It is one of the most ludicrous things I have witnessed in my life. Imagine if a Labour council wasted money in that way. 

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Sadly, our nationalist right-wing media have fanned the nationalist flames for such celebrations (encouraging neighbourly get-togethers and printing stupid posters), and our nationalist, right-wing government seems happy to sit back and reap the nationalist harvest Regardless of the consequences.

 

... and so stupid, like the revelers, to miss the fact that we are celebrating the triumph over right wing Nationalism !!

I put a smash fascist anti Nazi poster with two VE Day logos added in my window. Everybody else had England flags - not even Union Jacks in some cases. They just don't get the lockdown or even what VE Day is !!

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For the first time during this crisis. It appears we almost have consensus that the lockdown has well and truly broken down.

The seeds were sown by those briefings from HMG.

I fear we will be back to square one in three weeks.

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Oh incredibly , its either that or mowing the lawn and someone had a brief natter ? 

There's not really much evidence of talking to somebody a couple of metres away is likely to cause transmission. Or at least it is still emphasizing cough droplets and contaminated surfaces. Maybe there is something else being missed. Infections appear to be plateauing at an alarmingly high level.

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The most ridiculous thing is, I’m waging most of those reveling probably don’t even know what VE Day is about!  I’m sat out on our veranda and I can hear fireworks and singing, not ‘we’ll meet again’, it sounds more like pub turning out time after an England football match!  

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Again I would ask why extensive antibody testing isn't being done in the UK? 

May 8 (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories’ antibody test for the new coronavirus is highly likely to correctly determine whether people have ever been infected with the fast-spreading virus, the company said, citing a U.S. study.

Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine found Abbott’s test had a specificity rate of 99.9% and a sensitivity rate of 100%, suggesting very few chances of incorrectly diagnosing a healthy person with the infection and no false negatives. [source: Reuters]

Heaven only knows. Too good and to obvious a solution?

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Coronavirus 'largely gone out' of UK population outside hospitals and care homes, professor claims https://t.co/StSdk2jMtP

— SkyNews (@SkyNews) May 8, 2020

.... and the winner of today's speculation goes to Professor Tim Spector and Sky News.

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The most ridiculous thing is, I’m waging most of those reveling probably don’t even know what VE Day is about!  I’m sat out on our veranda and I can hear fireworks and singing, not ‘we’ll meet again’, it sounds more like pub turning out time after an England football match!  

Yes, someone local to me was playing dreadful  90s "techno" mu-sick at crazy volume.

 

 

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The most ridiculous thing is, I’m waging most of those reveling probably don’t even know what VE Day is about!  I’m sat out on our veranda and I can hear fireworks and singing, not ‘we’ll meet again’, it sounds more like pub turning out time after an England football match!  

Yep - that's what it is to them. Another excuse to fly an England flag.They don't realise it was a victory against what many of them now represent by their actions.

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I hope that in a week's time the number of cases will have declined further and steadily (for obvious reasons) or that there is a sharp rise in cases. That would be tragic for those affected but would demonstrate the need for a proper lockdown and no more faffing around by the RWM and the RW section of the Tory party - and it would be nice though optimistic to find those parties accepting their responsibility in the matter. 

An intermediate result will leave us arguing until next BH when there would be a repeat performance, and no reduction in cases in the meantime anyway..

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These silly VE Day 'celebrations' are the death knell of 'lockdown'.

Cretins having street parties as an excuse to get p*ssed with other people again.

I fully expect to see a spike in cases, hospitalisations and deaths in 2-3 weeks.

I just hope there isn't a scaling back of the relaxation of restrictions that help the economy.

Saving lives should be the priority, followed by keeping as many parts of the economy functioning as possible. 

People having a p*ss-up that trivialises a catastrophic world war should be way, way down the pecking order. 

Sadly, our nationalist right-wing media have fanned the nationalist flames for such celebrations (encouraging neighbourly get-togethers and printing stupid posters), and our nationalist, right-wing government seems happy to sit back and reap the nationalist harvest Regardless of the consequences.

 

Agree Saint! As fairweather said, seems to be a lot of George cross flags around, rather than Union Jacks. Seems like English nationalism is on the march and anti-Scotland and anti London feeling over Brexit as well. The atmosphere in this area felt a bit nasty and gammon flavoured. These people are actually looking forward to a no deal Brexit! Morons!

(BTW, I answered your Star Trek question last night, not sure if you saw it. Also remembered the name of the character - Jack. )

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Cannot help but feel that the Kent figures are skewed because of those arriving on a fairly frequent basis from the migrant camps near Calais. It is well known that those camps are centres of contagion and every migrant picked up by the border force is tested as a matter of routine.

 

How many migrants have come? And who says it is "well known" the camps are centres of contagion? Mr Facebook or Mr Guido (Shit) Stains?

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We also had fireworks one rocket hit my patio window head on like a miss-fire my  three 8 stone Bernese mountain dogs want to sort the culprit out so hoping for not many of those I had a apology but it’s really best to keep away when big dogs get in protection mode.

I’m not impressed with these celebrations surly it could have been arranged to celebrate VE and beating virus at a safer date.

The most ridiculous thing is, I’m waging most of those reveling probably don’t even know what VE Day is about!  I’m sat out on our veranda and I can hear fireworks and singing, not ‘we’ll meet again’, it sounds more like pub turning out time after an England football match!  

 

How many migrants have come? And who says it is "well known" the camps are centres of contagion? Mr Facebook or Mr Guido (Shit) Stains?

Well the Guardian is reporting it - so it must be true - or false - I'm not sure which  

Covid-19 spreading quickly through refugee camps, warn Calais aid groups

With over 1,000 refugees and migrants left without proper sanitation, water supplies or food there is no way to contain virus, say volunteers

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/apr/09/covid-19-spreading-quickly-though-refugee-camps-warn-calais-aid-groups

 

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We had one in the road.

Odd affair - we  strictly maintained 2-Meter distance / household. We brought our own chairs and cups of tea.  A neighbour did some cakes that we went up and helped ourselves to them  one at a time -  we have to hope she isn't infected or  implemented  a strict hygiene regime once they were cooked.

I agree though that  in general  the wheels have come off the whole shooting match.   it's pretty well nailed on the infection rate is going to be headed north  again in 3 weeks time.  We will then be totally stuffed as the choice will be  a massive clamp down or watch the NHS go under and the death rate from Coronavirus and everything else that isn't being treated hit the stratosphere.

 

 

Well I suppose people have different accounts of today. We saw it as a 'nice distraction', got to know some neighbours we never really talked to before today. All with keeping the 2m rule. In all I took a positive out of today.

As for the scum who didn't comply with today's rules still. I suspect they don't recognise the rules every day in truth.

Today we still acknowledged those still alive who gave our today. Most if not all won't be around the next time we acknowledge anything like this. 

I have taken a small crumb out of all the bad news, all the negativity that surrounds us for whatever reason.

It was good to have a day outside, still safe, a bit of positivity through all the gloom.