Don't ride in groups or we will be stopped cycling completely.

[Vantage]

Tangy Toms are essential. Very much so.

 

[nickyboy]

On the parks, kinda related to the thread, good to see some common sense and broad humanity from the communities sec and labour deputy leader.
You can be further away from someone in a park than a next door neighbour over the fence (if you have a garden)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52181808

It also says Brockwell Park in south london is open again - well out of range of the derbyshire police drone i assume.

I see nothing wrong with sunbathing as long as you obey distancing rules.

I don't think I agree with the sunbathing

Philosophically, we are supposed to stay at home other than for essential trips outside the home (of which "exercise" is determined to be essential)

Sunbathing isn't essential. Of course it's easy to argue that it does no harm but it's the thin end of the wedge. If we allow the great British public to decide what's ok and what isn't there'll be plenty of issues

On balance, I think we should stick with "stay at home unless you're doing one of those essential activities", at least for now

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I don't think I agree with the sunbathing

Philosophically, we are supposed to stay at home other than for essential trips outside the home (of which "exercise" is determined to be essential)

Sunbathing isn't essential. Of course it's easy to argue that it does no harm but it's the thin end of the wedge. If we allow the great British public to decide what's ok and what isn't there'll be plenty of issues

On balance, I think we should stick with "stay at home unless you're doing one of those essential activities", at least for now

I suppose if we were North Korea, China etc. then you are correct stay at home means stay at home or you will be shot, but I'd like to think we are a little more civilised, there are people who would not even see the sunshine if they didn't go outside. In those circumstances it is possible that a short walk 15 minutes sunbathing is an essential journey. I agree it is a difficult scenario, in an ideal world everybody would have space to sunbath in their own garden, but by the same token in an ideal world we wouldn't be in the state we currently are.

I still think the most dangerous place currently is supermarkets, not 30M away from somebody else in a park.

 

[matticus]

Sunbathing isn't essential. Of course it's easy to argue that it does no harm but it's the thin end of the wedge. If we allow the great British public to decide what's ok and what isn't there'll be plenty of issues

But almost all of the Great British Public have decided for themselves, and not created any problems. The parks are full of Brits sunbathing 5-10m apart. Almost everyone is sensible. The infection numbers won't change just because 2 people in London do something a bit stupid - what matters is what 99% of the public do.

The people in shops and on the tube completely wipe-out any advantage gained by telling those sunbathers to Move Along Now Please. Them and the groups of teenagers I see almost every dry evening … <grumble> ...

 

[icowden]

Indeed. There are blocks of flats in the centre of leafy Walton (new ones of course). Some of those flats (the more "affordable" ones don't have any walls that open to the exterior. So no windows. If you have a family or just want to stay sane, I think you have to go outdoors somewhere. Communal gardens too communal? Park across the road? Down by the river? All of these expose you to risk, but so does staying in a flat with no windows for 12 weeks.

It's easy if you have a garden and live in an openish area, but hard if you living somewhere more built up.

 

[carlosfandangus]

Be sensible is the ask, however I understand the thin end of the wedge, I have just been out and there is quite a few people out, mostly families, we have an old building stock in town, not many have a garden (terraced) most people gave up the thought of a garden as they are so close to the beach, a lot have also been turned into flats, we also have a lot of apartments on the sea front the ones on the front look out to sea, the cheaper ones at the back just look at a cliff face.

Social distancing is the answer, however the thin end of the wedge rears its ugly head.

 

[mjr]

- BBQ fuel is not a "basic necessity", being neither "food" nor "medical supplies for those in the same household", nor is it needed "for the essential upkeep, maintenance and functioning of the household".

Seeing as you were "taking a dogmatic view", is there really any court in the land that will start ruling which forms of otherwise-legal fuel are permitted to be used for what? All of you that use fossil-gas cookers are environmentally-harmful all the time and we've not outlawed that as non-essential just because more cleanly-generated electric is available. So I think charcoal cooking is legal and as essential as any other cooking fuel.

Hey, maybe all cooking fuel is non-essential - you could eat salads!

 

[Racing roadkill]

People running tend to puff and blow a lot more than walkers. From personal observation, some of them don't take the two metre rule too seriously either.

But in order for it to be an issue, one has to be breathing out, exactly as the other one is breathing in, whilst passing at speed ( that’s a bit of an ask ). The simple solution is just to hold your breath until you’re past. In my experience so far, there have only been a handful of times someone has been within 2 meters anyway. The W.H.O. say 3 feet is adequate ( that’s three feet from where your ‘disc’ meets the person, not 3 feet from where your ‘disc’ meets the edge of their ‘disc’) I think this is where the misunderstanding has come in, and caused a whole lot of unnecessary hand wringing. The expert epidemiologists are undecided whether aerosol transmission ( breath droplets ) are the primary transmission vehicle for this virus anyway, they think ( from its observed behaviour) it’s more likely to be primarily touch transmission.

 

[Blue Hills]

If you've not already seen it, I can recommend the film 'Benvenuti al Sud', which deals with that whole north/south situation. It's feckin' hilarious.

"Overwhelmed by his wife, a postal worker from Northern Italy feigns disability to request a transfer to Milan. When he's unmasked, he is sent to a tiny village near Naples for two years. He moves there alone, scared and full of the typical prejudice about the south. But he meets lovely people who quickly make him feel at home. Now the challenge is to explain this to his wife, so he chooses to make her believe that his life is hell."​

Will look out for. Was recommended to me by an italian a while ago if i remember.

 

[nickyboy]

But almost all of the Great British Public have decided for themselves, and not created any problems. The parks are full of Brits sunbathing 5-10m apart. Almost everyone is sensible. The infection numbers won't change just because 2 people in London do something a bit stupid - what matters is what 99% of the public do.

The people in shops and on the tube completely wipe-out any advantage gained by telling those sunbathers to Move Along Now Please. Them and the groups of teenagers I see almost every dry evening … <grumble> ...

I'm not sure that the parks were full of sunbathers last weekend. I only watched the news and they seemed to struggle to find examples

I guess my concern is this....we could easily say "you can go outside for non essential reasons so long as you're sensible about it. If you want to sunbathe that's ok". It doesn't feel like a big step from this to groups of friends getting together and infecting each other. Maybe I'm being overly cautious but I don't think we should change the message on what we should or shouldn't do, at least for now

 

[snorri]

The parks are full of Brits sunbathing 5-10m apart.

Sunbathing in my locality would be a sure way of overloading the emergency services with victims of hypothermia.

 

[Rusty Nails]

Indeed. There are blocks of flats in the centre of leafy Walton (new ones of course). Some of those flats (the more "affordable" ones don't have any walls that open to the exterior. So no windows. If you have a family or just want to stay sane, I think you have to go outdoors somewhere. Communal gardens too communal? Park across the road? Down by the river? All of these expose you to risk, but so does staying in a flat with no windows for 12 weeks.

It's easy if you have a garden and live in an openish area, but hard if you living somewhere more built up.

Is this true? Are there really flats with no windows? If so that's awful.

 

[Alberto Balsam]

I must admit, I had to read that twice myself. I can't believe they're allowed to build / create residences like that in this day and age.

 

[rogerzilla]

I don't think that's legal. They might open onto a courtyard?

 

[srw]

https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/n...ts-no-windows-get-green-light-watford-appeal/

Private Eye covered this in respect of a much larger office to flats conversion. If it's within the scope of a permitted development, then the council can't refuse permission, even if some of the flats breach housing regs.