United Kingdom V: Son of a beach

[Nu-Eclipse]

https://www.theguardian.com/business...-bakery-stores
Greggs have reversed their decision to reopen 20 stores due to concerns about maintaining social distancing

To be fair, if anything was going to make me break social distancing laws it would be having Greggs back in my part of town. They closed the one branch that they had where I live a few years ago and they haven't returned.

[Neon Ignition]

A bit like a few weeks back, alreayd hearing loads of peeps chatting about plans for when the lockdown is lifted next week.
So frustrating - they're announcing how they'll ease the lockdown, not when. We have at least 4 more weeks ahead of us. It's beyond comprehension as to how blatantly obvious it is that we're going to get slammed by a second wave this year.

[Dogg Thang]

Until there is a vaccine or some dramatic change in the virus itself, there is no way to ease restrictions without a second (and likely larger) wave. And let's be honest - the first wave has been pretty rough.

The only realistic way I can see restrictions being lifted in the next few months without just being okay with people getting sick or dying is if each individual business has worked out a way to get back up and running in a safe way. And that's something that I hope is being worked on behind the scenes because there are probably methods for a lot of business to get them going in at least some sort of capacity. But general easing without very clear plans just doesn't seem to make any sense right now.

[Neon Ignition]

It's something I still can't see a path forward on. If movement rules ease and businesses reopen they'll immediately hit a wall with it as the current distancing only works because there's such a small percentage of people out and about. Even if every shop put in place a system to halve capacity and maintain distancing you still have millions of people out and about, queuing in the streets to get in stores etc. Every workplace has to maintain social distancing too and an easing of restrictions means an end to stuff like government funded furloughing etc so then every workplace has an issue of having too little working space for their employee count - two ways out there, break the rules or fire the staff.

We've already said, they can lift what they like, we'll be carrying on like lockdown is in place all year. Better spending time indoors than dead.

[Dogg Thang]

Better spending time indoors than dead.

Same thing here. We've had this discussion at home - if my wife's work insists they come back in just after any restrictions are lifted, she's not going. We're not going to be the guinea pigs for wave 2. Same with schools. Kids aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

[vanpeebles]

It's coming straight back, people are already all over the shop.

[Golgo]

The BBC today. Best of British journalism.

[Neon Ignition]

Schools are definitely a concern, and the push to reopen them. I'd understand it at most other times of the year but at this point the kids have been out of school for about 7-8 weeks and so there's no point increasing risk to them or families by pushing a reopening this close to the summer holidays. Much better to target September and spend that time planning the teaching and practicalities out for that.

The timeline feels so obvious:

June - Lockdown phased lifting begins
July - Lockdown reaches lightest phase, everyone heads out to seasides etc with the warm weather
August - Peak percentage of people out and about, virus begins to catch onto a base number of people again
September - Virus incubates in new victims for the first couple of weeks as the complacency really kicks in then the close we get to October the more we see that a second wave is about to smash us

[Dogg Thang]

Thing is, looking at the numbers, it seems the first wave is still smashing us. In a very big way.

[vanpeebles]

Schools are definitely a concern, and the push to reopen them. I'd understand it at most other times of the year but at this point the kids have been out of school for about 7-8 weeks and so there's no point increasing risk to them or families by pushing a reopening this close to the summer holidays. Much better to target September and spend that time planning the teaching and practicalities out for that.

The timeline feels so obvious:

June - Lockdown phased lifting begins
July - Lockdown reaches lightest phase, everyone heads out to seasides etc with the warm weather
August - Peak percentage of people out and about, virus begins to catch onto a base number of people again
September - Virus incubates in new victims for the first couple of weeks as the complacency really kicks in then the close we get to October the more we see that a second wave is about to smash us

I agree, and we deffo don’t want a second wave going into winter.

[Nu-Eclipse]

The BBC today. Best of British journalism.

Absolute propaganda.

[Dogg Thang]

Still, when they sell off the NHS and slash nurses' wages, they'll always have that double rainbow.

[Neon Ignition]

That's not a rainbow, it's a Simpsons Movie style containment dome

[fishbowlhead]

Still, when they sell off the NHS and slash nurses' wages, they'll always have that double rainbow.

And the clap.

[Neon Ignition]

It could also be the upper crescent of God's Eye as he checks in and thinks 'what the hell's happening here?'