midegarelu wrote:
Most of the mixed messages are coming from the Press and the don't believers on social media.
On Wednesday it was announced that Boris would brief the nation on the next steps on Sunday.
Next day headlines basically read panic over go back to normal.
Every day at the briefing we are treated to signs saying
STAY HOME - PROTECT THE NHS - SAVE LIVES
Every day during the briefing the following phrase is used by all who have been on the rostrum.
STAY HOME - PROTECT THE NHS - SAVE LIVES
Whereabouts is the mixed message in that?
The trouble is that these days common sense is something that our grandparents had, and is nothing to do with us anymore.
The governments handling of this situation has been abysmal at best. STAY HOME PROTECT THE NHS SAVE LIVES..... unless you can't stay at home in which case just bumble along and we'll all just take it on the chin eh!
Nobody could be expected to have the answers to this unprecendented event but the press briefings have been shambolic with ministers not even being able to speak coherently or reply to a question with a straight answer.
The pressure to reopen the UK is coming from the same powerful people who got this government elected, they can break them at the drop of a hat.
Oh and more depressing news coming out of Spain, they expect two more waves of infections and do not expect to get back to anything like normal society until 2022
Woody Guthrie wrote:All of that is based on the new normal being the old normal.
It won't, certainly not in the short to medium term.
The 9 to 5 is finished.
Many office staff won't even return to the office.
Staggered start times for the rest. The government has just announced £250 million for cycle lanes. All of this will take the pressure off the public transport network during peak times. To be honest outside of those hours you could easily stay 2 metres away on a bus or train.
Small physical shops are pretty much finished if they rely on a high footfall but to be honest that's a trend that's been going for a long time, the high street will thin out with residential properties replacing shops, many pubs and restaurants will close and those that stay open will have to adapt their opening hours as well as their physical space.
More and more businesses will remove any physical presence if they don't really need one, most that can will move entirely online.
Most of these changes would have happened naturally, the virus has simply accelerated the process.
Totally. We are looking at a new world order, forget what you knew. When a vaccine comes about it will be too late for the majority of these business and even then lots of people will be looking over their shoulder for the next virus so habits will be changed permanently.
miles_peters wrote:people who are on furlough and have broken the stay at home rules should have their payments withdrawn in my opinion
There isn't a stay at home rule and that's been the problem, we should of had full enforced lockdown.
We've been asked to social distance and stay at home as much as possible but you can go to work if you want, go shopping when you want, exercise when you want, even drive miles to get the all important drivethrough takeaway.
I see there's a mass gathering planned for Hyde Park next Saturday, interesting to see how the government deals with this if it gains momentum
Rumours the new slogan is going to be STAY ALERT, CONTROL THE VIRUS, SAVE LIVES. Struggling to believe that can be true but lots of people talking about it on Twitter.
Zicomurphy wrote:Rumours the new slogan is going to be STAY ALERT, CONTROL THE VIRUS, SAVE LIVES. Struggling to believe that can be true but lots of people talking about it on Twitter.
It is unfortunately true.
They've also not very subtly replaced the red chevrons for green which is a little psychological nudge theory at work.
Zicomurphy wrote:Rumours the new slogan is going to be STAY ALERT, CONTROL THE VIRUS, SAVE LIVES. Struggling to believe that can be true but lots of people talking about it on Twitter.
It is unfortunately true.
They've also not very subtly replaced the red chevrons for green which is a little psychological nudge theory at work.
Trouble is some people are beginning to get overcome with paranoia and fear. In addition medical professionals are worried we will get far more deaths as a side effect of social distancing with people scared to go to medical centres and operations being cancelled.
I agree the direction of travel has been towards shops, pubs, etc closing down but do we really want to accelerate this kind of change. I don't think people will want to live in places where there are no shops or amenities. I can see that the lockdowns may help with climate change such as drastically reducing foreign travel by aeroplane so they could be some positives.
The views I express here are mine alone and do not represent the views of Royal Mail Group.
You're speaking as if there's a choice Celgar, that we can somehow push back against this. You sound like a man in denial.
This isn't a storm that passes and the skies suddenly clear despite what Trump thinks , this is a society altering event.
Society will adapt but there's no way back only forwards. Those that embrace it will fair better than those that refuse to accept it. People need to make choices, shopping will change, socialising will change but none of those things will stop and life will go on. There have been bigger changes than this before.
I think a lot of you fail to notice that people's habits are not that easily changed. Certain changes will stay with us long term that's certain. If something is prohibited it doesn't mean it cant be done.
People are already moving to the grey area and provide services prohibited at the moment. I am talking about hairdressers, make up artist etc. The more permanent changes are the bigger grey area will grow in my opinion. In terms of socialising people will gradually start partying and it will up to the strict policing whether it's going to be more underground or more blatant. This is already happening.
The only question unanswered is the international travel. Severely disrupted at the moment with little hope for improvement in the near future. This is also sector that is most likely to remain changed for good as international airports are a lot easier to control and enforce new rules.
International travel is a bit of an odd situation at the moment with the UK foreign office saying no one should be flying out. Then on the reverse we have people from China, Bangladesh, and India flying in with no health checks or even temperature checks.
The views I express here are mine alone and do not represent the views of Royal Mail Group.