[doganjo]

Well, we had to close our shop again, I was there yesterday and one old guys started swearing at me because I told him we are closed and I'm not allow to let him in as we are in the lockdown zone again - I was dispatching online orders, so I'm allowed to sit in the shop with the shutter closed and door slightly open for fresh air!
Its so bad. We are OK but there are so many people who spend a lot of many to reopen again either last week or the coming weekend and now they are told they are not allowed to open again.
Its important to stay safe but a lot of people are going out of business!

And these people are going out of business because we didn't go into lockdown quick enough and Joe Public didn't believe it was necessary or didn't think it applied to him.  Young people automatically think they are invincible and don't always think of other people.  My own 18 year old grandson had to be reminded of the implications and his parents are on the front line

[harmony]

Well, we had to close our shop again, I was there yesterday and one old guys started swearing at me because I told him we are closed and I'm not allow to let him in as we are in the lockdown zone again - I was dispatching online orders, so I'm allowed to sit in the shop with the shutter closed and door slightly open for fresh air!
Its so bad. We are OK but there are so many people who spend a lot of many to reopen again either last week or the coming weekend and now they are told they are not allowed to open again.
Its important to stay safe but a lot of people are going out of business!

And these people are going out of business because we didn't go into lockdown quick enough and Joe Public didn't believe it was necessary or didn't think it applied to him.  Young people automatically think they are invincible and don't always think of other people.  My own 18 year old grandson had to be reminded of the implications and his parents are on the front line

I don't doubt an earlier lockdown might have made a huge difference  and at some point we will no doubt have an inquiry that will answer that. It might have saved some jobs but it wouldn't have saved them all. We are only seeing the start of the redundancies.


And it isn't just young people who haven't engaged with the rules. Within two miles of me we have at least 2 properties where people came here after lockdown to their second homes. Both are well educated, have very good jobs and old enough to know better. We are all well aware of the Cummings and Goings of those at government level.


Mr Johnson is urging people to apply caution as we see the relaxation of rules at the weekend. On the same day we hear his Father flew to Greece via Bulgaria to his holiday villa as you can't fly direct to Greece yet from the UK. Essential travel  ??

[macgro7]

I don't doubt an earlier lockdown might have made a huge difference  and at some point we will no doubt have an inquiry that will answer that. It might have saved some jobs but it wouldn't have saved them all. We are only seeing the start of the redundancies.

We cal speculate and blame this guy and that organisation etc but realistically we will never know if it made any difference. What happened happened and we can't change it. We can only plan for the future.

[harmony]

I don't doubt an earlier lockdown might have made a huge difference  and at some point we will no doubt have an inquiry that will answer that. It might have saved some jobs but it wouldn't have saved them all. We are only seeing the start of the redundancies.

We cal speculate and blame this guy and that organisation etc but realistically we will never know if it made any difference. What happened happened and we can't change it. We can only plan for the future.

I think that it is possible to see what would have happened had we closed down earlier because we know what the infection rate was doing. We had the benefit of seeing what was happening with infection rates in the countries ahead of us. A lockdown a month earlier would have certainly reduced infection rates and deaths. We may have come out of lockdown sooner or we may not. Could it have made much difference to what is happening to our economy and recovery? Possibly the impact would have been less but still incredibly significant.


If we don't examine closely what we did or didn't do then we can't plan for the future.

[doganjo]

If we don't examine closely what we did or didn't do then we can't plan for the future.

Exactly - how else do we learn but by our mistakes.
Yes we must plan for the future and that future will be massivley different to what we have known - but ....  It may be a better future. 

At Smallholding Scotland's last trustees meeting we all agreed that many people have taken to growing their own food (and flowers) and we have seen lovely gardens appear where there were slabs and concrete before, so we need to prepare for that future by encouraging those new gardeners to expand further

[harmony]

If we don't examine closely what we did or didn't do then we can't plan for the future.

Exactly - how else do we learn but by our mistakes.
Yes we must plan for the future and that future will be massivley different to what we have known - but ....  It may be a better future. 

At Smallholding Scotland's last trustees meeting we all agreed that many people have taken to growing their own food (and flowers) and we have seen lovely gardens appear where there were slabs and concrete before, so we need to prepare for that future by encouraging those new gardeners to expand further

There has certainly been some positives amongst the gloom.

[chrismahon]

Same happened here. Our neighbour had a 2x2 metre bed of compost and grew tomatoes for the first ever time last year. This year during lockdown he rotorvated part of his lawn and now has a vegetable plot about 100m2. I had to smile while he was doing it as his previous job was purely administrative- Minister of Agriculture.


There are long queues outside the garden centre now, because only 5 are allowed in the shop at any time and have to follow a marked walkway, which is a pain as I generally only go for chicken feed and that's right at the end near the tills.

[arobwk]

Well, I despair:  I had a gardening job this afternoon and, while setting up, noticed that a garden party was gathering a few chalets down.  I sort of kept my eye on out of interest:  within 20 mins, 5 vehicles arrived and there was big kissing and hugging all round as the incumbents piled out of their vehicles.  Hmmm ! 

On the way home, passing the Halfway House, I could not but notice a young lady bending towards/speaking to another young lady who was sitting at an outside table (obviously) with their heads less than, I would say, 2 feet apart.  (I don't reckon they were a "couple".)

Boris and his merry band might as well save their breath !!  Roll on the next nation-wide spike to make people understand their behaviour (Cv-19 mis-behaviour) has consequences.  Hopefully neither you nor I will be affected by this ignorant behaviour.