What can we expect from tomorrow's announcement?

It's even dafter up here. Pubs and restaurants in the central belt are closed. Cafes can open until 6 but, until a hurried change, licenced cafes couldn't open. Now they can as long as they dont sell alcohol. Restaurants aren't allowed to pretend they are cafes by just not serving alcohol. Hotels can sell alcohol to residents inside until 6 after which its outside only. So many cancellations.
The very small highland hotel on a single track road that we stayed at last week has had many cancellations. What do the Scottish government think the residents are going to do if they have a glass of wine inside with a meal? Run around coughing on each other?
Also we are advised not to leave our health board areas but it's OK to go on holiday. DD doesn't know what to do for the half term break. Go/don't go/will the hotel still be open? Etc etc etc.
As everywhere else it all comes down to personal responsibility. Proposed restrictions should be debated and all aspects considered in Parliament and not just imposed then hastily amended as at Holyrood

Roni

Is the PM going to include or exclude Dominic Cummings from these rules ?

I can’t think why you thought it necessary to ask the question.

I'm afraid the government are damned if they do and damned if they don't at the moment . One thing is for sure is what they are doing isn't working at the moment . Covid cases are on the rise as well as death . They are not going to please everyone but they need to come down harder to stop the spread of the virus .

M0nica, that's not quite true. Whilst Leicester admittedly was the first city to have stricter measures introduced, Nottingham consistently had one of the lowest infection rates until the University students returned.

I have a lot of neices and nephews in 20 to 30 age group and Im amazed at how they justify so things.
Like I can come to yours/grannies etc as I havent been near anyone testing positive ( I`m over 65, granny over 80). They have been to the school with their kids, been to work, the supermarket etc.
So I think the idea that they can be infectious without being ill is lost on them.

Regarding the large difference in numbers of infections in the north compared with the south I am sure several factors are involved.

Universities are frequently mentioned but of course we have plenty here in the south so that can’t be the whole story.

I think the many multigenerational households up north are a significant factor, along with higher levels of deprivation and overcrowded housing generally, although as GG13 pointed out, Jaywick in Essex is often cited as the poorest place to live. It is however quite small.

I think the government is right in targeting the hardest hit areas for the strictest restrictions although I realise how difficult it must be for those living in those areas.

Let’s hope something comes of the latest research into the BCG vaccine.

To be honest I have seen very little breaching of the rules- we live in a town in Surrey. We went out to dinner with friends last week & everyone in the restaurant came in wearing a mask & left with one on. The tables were well apart & the serving staff had those full face plastic shields. I have just got back from Sainsbury's & everyone there were masked from the car park on.
A lot of people wear their masks out in the street- I don't as not only am I claustrophobic but it steams my glasses up - I walk well away from other people too.
Funnily enough if I do see someone not wearing a mask when it would be appropriate it is always an elderly person- the younger ones are very savvy.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Could people stop taking it personally when I say Northerners- I am one you know- just because you are isolating etc doesn't mean everyone is. You only have to look around or visit a popular area to see what is going on. No masks, no social distancing. How on earth can you imagine if you won't wear a mask in a shop you will follow the other rules? And yes I know some people have medical reasons but not everyone has.

JenniferEccles Quoe: Universities are frequently mentioned but of course we have plenty here in the south so that can’t be the whole story. - I have to disagree.

Exeter! The numbers in Exeter leapt up to 438 per 100,000 residents for the week to 6 October, up 358 from the week before. They will be having restrictions. Most of the cases are students. Exeter now has the seventh-highest infection rate in England.

While the number of cases rose by 576 in Exeter in the last week, nearby Plymouth - which also has similar student population - only saw 107. Plymouth's students are mainly local to the South West. Students at Exeter come from around the UK and overseas.

I know of people who call themselves "careful" but they're not, even when they are over 70 and diabetic or with other health problems. They go out and about, they don't follow the rules properly, they don't wear masks (or wear them incorrectly), they say they have a "bubble" but it seems that all their friends and family are in it!

Multiply this across the country .........

Up north is a bit sweeping - Exeter is Very bad - students. I think it is 'everything' at the moment. People are tired of caution, spacing in small houses on terraced streets with close families is hard, cold weather is better for viruses and worse for humans - etc. Do think that turning to alcohol is the worst thing we could do. In hindsight alcohol licences should have been suspended early on. Then businesses would have had to adapt to other beverages or closure. But hindsight is a fine thing.

Link to national map - pull in to see your area. www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=47574f7a6e454dc6a42c5f6912ed7076

JenniferEccles Universities are frequently mentioned but of course we have plenty here in the south so that can’t be the whole story.
Of course you have but not such concentrated numbers of students. London is the only comparable Southern city. Manchester, Newcastle, Liverpool all have between 40,000 and 50,000 students Sheffield and Leeds around 40000. As I have said within a couple of weeks of their arrival in Newcastle over 1000 students had tested as positive.

MOnica,
You obviously know a great deal more about this situation than I do but I think you are being grossly unfair to a Govenment which is trying to deal with a problem that none of us could have imagined would ever happen.
I doubt if the Labour Party for all their complaining could do better

Had everyone abided by the rules laid down, we would not be in this situation.

I also think that this increase is obviously due to the return of students to University..
Liverpool and Manchester for example have more than one University.

I went with my husband to our local hospital for an outpatients appointment.
A woman two seats away from me wasn't wearing a mask.
I asked the receptionist why this was so and she said that maybe she was exempt.
Maybe?
I must have given her a look because she then went and asked the woman.
She wasn't .
She then put a mask on.

Question.
Surely people who are exempt could still pass on the virus so hard as it sounds surely if you are unable to wear a mask you should not be within 2metres from anybody.

Is it to give people the chance to enjoy a rollicking good night out before it is banned again? Seems like it to me. Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow...

I feel for those who rely on their businesses for their income and would hate the financial worry that lack of business would bring, but-----in hospitality, has it been SO necessary for anyone to go out and eat in these establishments ?

To be inside areas where dozens of people are/have been when this virus sits happily for a month or so on hard/metal surfaces, is there on steel cutlery and unless autoclaved, crockery too.
Why has everyone insisted that they MUST go out and socialise, be it a couple of metres apart ( not enough ) ?

This is a pandemic where millions, not thousands , die and that quota will come unless everyone adopts the patience and resilience to resist their outgoings.

We have been isolated since March.

First time I have ventured near our town centre today.,went to the bank (well policed about masks ,distancing etc) and one shop. Three people not wearing masks.Sorry to say from ethnic groups considered to be at an increased risk.
Shop assistants can do nothing about it.
DD works in a shop and frequently gets abuse if people asked to wear masks,wash or sanitise hands etc..

Mask wearing in shops should be made law, and those who don't comply, refused entry to the shop etc if possible and fined.

They have changed things so often over the past week, I have no idea what we should be doing. I am going to become a hermit until they make their minds up.

Just watched the science briefing.

It seems that we are the same level as March this year. And in fact there are more people in hospital now than on 23 March.

So, as a result of that information, DH and I will keep locked down as we did then.

All should take this very seriously not just because you might die, but because the long term consequences can be extremely serious at any age.

Knittyknatter an outstanding sweeping statement! I’m from Manchester.

And then there is this absolutely shocking report from the BBC.
www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-54486121

I agree MOnica and do exactly what you do, it's the only way.

As a ‘southerner’ but born in London but as an ‘honorary Northerner’ I share many of the comments expressed by Iam64. Particularly the fact that Northern MPs, City Mayors and local Commerce are now speaking out on behalf of the population. The H of C is not sitting with all MPs present, thus depriving many of the many excellent elected members for the North to speak out, I feel that it has been very easy for the Government since so few have been able to argue against ‘blanket proposals’. Ignoring any political divide, it must be accepted that there are many Regional differences in life style, work, and population needs etc. That said, the Virus does not discriminate between Regions. Everyone, of whatever age is vulnerable, has a duty to protect themselves and each other, and should take responsibility for trying to preserve their lives and prevent the spread. But the Government should address the population as intelligent human beings, cut out the 3 word slogans and start listening to all the Regional representatives. Then we just might all come together. IMHO Whitehall and their attitude is too remote from our Northern cousins. Speak in plain English, in non-patronising tones and stop trying to emulate Winston Churchill. Spouting from the Classics isn’t the behaviour of a cultured person - just done to make them sound clever.
Lastly my special thoughts are with all who are suffering from Covid - it can be a hellish experience unlike normal flu. Trust me! Just wish I was still able to visit my dear Friends in the North.

Sorry trisher but you really did make my blood boil decrying northerners as if it’s our own faults! We live in north Lancashire and I don’t think we have a lot of cases here but we are grouped in with the “north west”. I personally don’t know anyone whose got the virus thank goodness.

As others have said, it’s probably the predominance of universities in Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Liverpool along with a lot of terraced housing in cities where they are crowded in which is affecting the figures. I doubt if it’s just that “people in the north won’t follow rules”! How rude and condescending I find that remark! What about Oxford and Cambridge and London Universities? I cannot believe that London has fewer cases, it’s not possible, surely?

We could certainly do without such remarks which do nothing but show what a great divide there is North vs South.