PMs message

In all honesty anyone of us could have said that! Too vague, no detail. He had been drip feeding what he would say for the past week. Slogan is dire. I personally will follow Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for advice. The R number isn’t stable enough. The roads will be so busy.

I don't think Gransnet is the place for the language I would like to use about it.

joesdadnick I agree: for people to expect clarity ,from a relatively short broadcast, for every personal or workplace situation is nonsensical. The purpose was to outline a roadmap of what the next few weeks might look like and he was at pains to stress that depending on what happens with the all important 'R' the plan may go backwards and forwards. We must also remember that in terms of our four countries, even England isn't a level playing field: London is well ahead of the rest of the country in terms of the curve coming down. We all need to continue to play our part in doing what we feel is safest for us and those around us.

Larsonsmum exactly, we have a reasonable size garden, much safer than any park for all sorts of reasons other than social distancing. Looking at the traffic this morning I think most people must have heard Boris say if you can't work from home go to work. If I remember rightly he said manufacturing and industry should return.I think he should have made his speech after the details were given in Parliament and I hope we get a chance for the public to have questions answered soon.

I thought that it came across as a lot of hot air with little substance, and I've got great sympathy with the Police who are supposed to enforce ... what exactly??? Go to work if you can't work from home BUT not by public transport (what about those who have no choice?) and there are NO legal requirements on those who run public transport, nor on employers to maintain social distance for their workers so only the big ones will bother and God help everyone-else (l think they should have waited with this advice until the legal requirements were in place). 100,000 tests but a nurse friend of mine told me that it's well known that there is a false negative result in about 50% of them, so many of these are retests. As for the rest of it - very unclear. So we can sit outside in parks but what if the bench is next to a public footpath? We can exercise twice a day but no reminder to maintain social distance whilst doing so. No reminder to keep washing hands. Nothing about masks (presumably because the government can't supply them). I was preparing myself for some big announcement (otherwise, why not leave this until the usual daily Coronavirus Briefing?) but was left completely underwhelmed. He would have been a great PM in other times but in a Crisis he has been out of his depth - and I'm not sympathetic with the usual "he's doing his best" from those who voted for him - because his best is clearly not good enough. Very disappointing.

Good speech. He’s dammed if he does and dammed if he doesn’t.

I think it has confused things, especially saying we are between a 3 and 4 which is in the Amber zone and at the same time releasing a new visual aid which has green flashes around the edges. Why release some detail to the journalists last week, then give a burble speech a few days later, while holding on to the 50 pages f detail until 2pm the day after that? Whoever came up with the communications plan isn't a very good communicator! The plan, details and speech should have been released at the same time to give a strong and clear message. Look at Matt Lucas's video on YouTube and the comments from other people to get a sense of what others think too.

Grannynannywanny I dont think anyone has thought out the school thing in any way. If it's supposed to get parents back to work it won't work because lots of families have two or more children. My GD will be very annoyed if her little brother goes to school and she doesn't. He will be annoyed as well!

The Conservative Part can't be blamed when employers and workers fail to make the right guess

His 'best' has resulted in UK having the highest death rate from this virus in the world!!!

Think we need clear guidance and massive fines if abused. Follow the example of Australia

I live in England on the Welsh border, and as Wales is not apparently following England guidance poses a dilemma for workers and families on both sides of the border.

Must be similar for those on Scottish Borders?

Crazy, crazy, crazy!!

Dominic Raab is saying if someone wants to meet a parent they can do so in a park, as long as they remain 2 metres apart.

Can they meet in a garden/drive if they remain 2 metres apart? No, that would come under ‘mixing households’.

I have a vision of these poor old dears who can hardly walk struggling along a long distance to their local park - passing numerous people en route, and where there will likely be dozens and dozens of folk - to see the daughter they’ve not seen in 8/10 weeks. The daughter encountering the same number of people making her way there too.

For heaven’s sake, the daughter could simply walk or drive round to the parent’s garden, and remain 2 metres apart from her Mum, and both would likely encounter nobody else, and avoid risk.

I don’t understand the logic in the selection of school children for the first phased return.

I can see the urgency for pupils who need to prepare for exams etc. But reception year little ones? Is it herd immunity??

Sometimes I wonder if people pay any attention, he stated that more details will be forthcoming today in parliament, what irks me is the press lambasting, and left wing press at that, for the lack of clarity. ,the other nation leaders deriding the stay alert message whats wrong with that , nothing , a change is a good thing from the stay at home one. it was a short televised address that I thought came over very well, there is a 50 page outline being presented today which will give more clarity.

Just caused a lot of confusion. Not clear guidance at all. Glad I am in Scotland, we will see what happens in England and Ms Sturgeon will use her discretion before she gives us clear guidelines.

As a member of a so-called ‘vulnerable group’ I feel very un-reassured. ‘Say alert‘. So people’s signpost is ‘common sense’ with a supposed backdrop of knowledge. The trouble with ‘common sense’ as my late father said is that it is not very common. This has been evident on the pavements, streets and parks during the last few weeks. Threatening experiences if you do not want COVID-19. And there are now are no legal requirements for risk assessment, testing, tracing and PPE. So it is up to employers and employees to make individual decisions. How vulnerable this makes employees. A Specsavers chief executive was interviewed on R4 this morning. He said only vulnerable patients, based on triage, will be seen. What about the eye professional? Ocular assessments are carried out at 1/3 metre. And encouraging people to travel by car… It has been so clear how nature has benefited during the last 2 months. What a lost opportunity to expand protected bicycle-only lanes.

“Poor chap” did someone post!! He is not poor, yes a challenging time, and I’m sorry he was ill. BUT Look at other major leaders (apart from Trump). They are all doing well. Oh for Angela or Jacinda...

If you tell people in general terms what they can do - for instance encouraging them to go back to work, so long as work is a 'safe environment', it seems essential to provide details about what a 'safe environment' at work will mean. To give the general advice first and the details later seems confusing and unhelpful and gives employers no opportunity to get their act together before people turn up at the workplace.

Or even, 'consultation'

If people decide to drive to work for safety, has the congestion charge been cancelled ?

I think the 'consukltation' with the heads of the deveolved governments was another lie. Why aren't they doing the same as England?

Two months ago a death toll of no more than 20,000 as a result of Covid was supposedly a 'good result'. Which, IMO, makes a death toll of 50,000 (current 'excess deaths' something of a catastrophe. But no, we are doing brilliantly because it's not 250,000... He should hang his head in shame.

100s of 1,000s of tests daily was what I heard, railman. Do people just not know that he is LYING?

This tweet summed it up for me : " Are you able to go and see your grandparent at a park with a bag of grain and a fox but leave the chicken behind?"

No mention of seeing family.... yet we can go to the park. So is it alright to invite family to the park and stay the 2 metres apart. A lot of fine detail needs to be drawn up.. no mention of the vulnerable either.

Oh for goodness sake those of you who are moaning,the poor chap is doing his best.
Basically I think he is saying that we are going to have a bit more choice but if we abuse it then we may be back to more stringent measures.
At least he is positive and gives us hope.
Imagine if Corbyn were Prime Minister?
Doesn’t bear thinking about.