PMs message

Apart from the muddled thinking - he did not mention he was only referring to England, and he told a monumental lie.

He said we (the UK) had been doing over 100,000 tests a day - we know that is factually incorrect.

So, I can now go to work, but try and avoid public transport, my employer does not know how to gain Covid Free status, and we are being provided with face coverings, and the electrician maintaining our machine controls is shared with another factory, but they have no PPE. How does the company maintain social distancing in the same way at both locations?

Oh I forgot - it will be in the announcement later today, after we have been required to return to work.

Does the return to work if you cannot work from home include the factory's fire marshalls and first aiders - is that mandatory? With or without PPE? Are Security Staff included in the go back to work option - will their be a pool of volunteers provided if the security guards are required to self-isolate again?

Yes - it's a complicated process - and given that we are the word affected European country - with the most shambolic approach in the past 2 months, what has changed yesterday evening.

Let's face facts what this speech was was an attempt to shift responsibility from government to Joe Public. So make it as blurred and confusing as possible then if the infection rate goes up and deaths increase again you can say" it's not my fault, they didn't do it properly"

To be honest I don’t get it. The day lockdown was announced we had had something like 39 new deaths bringing our total to three hundred and something (around 365 I think). 7 weeks on we have over 31,000 deaths and nearly 600 new deaths a day, yet we are headed from a level 4 to a level 3??? How?? Not too clear either now about what is and isn’t allowed - and after how many years of constantly clobbering motorists and exhorting us all to not use our cars and use public transport they are now telling us the opposite; confused.com!

Let’s face it whatever Boris does or says is going to be picked at ,he’s damned if he does & damned if he doesn’t .We all need to use our common sense.

Lesley60 If you are staying home, the risk is, them to you, they are exposed to the virus and could very likely pass it on to you. Both myself and my husband are key workers and constantly exposed to the virus. Our grandchildren are isolating so we could pass it on to them. Either way I am not willing to take the chance.

Very unclear, not inline with Scotland, Wales, Or Ireland, confusing, and what does keep alert mean? better to stay with stay at home, just waiting to see what is said today at 2pm, if we all start going out the numbers of deaths and people with Covid 19 will increase again. Not strong enough instructions for those who disobey increase in fine will probably be ignored

Well Sheila11 - maybe he should have been more precise and less vague, and given that most of the media are Tory supporting anyway, it can't be said that they have it in for Boris.

England could do with someone a bit more straightforward - Sturgeon seems a better bet.

I think it depends who you are. My son as we speak is trying to get to work via public transport . Trains are crowded and infrequent . Texts from his friends who have arrived at work have reported 1 toilet open on ground floor - he is on the 8th and kitchen locked.

Optimist interesting link. Thanks. I wouldn't put it past 'em!

The number of respondents to this question who each took away a different understanding of last night's appearance, just shows what a muddled and confusing message the government is putting out. This lack of appropriate boundary setting will enevitably lead to a spike in infection, when each one of us will interpret the guidelines to benefit our particular circumstance. How the Police can monitor and implement such weak guidelines I don't know..... And don't get me started on 'Stay Alert', whatever that means. The government is washing its hands (no pun intended) of any responsibility for the transfer of infection rate and leaving it up to the population to try to get it right.

Too much detail giving not using public transport to go to work - I live 10 miles away from any workplace , don't drive, so have to use public transport.
Only now they are talking about people flying into the country having to isolate for 2 weeks after arrival. Why has this not been happening all through? In China , even if allowed to travel within the country, the 2 weeks isolation has to be actioned, however many times you moved from place to place!
I am still convinced that there is an awful lot of people that have already had Covid 19, possibly with only mild symptoms and either did not realise or just ignoring the symptoms - and continuing to work because they have had to.

Do wonder why Reception and Year 1 children should be amongst those to be amongst first to return to school!!!
Most countries do not even start full time education in normal times until children are 6 or 7 years old.
What is required is to get the Year 6 children back - and these could be spread out over morning and afternoon sessions, (to keep numbers in each class low). Also need to get the higher age groups of Secondary school aged youngsters back Years 10 ( who will be due to take GCSE's in 2021),and Years 12 (due to take their A levels in 2021). The young people are perfectly old enough to understand Social distancing rules.
I would have thought the very last children to return to school would be Reception and Year 1 - probably not really necessary until September.
Do wonder who has been advising government on this, not the Unions definitely. Perhaps that wonderfule ducationalist ' Gove ' He who so totally ruined the whole of our educational system in the recent past!!!

The reason he didn’t waffle was because he was reading a prepared speech from the auto-cue. Therefore, no awkward questions. I thought it was a load of absolute nonsense.

Buffy - yes, you're right - Love him or hate him, the poor man is doing his best.

It's just not good enough for a leader though is it. His record over this demonstrates he is not really up to the job.

Hopefully everyone will make their own judgement call as to what is safe for them. Difficult circumstances, and I don't know what Boris is supposed to do for the best for us all - whatever he does or says he will get criticized. He's doing his best . I thought he did fine.

Lesley60, your grandkids and their household could be a risk to you.

Buffy, of course you can't please everyone - that's not what a PM is supposed to do.

"He's doing his best" is what you say about a child on the loosing side in his school football match, not the leader of country you are looking to for clarity and reassurance.

Goodness it was the worst speech ever; confusing info, unclear instructions, undermines the police and a bumbling load of garbage. All I’ve seen is people are more confused than ever so will just interpreted to suit themselves, where is the sense and science in that!

Rondetto - Boris has matured into a very good statesman.

I'm guessing you are being sarcastic?

Pretty much what I expected. I thought he came over well.
It's a good start to getting back to normal & at least we now know a bit of the plan. More to follow.
Mind you I would not want to be at my son's house this morning explaining to his daughter ( year 4) that her brothers (years 1 & 6) that they will be going back to school in June & she won't! She will NOT be happy. Hopefully they will get her back soon after.

Let's face facts what this speech was was an attempt to shift responsibility from government to Joe Public.

Well, we are responsible for ourselves. There have been many calls on here and in the media for us not to be treated like children. Government can't produce a huge document telling each person in each set of circs what to do. It's about time we used commonsense.

Dogs dinner. We can go out as much as we like, as long as we social distance. On this crowded island! I live in a city. I / we can sit in park 6 feet from a random other family as long as I don’t know them. I should go to work if not able to work from home but not on public transport. We have a wonderful bus service we can’t use, nowhere to park and many aren’t going to pop on a bike, especially as the cars will be back. Oh, and the leaders of the other 3 nations all think this is unsafe! They (mostly) keep the lockdown. So he was the PM of England not of the UK. As my 8 year old grandson would say “Good luck with that”. We have had this miss handled- the NHS has done brilliantly but our newly appointed cabinet, chosen for their commitment to Brexit, and our PM preoccupied with being pleased with achieving his ambition & his divorce, then shaking hands when advice not to....well, at best we know they were caught with not enough testing capacity or PPE. They had to take the course they did and pick the science that worked in those circumstances.

I thought it was good too. Lots of people have never stopped going out to work so others should go back as soon as is humanely possible. Common sense is what is required.

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.

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.