I would go with more patrols. Just much harsher punishment for those stupid enough to get court. On my recent trips out round London it's clear that there's large groups gathering that aren't from one household. I've go some sympathy for people living in flats, but it's the blatant flouting of the rules that need harsher punishment. The groups that are doing it simply won't pay fines as they don't have the money. Just start locking people up for two weeks.

I'm not sure transgender people are that much of a burden on the NHS, being pedantic, its transexual operations and there's a gulf between the two. But thats a conversation for another topic. Obesity and poor lifestyle illnesses are a far bigger problem.

Personally, I thing everyone in the highest tax bracket should have to pay for doctors time and medecian. Freeing the government to only pay for hospitals and equipment, then reduce income tax for everyone but charge more for unhealthy products. Let people have the choice to how they live their lives, but make them pay for their own healthcare.

Doesn't interest me in the slightest

It's like the idea of going on a beach holiday, in the same place, for longer than 2 weeks. Sounds good in theory, but when you do it it rapidly becomes boring, fast.

When you add the fact you're most likely living in a gated concrete community with a load of other Ingerlanders in a classic brits abroad location, it sounds like utter hell.

So yeah, I prefer 365 days of this with the ability to pick and choose where I travel to (when allowed again, of course) throughout the year rather than feeling like I have to go back to the same place over and over and over again because I've invested all my life savings into it.

Variety and new experiences are way more interesting to me than commuting to little england in the sun thrice a year.

Did you know? 98.0000001% of people are morons.

I get what you mean. Ideally you can do all of that. Realistically at the moment it’s Addiscombe indoors everyday apart from a walk or the supermarket, or sunny everyday Tenerife.

COYP

Hey, I’m no ex pat mate, I just go where the sun is shining and the pubs are open. Hope you are enjoying yourself, I’ll be back when the lockdown starts easing.

I think I’m the less stressed out of the two of us. My comment was tongue in cheek, yours a bit like someone who has nothing better to do than to sit on a computer patronising people all day.

Yes worldwide and as a mean average with 2.5 million dead that is roughly 8 years for everyone registered as died so far from C19. 8 years earlier than necessary. Even if you assume some were 1 or 2 years away many lost a lot more than 8 that being the case. Long covid will be the next issue with as many as 1 in 10 suffering for 3 months or more. Over 100 million cases so far that's an awful lot of sickness.

'The expectancy'

The MEDIA expectancy, perhaps. And therefore by extension those members of the public that don't do a lot of reading other than the daily mail...

The government have always been caught between giving arbitrary dates and being ambiguous as they do not have a crystal ball. But the backbenchers and media seem to require entirely theoretical end dates that they then treat as gospel irrespective of the state of the data.

If you're impressionable and naive, sure, I can see how this comes as a surprise that this all hadn't 'blown over' by Christmas.

Of course the news from the the government is always followed by a BUT. After being too eager to overpromise they've finally realised that they have to react to the data and listen more to the caution from the people they hired to advise them on this whole thing. I really don't see any scenario where announcements aren't caveated as this can pivot in a matter of an hour due to a new mutation, localised infection or any number of unforeseen circumstances.

The fallout from all this on peoples livelihoods and mental states is nothing other than lamentable, but I often feel some people argue from a point of 'this could all have been prevented'. Which is clearly nonsense. As for the scale of it, they have more of a point there.

Some people I know thought this would be done by summer and that mask wearing was an extravagance. I, for one, did not. Needless to say they've changed their mind now.

As I've said many times before, I believe there will be further flare ups this winter, but hopefully they can be contained through localised measures rather than national ones. Next spring summer should be something approaching normality, but until vaccinations in other corners of the world catch up this pattern of winter/summer and flexing restrictions such as household mixing and gathering limits, social distancing etc. will continue for some time yet. At a minimum until the end of winter next year.

Realism is what's needed, not over optimism or naive fantasy. And yeah, that's not very helpful to most people but that's better than having no vaccine and no route out of this – there is cause for optimism but just because it's more gradual doesn't mean it's not positive.

Did you know? 98.0000001% of people are morons.