In the morning, this leaflet arrived.
The council sent one to every address in the Rochdale borough, as numbers have spiked in the area, hoping to avert another lockdown being enforced upon us.
Overleaf were the simple bullet points:
You must wear a face covering
when in a shop or other
public place
Do not have more than two visitors
to your home at any one time
Always keep 2 metres apart
Avoid close contact with anyone
outside your household, including
shaking hands or hugging
Get tested and isolate if you
Are told to do so
Help stop the spread
of coronavris
Before we had hardly had a chance to digest this, and think about our concerted effort to avoid another dreaded lockdown, Matt Hancock announced that the whole of Greater Manchester and parts of both East Lancashire and West Yorkshire were being out under special restrictions: people of different households were to be banned from meeting indoors from midnight. Oh, and in gardens too-though beer gardens are okay.
Nine out of ten boroughs in Greater Manchester have shown a rise in infections, and, though Rochdale is the only borough with a declining number, we have been lumped in with the others too.
Here is a map of Greater Manchester, with my town of Middleton surrounded by its equally condemned neighbours.
People are getting a bit fed up with it all now, and the criticism is that this news was announced on Twitter at 9.00pm, with the details revealed at midnight. The government had said that, when they ceased their daily press conferences, they would hold them for significant announcements, such as local lockdowns. It has been suggested that this short notice was with the Muslim festival of Eid in mind, which started the very next day.
There are some towns that haven’t got a single case of Covid, but have been included as being part of Lancashire.
For those not of the UK, or at least the north, I know it’s a confusing melting pot of counties and boroughs and townships. I think rather than a blanket of restrictions thrown over the whole area, a more localised town-by-town approach would be better.
But when was I ever an advisor from SAGE?
Anyway, I’m off now. I can’t call around to my mate’s house, but I can meet him in the pub for a beer.
Crazy.
How long now to that Holy vaccine Grail?
City Jackdaw 
I share your misery- and confusion, being in Kirklees and a new local lockdown area. No meeting in the garden, not even at 2m apart, but the pub is ok? Go to work if you can but its best to stay home and not go anywhere except out shopping?? Wear a mask except if you’re down the pub??? Gyms are opening, hairdressers are open but your temperature needs checking, so you’ve had it if you’ve clogged it down there to be on time for your appointment in this summer heat. Go out to boost the economy, but stay in???? Whaaat?
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Clear as mud, as we say!
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There are some very strange anomalies!
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I think the Government confuses even itself.
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That is not difficult!
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So, the virus is spreading more after midnight? And only in private gardens, but not in beer gardens?
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It’s a very clever virus, it can tell if you are sat with someone from your support bubble in the garden or someone from another home in the pub. It can also determine if you are in a shop or a restaurant.
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The original argument was that the whole area was a single unit because everyone’s in and out of different boroughs all the time. I kind of understood that, and I was bothered that closing pubs in Bolton would send rates sky-rocketing everywhere else, as people nipped over to Radcliffe, Swinton, Hindley, Chorley etc for a drink – but, touch wood, it hasn’t happened so far. So I think the single unit argument, whilst it made some sense, has been blown out of the water.
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And since you’ve commented it’s looking like the whole of England is slipping into a single unit again.
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It might be easier. At the moment, you can go from a few miles from one set of restrictions in St Helens to no restrictions in Wigan to very strict restrictions in Bolton to a different set of restrictions in Salford … so that’s 4 sets of rules in the space of under 20 miles! No wonder people are confused!
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I made a complete mess of typing that and have no idea why I put “from a few miles” in the first line, but you know what I mean 🙂 ! Brain not in gear at this time on a Saturday morning!
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Yeah I get you 😂
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