At what point do you think these restrictions will begin to wear thin with the public, to the point they think, I am not going to do it anymore?

1 week max, although I accept , it might vary from vary to area.

I can hear children playing in the street behind us, far too many of them to be one family. I reckon people will continue to comply with measures in supermarkets etc but privately but will start to unravel 

The youth where I live are normally out in the street doing wheelies and trying to look menacing during school hols. There are fook all of them about so far.

The pre child adults on the other hand seem to be acting like this is happening to other people and generally larping about in the sunshine.

The hardcore outdoor crossfit merchants have cranked it up to 11. 

I ran down a street yesterday that often has people crowding out of cafes and takeaways. When lockdown started, it was quiet. But people are creeping back out there, and none of those who are there are socially distancing. They are mostly ethnic minorities. They will be the first to go. The middle classes can tolerate this for months.

 

 

Nope

Where I live if you go outside (by which I mean out on the street in the village I live) everyone is very much adheres to the rules.  Joggers deliberately run into the middle of the road to avoid the pavement (there are few cars).  The gardens are looking totally OCD pruned; people are hiring their own chippers FGS to chip the lopped branches.  You can see various inside and outside DIY etc etc

But on Sunday I could hear various boozed up gatherings in adjacent gardens - whether they had invited non household members I have no idea.

Schools still shut and no sign of opening, I know they will not open after Easter.

However it is a place where 99%of people could work from home if they wanted (and if they do not already)

So likely to be very different in very different areas of the country.  Just my experience.

What really gets me is my sister who works in the city and has a flat with a balcony (and only public parks nearby) said someone some number of  weeks ago suggested all adjacent flats (at least double the restricted distance) sit out with their own drinks one night between 10 - 11pm and speak to their neighbours in adjacent balconies.  They all kinda know each other although they don't work together but in similar sectors.

Now I do understand how alcohol can inadvertently lead to spontaneous breach of government guidelines; but it never happened in the first place because there was such an uproar about breaking "the rules" that no one dared to do it. 

The next weekend the London park she does a weekly 5k park run in was closed.  

And this type of thing might be why people eventually start breaking the rules.

That is unless the powers that be get in first with a Paris no exercising outside whatsoever of course....

I've no idea what is meant by the reference to "ethnic minorities" but I can only guess it refers to any religion where in presence attendance for prayer at a place of worship is a total and complete non negotiable (which currently rightly or wrongly is not a characteristic of traditional UK religions unless I am mistaken).

I am only guessing here not having read the thread.

They will not wear thin - we are about to hit 1,000 deaths a day. 

outside the roferati, some of whom bizarrely appear to believe we are living through the climax of Les Mis, the majority of people know someone who has died, or a doctor or NHS worker, and completely understand why the lockdown is necessary even if it causes personal hardship. 

the government is pot committed now and will not be able to lift these for a while as we reach the peak. The pubic will agree. 

Judging by my run in the park this evening, the ship has already sailed. Very busy at 7pm, people out lying on the grass everywhere, half of them with drinks. 

I don’t know someone who’s died (thank goodness) but I have spoken to vast numbers of people who think they’ve had it and that their families have had it. 

Now whether that’s true or not the point is they believe it, and it’s going to be increasingly difficult to keep people like that indoors for more than another 3 weeks.

The government will relax the rules in the first week of May, I can feel it in my water. 

I just think there has been massive confusion in many (especially those who have just not understood the guidelines whether through having read them or watched the public broadcasts etc) between the right to exercise (i.e locally, alone or with members of family for a limited time once per day etc) and the distancing rules.

I genuinely think some people think if they are abiding by the distancing rules but not actually moving (i.e they are having a picnic but they are positioned sufficiently far apart) then that is ok.

Its ludicrous.  But on the other hand at moments I do wonder whether the Government took sufficient account of what someone who has no outdoor space whatsoever might do on a warm spring like day especially if they stay at home do not work and have care obligations - or even if they are a teenager an are used to burning up far far more energy than an energetic half an hour or one hour run per day (Gove).

I totally understand why the guidelines are there, but that does not give an answer to how many live their lives, not because they are being obtuse but because meeting their mates in the park genuinely feels innocuous to them.  Or maybe I am being naieve.

Agree the lockdown/rules arent being as strictly adhered to as a fortnight ago, compliance is gradually drifting away a bit. Easter weekend likely to continue that tendency.

Re ethnic minorities. I don’t think it is a racist observation, but if it was I wouldn’t know. It’s a combination of a few cultural factors. Religiosity, and the need to attend a religious venue (which apparently is a reason why Birmingham has been a hotspot), increased poverty and smaller floor and garden area (if at all) per person in a household, compelling them more quickly to leave the house. Plus, in some of these cultures it’s just the done thing to socialise on the street and outside cafes and takeaways. It’s their equivalent of going to the pub. There is no point going to a pub now as it will be closed, but from my observation, these takeaways are still busy and people are coming out to hang around outside them. 
 

In some of these cultures I do not think it is as black and white as “Stay home. Save the NHS.” It’s early days still but I think lockdown fatigue is going to set in. When this first started I was on heightened alert when going to the supermarket. But now I’ve really stopped caring about any risk of Coronavirus. That is going to filter into people’s behaviour quite quickly.

Obs, my local chippy is currently rammed to the gills and spilling outside of chubby non ethnic minorities in slippers and other homewear. No social distancing being observed.

I think that supports part of your theory without needing to refer to ethnics.

They have taken to having police vans trundling around in Hyde park barking at people to stop sunbathing and picnicking. It would be quite menacing if the police weren’t so sarcastic about it (“you’ll all be nice and healthy after this won’t you!”). 

I think the majority of people will continue to comply - for every rebel sunning themselves there is a curtain twitcher who’s virtue signalling over their slavish overadherence to the restrictions, and most of us are somewhere in between.
 

It would be lunacy to ban outdoor exercise. 

The holy month of Ramadan starts soon after Easter: it will be very hard, both culturally and religously, for many adherents not congregate and visit family and friends during that period.

Clergs, how do you know they were "v hard men"?  wtf do you even mean by that?  I know some hard men and no-one would know they were hard men. FFS, I loved you but that was utterly absurd.

Indeed.

People will read history a bit more sympathetically after these times pass. 
 

Of course the police are sarky. 
 

But that’s a minor aspect in the context of a pandemic that threatens the country.

Those air raid warden cheeky chappies in WW2 films. In fact, cheeky chappies generally. They’re spiv khunts. There are a few on here faod 

So much easier to laugh about it all afterwards. 

I genuinely think some people think if they are abiding by the distancing rules but not actually moving (i.e they are having a picnic but they are positioned sufficiently far apart) then that is ok.

It is ok. If they're letting the exercise freaks out for an hour to do their running/cycling thing and spreading their germs across several miles of town, they can let us lazy fookers out for an hour of sitting in the park in one place to enjoy a picnic well away from anyone else. 

 

the pandemic is not “threatening the country” faod

if government had done absolutely nothing at all, the country would just have rolled on

I am not, for the avoidance of doubt, advocating or endorsing civil disobedience, but the government is abundantly aware that the lockdown works only by consent. The limits of that consent for the most part lie outside the limits of economic feasibility tbh so it is economic reality that will bite first.

Everyone always listens to expats because they are among the most intelligent of citizens, which is why their skills are in demand internationally. HTH!