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They love putting diversion signs, often only relevant to motorists, blocking cycle routes too.

OnYerBike wrote:

RE Durham bike thief: I tihnk the most news-worthy aspect of this story is that the police actually bothered to attend the property and check for fingerprints!

Sounds incredulous that the police did the first bit of being bothered, even before you get to the rest.

Posh bit of Durham.

Sitting on a chair outside is exercise - amazing

Does that mean knitting is allowed?

hirsute wrote:

Sitting on a chair outside is exercise - amazing

Well, that's cycling!

British Rowing have told all rowing clubs to close their doors - you can only go rowing if you have the means to do it from a private residence/car and from a public launching space. This effectively means there's no rowing going on save for a few lucky individuals, all because there is a perceived risk in accessing boats from inside boathouses, rather than the risk of single sculling (one of the most socially distant sports there is)! Luckily cycling uses the same muscle groups.

Greygeezer wrote:

Shame the default is to ask has Boris broken the local rule? The media by doing this just encourage more cycling hate rather than encouraging / welcoming responsible exercise. Surely this is as much setting a good example as is visiting hospitals.  In reality on a bike you are far less likely to cause covid contact compared to walking/ running in a busy park. Boris needs exercise as much as the next person.. the press need to look at themselves.

But it's so much easier for lazy journos to attack the PM for errant riding than for his multitude of failures over covid and Brexit.

Greygeezer wrote:

Shame the default is to ask has Boris broken the local rule? 

True enough, but the legitimate question would be: "on the back of your recent visit to the Olympic Park could you clarify the "local rule" as a number of of our readers want to ensure they are not going to get fined if they go for a 50m cycle ride"

After all he is the PM surely he would know!

I think Boris missed a trick there. If he'd have said, "It's a fair cop" and ponied up 200 notes, not only would some think him more a man of the people, but in terms of getting the message across it would have been the best £200 ever spent.

Sriracha wrote:

I think Boris missed a trick there. If he'd have said, "It's a fair cop" and ponied up 200 notes, not only would some think him more a man of the people, but in terms of getting the message across it would have been the best £200 ever spent.

Guaranteed this would have been met with Nicola Sturgeon demanding he resign, as she did with Dominic Cummings...Yet she didn't resign when she broke mask rules at a funeral wake. Hypocrite.

Boris has been hoisted upon his own petard.  His Governments insistence on putting in place "guidelines" instead of hard and fast laws is creating a mess for the police who have no clear power to enforce them, and for people because they dont know where they stand and are therefore tempted to interpret them in the best light for themselves.

Right now there are people dying because of his intransigence - screw the cycling angle.
 

The problem with hard and fast laws is that they'll inevitably come up against edge (and not so edge) cases that make a nonsense of them. The issue is not so much putting things into guidance, as the fact that the guidance is ill-thought-through and ambiguous, the government keeps trying to talk about it as 'rules', and it's not accompanied by the necessary honest national conversation about risks and reasonable behaviour. It's more of a communication problem than a codification problem.

I think its both, but it does skew more towards comms agreed.

This is the only valid thing Boris has ever done, cycling to keep fit is a positive. 7 miles from home is easily justified as being local. Apart from that he's an utterly inept buffoon and complete privileged Tory cockwomble!

Personally I find it bizarre anyone would want to buy a takeaway coffee and a cake for immediate consumption. Is it really worth the risk of queuing and potentially catching it from surfaces/your hands? If you must have something to eat/drink just take a flask and a couple of jaffa cakes. But of course the govt won't close takeaways because of the impact that would have on the economy...

What if you are an essential/key worker or you work in eg construction?

Not everyone can take with them the requirements for the day, so have to rely on takeaways to some degree.

kil0ran wrote:

If you must have something to eat/drink just take a flask and a couple of jaffa cakes.

Sounds like you're describing a picnic 😯
It's increasingly annoying that the media and police seem obsessed with the exercise clause of the guidance and have no interest in whether people are going to buy things they don't need. Seems like they don't understand the difference between need and want. They are clearly more interested in protecting the economy than people's mental health and wellbeing.

Trouble with not protecting the ecomony is that there is a balance between medium long term objectives and short term. No good if in the medium term we are all worse off overall. That will lead to reduced public services and they are already stretched for police and social care.

Not an easy equation to balance.

IanMK wrote:

Although that potentially precludes buying coffee and cake.

absolutely it should. nothing essential about stopping for coffee and cake. You can make coffee at home and even bake cakes.

If you travelling so far you cannot carry enough food and water for your excercise then you are not local.

I can't understand why coffee shops are still open, they are not selling meals to people who have to work. If we are serious about reducing interactions and the spread of the virus why plan for additional interactions

As there's people still going to work, then it's reasonable to allow coffee shops etc. to be open for business. Just think about frontline workers who might feel like they deserve a treat and want to grab a coffee and slice of cake during their break.

As I said up thread

What if you are an essential/key worker or you work in eg construction, plumbing, gas heating ? Or police, ambulance staff out and not near their base ?

Not everyone can take with them the requirements for the day, so have to rely on takeaways to some degree.

Even if you normally have a work canteen, there is no guarantee it will be open.

edit : checked the regs and the default is work place canteens have to shut unless they are are certain type eg hospital, care home, school or where there is no practical alternative for staff at that workplace

hirsute wrote:

Not everyone can take with them the requirements for the day, so have to rely on takeaways to some degree.

At the risk of seeming argumentative, who? Who, being capable of going to work, is not capable of taking a sandwich and a flask?

Sriracha wrote:

hirsute wrote:

Not everyone can take with them the requirements for the day, so have to rely on takeaways to some degree.

At the risk of seeming argumentative, who? Who, being capable of going to work, is not capable of taking a sandwich and a flask?

People who don't own a flask?

Sriracha wrote:

hirsute wrote:

Not everyone can take with them the requirements for the day, so have to rely on takeaways to some degree.

At the risk of seeming argumentative, who? Who, being capable of going to work, is not capable of taking a sandwich and a flask?

Someone working multiple shifts who's already consumed their lunch and didn't realise that they were needed to do multiple shifts?