OTT Policing.

[Kaz]

You and Shell are going to have to sop being logical.... they are watching you.

[Kaz]

Yes well it's a learning experience for everyone.

But common sense fled the room before they started and is running away as fast as it can.

So it seems

[miasmum]

You and Shell are going to have to sop being logical.... they are watching you.

It does feel very 'watched' doesn't it

[Workingman]

Hmm, I'm off to bed but let me just say this. The general emails I get from my local councillor and MP are very different in tone from the personal conversations we have. It's subtle but also noticeable, if you get my drift.

[Suff]

Conversations can be denied. emails are reviewed, sanctified and massaged... Because they can't.

I'm sure you remember, as I do, what happened when companies email systems were connected to the internet and supposedly "private" emails to a few friends hit the internet in a big way.

They certainly have not forgotten. Once sent, forever public.

[JoM]

We are lucky here in that we live next door to a small "country park". Some dog walkers and exercisers still drive to it, but it's on-road parking so no problems. There are no restrictions I'm aware of locally in our parks and recreation areas except that children's play areas have been taped up and closed, which makes sense as many families were simply congregating there despite the restrictions.

Countryside walks are a different matter. Folk from Sheffield were reportedly still driving to the Derbyshire Peaks, as they would do in normal times, and I have seen a report that a farmer in Edale was assaulted when he tried to remonstrate with hikers tramping his lane.

The police, of course, are making it up as they go along, and to some extent, given the general absence of national guidance, you can't overly blame them. A friend of mine, tomorrow, has to drive a fairly main road from his home town to the next - about 5 miles through countryside - to pick up his medicines, because that's where he's registered. I have suggested he makes sure he carries documentation proving that he's on an essential journey, because Dorset police are very good at setting up roadside checks …..

But the council trading wonks telling shops not to sell Easter eggs, so on, need squashing, hard.

We went up to Cannock Chase for a run, a few days prior to the lockdown, on a weekday when it’s usually very quiet and it was like a Bank Holiday. Apparently it was even worse over the following weekend and all car parks have been closed and the police have been patrolling to warn off people parking up and exercising or walking dogs.

We’re fortunate in that we back onto a large area of woodland and common so, if I walk Bill early in the morning, I don’t see many people but John walked him one afternoon and he said it was busy, and many of the people he saw may as well have stayed at home as they were walking around staring at their phone screens and he had to tell a few who were on narrowing paths to give him some space as they were oblivious to where they were walking.

[Workingman]

During my email spat with the council I got this: "In Leeds there are over 4,000 hectares of public parks and green spaces distributed on over hundreds of sites with over 800 km of public rights of way in the city."

It came across as a bit patronising so I fired back...

Of interest: 4,000 hectares is 40,000,000 square metres. 40 million square meters is enough for the whole population of Leeds to be there at the same and still maintain the two metre rule with space to spare, you idiots! The thing is that we are not all going at the same time so definitely no need to close local park car parks! It's not brain science or rocket surgery (misquoted on purpose to lighten things up) just simple arithmetic.