To be fair, it's not just teenagers , seen loads of old people out up here, stuffing their faces and not social distancing in pubs before the pubs closed for good. Teenagers haven't got the money to do anything else, so they do what teenagers do, we did it, they congregate and make a nuisance of themselves.

[quote="horden"]

This is exactly the problem though, places will be rammed after December with people making up for lost time.

Sadly because of this I can't see the pubs re-opening again after December 2nd , and think we will be in the highest tier lockdown from then until Christmas,
do not worry as they,ll make things normal for the Festival Of Shopping commonly known as Christmas. there will be much bigger groups around buying stuff to end up in the bin than gangs of teenagers. the whole of the restrictions seemed to be around just in hope that christmas will not be cancelled. i cancelled the bloody awful day once my lad grew up. the days of going to the in laws once a year used to bring me out in a cold sweat and missing all that was the best present i could ever receive.

I'm hearing the government is going to risk millions of lives by saying you can party for 5 days over Christmas if you accept a 25 day lockdown in January.

Where's the science in that? There will be other Christmases. The Tory government lurches like a drunk not knowing how to make his way home.

If Santa was tested positive just before Xmas Boris would then have an excuse to cancel it.
Wheres Cummings when you need him?

He can’t win on this one. Any kind of lockdown will be ignored especially by the younger people.

Yes no PM can get this right.
Politically who would want to be remembered as the PM who cancelled Christmas?

Yeah its a difficult one, at least he's raised the defence budget, those laser guns sound tasty

Yeah its a difficult one, at least he's raised the defence budget, those laser guns sound tasty [/quote]



How long before China moves in on us mr horden ?? is sleepy Joe really up to the job??

Over 500 UK deaths in the last 3 days.
How long is this so called lag go on for that the lockdown was supposed to bring the death rate down.
This R rate slowly coming down allegedly means zero when the death rates r surging towards the spring figures.
And the government r now thinking about letting the mixing of households over the Xmas period.

It will KPG, but these will be the deaths from those who caught it before the lockdown, when people werent adhering to the guidance, this is why another lockdown was needed, and this is why it would be mad I think to open the floodgates again after 2nd December, whilst I dont think people would accept a further extension , there needs to be the highest tier of lockdown from then until the New Year IMO, otherwise the whole thing just plays out again, it lowers , it rises, lowers then rises, you have to get right on top of it. I think you will see the benefits of the last 3 weeks over the next few days with deaths going down into the 400s then 300s etc. You only see the benefits 3 weeks after a lockdown , likewise if you have a week of eat out to help out you see the fallout from that 3 weeks later as well. That is why Xmas is a ticking timebomb.

also has he actually got the balls to do it anyway. always found that boris was a bloke who wants to be liked rather than one who would make uncomfortable but correct decisions. imagine some others will be rolled out to do any of his dirty work with christmas and new year restrictions that did come in. as for new year it will be doubly interesting what the scottish nationalists do about that powder keg.

Update

Looks like pubs will be open, think its a bad move generally but personally Halelujah !

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55029401

[quote="horden"]Update

Looks like pubs will be open, think its a bad move generally but personally Halelujah !

for some just opening pubs will be the thing to make em happy. think from the begining all those restrictions put on us only bother us when the affect us personally. if football was back live and we had a ritual muzzle burning then they could do whatever else they liked. it may sound a bit i,m alright jack but many others are just the same.

If we stay in tier 2
2000 fans allowed in the VIC from Dec 3rd.
Got a bad feeling we nailed on to go into tier 3 where no fans are allowed.

At least there's some light at the end of the tunnel.
UTP.

No way we'll be in Tier 2. We were days away from Tier 3 and the lockdown saved us from that. Hartlepool has one of the highest cases per 100,000 in the country, so its Tier 3 all the way for us.

According to today's Guardian Hartlepool has the second highest Covid infection rate in the entire UK (545 per 100,000) second only to Hull (652 per 100,000). Lousy timing as usual.

Ah well.
Maybe March April May.
Wembley June when the vaccine kicks in.

If we are not in Tier 3 no one will be. Seems a bit unfair though, that some clubs in the, mostly in the South will have the benefit of fans behind them, whilst others, mostly in the North won't.

What about away games? we won't be allowed to leave the area, but could exiles go and watch Pools away? or will clubs ban away fans? and if so, how would they police this?

I assume the ban on away fans that was being talked about at the beginning of the season will remain in place, but as you say there's no way they could filter out a South East Poolie with an appropriate postcode from applying for a ticket for the Woking game on 12th December, for example. Best not celebrate an away win till the final whistle though

I had to check this wasn't some kind of wind up tbh..Just who really needs to a visit a pub,football ground this side of xmas ? And up to 4000 allowed in a tier 1 ground in just over a week wtf ??.

Interesting to say the least, see there is FA Trophy on 19th , another possible away game.

I have just seen Hartlepool are second in the covid league behind Hull .
But its all about behaviour so i hope the locks on the pubs and Pools ground stay on for many months IMO

A lot of us on here are the right vintage to get the vaccine in January or February. When I've had my two jabs I'll be happy to test it out in any boozer, football ground or race track in the country

Yes agree I think it seems after your first jab its about a month after you can get on a bit normally.
Bring it on.
A pint of real ale is priority number one.

This latest lockdown has been a real grind, going to make the best of it from Dec 3rd, Northern League game every Saturday etc, just in case it all goes terribly wrong and we end up in lockdown again in January 2021. Intrigued to find out on Thursday what been in tier 3 means for us as a region.

Would imagine the majority of the country will be in tier 3 come Jan/Feb.
Mainly due to households mixing + students Xmas house party's.
Maybe the full country comes out of tier 3 in March if this vaccine goes to plan.
All trial n error at the moment.
Hopefully our ST Holders get to see the last 3 months of the season.
£320 a bit steep for livesteams.
UTP.

Away fans won't be allowed. However away fans weren't allowed in the early FA cup games, yet I know for sure a few Poolies got to Ilkeston and likewise a few Blyth fans were at marske.

It's in the Sun so I'd take it with a huge pinch of salt. But it seems an overwhelming majority of premier league grounds won't be even allowed 2000 fans. Seems a large part of lancashire and yorkshire will immediately go into tier 3. Makes you wonder why they're bothering.

The last amount at non league games was 600 and they want to jump to 4000 in some areas. Destined for a huge spike in January.

just do not get it myself. if by some miracle the whole of the north east went down to tier 1 then 4,000 at the vic is nothing like 4,000 at st.james park. is the distancing thing all gone or another back of a fag packet with a blunt pencil job again.

they will be come january with a lot more other places joining hartlepool in tier 3 that have never been in that tier before. january to march is the worst period any year for illness so i doubt this one will be any different.

but at least you know raj loves you more than he does me.

It's 4000 or 50% of the capacity, whichever is the lower. Then there is the input of the safety guys who may lower the capacity to the number of seats available because they may deem it impossible to socially distance in places like our town end.
We will have to wait for the detail before we assume Pools will be allowed anywhere near 4000.
At the moment it is purely academic due to the fact that Hartlepool is the second highest covid affected area in England, therefore nowhere near the projected tier one, which is where we need to be to qualify for the maximum possible crowds to be let into the VIC.

You have to wonder what planet the people who come up with lockdown rules are living on. These are the new rules for pubs, bars and restaurants in Tier 1:

"Venues must be table service only. They must stop taking orders at 10pm and must close by 11pm."

They're going to need some enormous tables for last orders with an hour's drinking up time

If you think about it the rule is flexible to allow for people to use their common sense.
As long as your order is in by ten and as long as you've supped your drinks by eleven there isn't a problem. It is up to the bar staff how they stagger the service. They take an order at five to ten for four pints and they have up to an hour to service that order. There is no stipulation that the order has to be delivered by ten or all at once. Those who don't want any more at ten leave, those who order just one more drink leave shortly after and so on. That way they've potentially staggered the exit time. If it doesn't work in some pubs and there is bother, they'll just shut the pub. Most landlords know their customers and together they can work out a system. They are told to stop taking orders at ten but they are not being stopped serving at ten. There is a subtle difference.
So until the authorities realise this I want you all to agree with me and don't rock the boat.

Tier 3 for us i am afraid until March.
Bad winter weather with associated colds and ordinary flu is the norm so with "twat virus" on top of it all it will send hospital admission up so it has to be tier 3 given our current infection rates in order to manage hospital capacity.

I use the term "twat virus" but has anyone got any better?

3 house bubbles aloud for 5 days ova Xmas.
Absolute impossible to police and stop some of the nation goin to at least double that
Over 600 deaths today
Back up to the 1000 mark in new year.

Postpone Christmas till Easter Monday which is 5th April?
Perfectly timed for the end of the tax year!

and thats because we have a prime minister with no balls to say that restrictions will carry on through christmas and the new year period. did not agree with statements of blood on his hands earlier this year but this really thoughtless actions by him may make my stance on him change. hated thatcher with a passion but i could not see her changing her views for 5 days of popularity no matter who advised her.

The Scots, the Welsh and the Irish have consistently taken a tougher line on Covid restrictions than Westminster but even they are in agreement that they have to be relaxed for few days over Christmas.

I also think that risking a third spike in infections and deaths just before mass vaccination becomes available is senseless, but maybe the politicians realise that a big proportion of the population will celebrate the way they've always done regardless. The police will definitely not be raiding people's homes over the holiday. The best we can hope is that the region stays in Tier 3 and the pubs remain closed for the duration. They'll all be rammed otherwise.

Been watching The Crown on Netflix, and in 1952 a similar story unfolded, when London was enveloped by a Smog, the tories dithered over that anarl. Churchill saying " its just fog, it will pass" . 4 days later it did, but nor before 5000 people had died of Sulphur dioxide poisoning

That was the beginning of the end of open coal fires so you could argue that those four days of smog galvanised the smokeless campaign and the lives that saved(prolonged) is immeasurable.
Every cloud has a silver lining as they say.
As for the Xmas period. All four governments are in general agreement on what can be relaxed so no individual leader or individual party should shoulder the blame or any credit for that matter. We should be glad that the main parties have discussed this, hammered out a common agreed policy and for once have joined forces without political point scoring. Perhaps we should all be welcoming the fact that they are all balancing together on the same wire, or at least trying to. About bloody time in my opinion.
Each and every one of them is preaching caution and common sense as well. We'll see how many of us covid experts take heed.

Thought President Sturgeon articulated it very well.

Given these vaccines are in production and stockpiles exist (AstraZeneca started early June) I would not be surprised that some key people have already been vaccinated.

Aye I would imagine The Queen and Prince Phillip would be top of the list.

Unfortunately that's what you get with a neo-liberal Labour party, agreement whether right or wrong, avoiding controversy , in pursuit of the floating voter, rather than holding the government to account.

Yes when it should be Ant & Dec

As excited about the gov announcement today as I usually am when waiting for the new seasons fixtures to come out in June.

I thought it was Laura Kuensburg's job to hold the government to account.

Laura is part of the government machinery, just no one knows it, so I'm afraid we are left with Piers Morgan to fight our corner

Isn't Starmer still busy fighting off Abbott and Corbyn ?? he doesn't seem to have done much else this year..Why don't they just clear off and f off ??