Great Western Coffee Shop

From the Independent (https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/coronavirus-latest-visit-cornwall-tells-tourists-stay-away-a9415471.html)

Devon remains open to visitors, as does Blackpool:



Scotland is open and expecting a downturn


Cornwall, however, wants visitors to stay away


And the Welsh don't even want ... well, I'll let you read it:


Wiltshire passes the decision to the traveller - not in the article but from the VisitWiltshire website (https://www.visitwiltshire.co.uk/information/important-information-on-covid-19) and that is the same advise as the Great West Way - hardly a surprise as VisitWiltshire heads that operation.

Not an imaginary concern, given the extent to which it's happened from northern Italy to the south. In Brittany some islands have been declared closed to outsiders (including those with holiday homes) by the local prefect. No doubt we'll see more of this - both fleeing and trying to stop it - after all, it happened in mediaeval plagues.

Driving in the car this afternoon, I half-heard a FGW commercial with the Famous Five theme, encouraging people to use the train to visit Cardiff and tourist attractions in London. (Obviously the slot had been booked a while ago.)

I shall be very controversial - Devon does not object to 'Day visitors', but we don't want hordes of visitors flocking to campsites and second homes to self-isolate. Devon's hospitals need to be kept for Devon residents. What happens if half-way through a week's break in a hotel/caravan, a visitor goes down with the virus and needs to self-isolate beyond the end-date of their stay?

I am not sure that these places should remain open for business. 

A country walk not far from home is one thing but mass tourism to resorts is quite another.  Perhaps the absence of pubs, restaurants etc. will put a stop to it.

Update - National Trust on twitter  (https://twitter.com/nationaltrust/status/1241461966184513537)says it is now closing its parks and gardens as well and encourage us to stay local. 

Melksham, this Saturday night

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/mkmasnever.jpg)

I don't imagine Melksham is any busier than my local town of Ringwood on a Saturday night, and Ringwood looks like that usually!

I'm amazed that I am still seeing programmes on ITV & ITV3 sponsored by Cruise ships companies. You'd think that the channels would try to get the sponsorship deferred to another time.

It's usually much busier ...  Melksham hasd a nightlife with the Market Place being a key point.  Even in Winter taxis and people milling from The Tavern and The King's Arms and a bustling set of takeaways across down King's Street.  Road traffic too. I would agree that without a "before" picture either here or in your mind (i.e - if you don't know it), hard to appreciate the scale of change; I've posted the picture locally on Facebook and it's causes a stir.

f.y.i. - Lisa, Billy and I are "hunkered down" at home;  exercise walks at quiet times and nearby, fresh food shopping as we have only a limited horde, and the occasional takeaway which was last night's mission.

I expect all the action and night life is in Sainsbury or Tesco. Saturday morning I saw the first person wearing a mask in Sainsbury Paignton. By the evening they had introduced yellow lines to keep people two metres apart at the checkout.

Last evening, whilst waiting to pick up my daughter from her job at a local supermarket, I watched a group of about a dozen young people, complete with cans, gathered in a launderette.   >:(

Ouch.

I really hope that view is confined to a minority and not the way attitudes are going to develop as it has some really unpleasant historical connotations-and  I speak as a Plymothian/Devonian but also a Briton.

I sincerely hope that if I was unfortunate enough to be taken Ill anywhere in the country I'd be taken care of irrespective of where I live, and I'd hope that applies to all universally.

OK I didn't put that very well - what I meant was that hospitals will be overwhelmed by just the local population - wherever that may be - we don't want to be inundated with visitors - particularly when the official advice is DO NOT TRAVEL UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.

Gentlemen - Thank you for sorting that (I think you have) between you.  We are in for interesting times and difficult decisions.  Wide ranging views, oft passionately held, on key lifechanging matters could lead to much more tension between members than is the Coffee Shop norm - I'm personally familiar with that from another forum I helped moderate before this one, and we have others here too who have backgrounds who can help with that.

I think the important thing for people to remember is that the capacity and capability of hospitals in London, Birmingham etc is far greater than in the more outlying/tourist areas of the country.

I'm sure we are all aware of that, but let's also remember what the "N" in NHS stands for?

The population of Cornwall (by way of an example) in the winter is around 250,000 and in the peak of summer it is around 7 million!  I am guessing that its medical facilities are geared rather more to the winter population than the summer population. If there is a massive increase in population with the virus, then it would be impossible to cope.  Our big cities have medical facilities geared to the normal populations they would have more of a chance of being able to cope.

Also take Italy where the a large number of people from the North fled to the south just before the lockdown in the North.  Many of the cases in the south now are linked to that population movement. 

The message is and should be clear - stay at home!  A recreational walk near your home is fine.  Moving to the other side of the country is not!

Spot on - but it's important that this message is communicated in the appropriate way - the last thing we need just now is to start sowing division.

Firstly, there's been a backlash from tourist areas about people moving there thinking they'll be safer. This extends to those opting to use their "second homes" - not a popular group at the best of times.

Yesterday I posted on another forum an account of a 9.5 hour walk I'd just done in open countryside. I mentioned that I'd sought permission from one pair of parents to overtake them and their children, briefly chatted at a distance with a couple of other walkers and had a close encounter with another who warned me that the road ahead was flooded. (I confess to twitching when he got nearer to me than was necessary.)

This brought a civil rebuke from another poster and an implicit comment from another that I wasn't taking the situation seriously.

Yet I saw family groups clustered together, people chatting to each less than the recommended six feet apart, couples walking closely.

I think that I'm taking the situation more seriously than most, but am not being absolutist. I'm still having to shop for myself, and confess to having in my kitchen 48 hours' more essential items (not that all were available) than usual.

Now I'm off to see if I can book an on-line groceries delivery for May. (My next is scheduled for April 21.) The website wasn't responding at three o'clock in the morning the other day. And I gather that so many people are working from home that Internet speeds are stuttering.

Yesterday afternoon the Waitrose website was reporting online delivery slots unavailable!

I know. I tried it around 0330 one morning, with no luck. I'm afraid that next week a lot of vulnerable people will not be staying at home but venturing out to replenish - and not keeping six feet apart.

Shh! Yesterday morning I ventured into a convenience store two stone-throws away from a certain station and found the shelves reasonably well-filled - there was even milk - with just two other customers. And the doors were automatic.

Easter looks like being a complete washout, whatever the weather.

The next problem will be people questioning, perhaps forcefully, other people's interpretation and implementation of the guidelines/advice/instructions.

One gets the impression that local stores have not been predated like the supermarkets. So it is worth exploring. Some our local shops are offering free delivery over £20 for regular customers

I had an email from "Visit Dorset" today with a message from the County Council asking people to stay away and criticising the large numbers of people who visited the beaches and promenades over the weekend