Hello Steven and hi to all
Im not posting too often but I was just thinking, why i cant go to summit for SOTA where is few people if any (social distance etc is easy to follow) but i can go shoping for example to superstore etc where is hundreds of people and CV guidelines are difficult to follow?..
Staying at home for days/weeks (or system work-home,home-work) can be difficult and challengable for our mental helth.
I understand all restriction put on as by Government and Covid situation but in my opinion some of restrictions simple have no sense.
Any way i wish all of You best of the best. Stay strong.
73
Lets put it another way. Which could you do without: trips to the store for essential shopping or doing a SOTA activation? The legislation is necessarily rather broad-brush because the more detailed exclusions that that they include, the more people will seek to extend the boundaries for their own purposes.
I think it would be hard to argue that the act of doing a SOTA activation as compared to going for a walk is somehow better for your mental health.
I agree, it does seem illogical. However, what is undeniable is that Lockdown 1 was effective. This was a blanket “Stay at home” with very few exceptions. Subsequent restrictions, stratified by geography and circumstance have been largely ineffective. The virus is out of control, so a return to the easily understood lockdown #1 is in order, with us all accepting the personal inconveniences and apparent inconsistencies like mature adults
This morning I went for a long walk with my wife. I didn’t visit a P150 hill or carry a radio. It was fantastically enjoyable, and reminded me of all the enjoyable walks I did in Lockdown 1.0.
We can’t do SOTA right now. But I’m sure I’m not the only one for whom SOTA has opened up the world of hiking. I for one am grateful for that, and my exercise for the next few weeks will not be SOTA, but will still be inspired by SOTA.
One reason why you cannot go to a summit are the rules:-
Its against the rules, (“you should stay within your village, town or part of city”)
Just because you or I - or anyone else does not agree with the rules doesn’t mean we can break them.
We may get some further clarification on this later on from the authorities and the definition of ‘exercise’ may change as has happened for anglers (https://anglingtrust.net/covid-19/), but still the message is ‘stay local’.
I had to laugh at this bit:-
This has also been confirmed by DEFRA: “Cabinet Office have now officially confirmed that angling / fishing (incl. sea fishing off private boats, water sports) can be considered exercise and are hence permitted.”
When I used to commute to work by mountain bike along my local canal, the same anglers I saw in the mornings were the same ones I saw still sitting on their butts when I biked home in the late afternoons. Judging by their catches [or lack thereof] I think only the fish got exercise.
The Ramblers are the only organisation with a voice represent walking in the UK. We helped campaign in the granting of Open Access to land in England and Wales in 2000. We also work with local authorities in keeping footpaths open and accessible and highlighting the landowners who try to block access. All activators in England and Wales should consider joining to show support to this registered charity, and if you enjoy walking in a group (after lockdown - all organised walking by clubs in England is now stopped), you should go out with a Ramblers group or a Ramblers affliated group. As a walking club organiser myself it has been possible for me to combine walking club activities with SOTA activating on many occasions on walking holidays in the UK and in Europe. In fact in our local Ramblers affiliated club we have three SOTA activators as members (at one time we had five!).
I’ve been finding all this somewhat confusing! Here’s what I could find.
With regards to outdoor recreation the guidance says:
Meeting other people
It is against the law to meet socially with family or friends unless they are part of your household or support bubble. You cannot leave home for recreational or leisure purposes (such as for a picnic or a social meeting).
The actual law (as far as I can tell, it keeps changing):
Under 2(d) you are permitted to:
“to visit a public outdoor place for the purposes of open air recreation”
In summary it appears to me that the guidance is advising against meeting other people for recreational purposes and that the law positively allows open air recreation in a public outdoor place where you are alone, with your bubble, or one other person.
I’ll just gently remind everyone that the laws differ in each country within the UK and apply to whatever teir you are currently in… So be careful you don’t tab everyone with the same brush.
This appears to be the latest update [06/01/2021] to the law in England …
Like the original legal text for the first lockdown, it is [unhelpfully] very brief [e.g. re exercise in Paragraph 2c] compared to the government advice. Remember back then the news headlines about how different police forces differed in their interpretation of the law, e.g. Northamptonshire police rooting through your shopping trolley for non-essential items. I considered Cadbury’s Twirl Bites to be essential but who had the definitive list?
The various SI are numbered with the year and are numbered sequentially. English ones are SI 2021/08 for example and a Scottish ones SSI 2020/54. Being a long way from Wales or N. Ireland, I’ve not come across any examples for those countries but I’d like to think they’ll be similarly numbered. Ah, no this is politician stuff so they’ll be different!
Don’t you think that it is a bit of a dead end in mindless compliance with the law. And the real problem is sidelined somewhere. So what if I comply with the law and do not follow the basic safety rules, for example when refueling a car, shopping in a store or at work. Activation can really take place in complete isolation. The law and its observance are supposed to pursue a legitimate purpose, and not serve its thoughtless application just for the sake of its application. It is a bit embarrassing to have to explain all your actions, which is a fuel for those who want to build their own “ego” by making accusations. The world and life are not binary. That is why we have so many recommendations and not hard law. In the pre-pandemic era, we were encouraged to limit the time for children to use a computer, tablet or smartphone, and now children sit 7 hours a day participating in remote education, we were encouraged to exercise because a healthy body has a healthy mind and the immune system works better . And here there are disputes whether physical activity is fun or not, and whether it is allowed or not. If there is a ban on leaving the house with exceptions (work, doctor, shopping, etc.) and among them there are no “other life needs”, “recreation” or “improvement of physical / mental condition”, then what is discussed here. This is a barren discussion.
Totaly agre
There is other side of lockdown . Let say we all follow all restrictin siting at home etc, then lockdown going to end and moust of people going out, for shoping etc (doing things they couldnt do). In the end we finish with more people on the streets then usual day. More people- biger risk of infection. Whot do you think?
It’s Brisbane, a tiny subset of Queensland and even smaller section of Australia. None of these states want what happened in Melbourne, Victoria (VK3) where one or two cases expanded into 700+ per day new cases within a few weeks and caused a 20 week lockdown.
The case they are reacting to is apparently a case of the variant that has become the source of the UK’s current outbreak.
It is however, a vast contrast to the situation in the UK. we wish you all the best and hope the measures taken are effective.
