Quote Originally Posted by Mark G View Post
I don't know what people expect - there's no certainty and I don't think its possible for anyone to say (for example) 'Normal exercise will resume on xx date at xx time' it will all depend on what happens over the next few weeks as gradual changes take place.
What I think is clear is that we (ie all of us) perhaps need to understand and accept a particular level of risk. I don't know what level will be acceptable but at the moment we of course accept risk as part of out everyday lives. Most of it is remote - we rarely if ever think if we buy fish and chips that someone may be washed overboard from a trawler and when we fill our car up we never consider the oil rig worker who may be killed in an industrial accident. But unless you work on a trawler or an oilrig you are unlikely to be concerned - but we expect those who do to take those risks on our behalf. So maybe its not unreasonable for us to take risks on behalf of others.Other risks we accept more readily as a society even if they are still at the back of our minds - because the perceived benefits appear to outweigh the perceived level of risk - driving and smoking come to mind. We accept these personal risks more readily because we feel we have a degree of control over them - I choose not to smoke and I try to drive carefully. But I cant control the risk of a drunken driver colliding with me or that a hospital bed I need might be taken by someone with a smoking related illness. And of course driving and smoking support a massive section of the economy in taxes and transport of goods.
So I think the difference is that for the first time for many people the virus poses a direct perceivable threat to them - its not a random unknown delivery driver having a road accident miles away on their way to deliver your latest ebay purchase, its a potential threat to you personally. But we do have a degree of control - like choosing not to smoke I can choose, for now at least, not to run with my friends. But eventually I may feel that its a reasonable level of risk to do that - providing they feel the same way of course. I think we need to learn to accept and live with that if we are ever going to return to a level of so called normality and no level of Government advice is ever likely to alter that - and I am also worried that they will never admit to taking a risk as they (or others) will insist everything must be 'safe'.
I think there is a great deal of truth in your post Mark.

I think add in to that several other elements:

Has society increasingly become dependant on people to strongly guide them through most aspects of life?

If you are a furloughed worker on full pay, are you really in a rush to get back?

If you are a small business getting a £10k grant and free rates for the year, are you in a rush to get back?

If you are so extremely anti this current Government, are you inclined to act in a way that might help them?

If you are a leader of a devolved assembly, do you want to make a point of difference between you and a Govt that is politically an opponent? Are you concerned that too much alignment might reflect badly and affect future elections? (see LibDems in coalition)

Many factors are at play, but I think you have nailed quite a few.