please empty your brain below
There are various levels of rules, such as ones that we make for ourselves, ones that are matters of common sense or morality, or ones that that are legal requirements.

On the legal requirements, the coronavirus regulations have always permitted exercise, and have never limited anyone to only one episode of exercise each day.

Regulation 6 contains the movement restriction, and since 1pm on 26 March, it has always permitted a person to leave their home, with no limit on the number of times per day or distance, as long as there is a “reasonable excuse”. Regulation 6(2) states that such reasonable excuses *include* obtaining basic necessities, and exercise (originally alone or with your household, now also with one person from another household).

Items that are not listed may also be “reasonable”. Now, there is nothing specific about travelling 250 miles to seek childcare support from elderly relatives, but is that “reasonable”? I think not.

Andrew | 23.05.20 - 9:18 a.m. | #

It IS much harder to avoid people in the evening, but walking at dusk I've seen swifts entering roof spaces, and bats hunting. In a conversation across a road I learnt a lot about swifts, apparently they're quite uncommon, and never land except to nest; flying continuously for ten months.

mikeS | 23.05.20 - 9:20 a.m. | #

DG rightly says the rules are ill-defined. in fact, none of DG's rules is the law. This is not DG's fault, and his personal rules have almost certainly saved lives already.

Almost no-one understands the Coronavirus Act, almost certainly because briefings and websites offer vague, contradictory and fluid "guidance".

Section 6.1 of the Act says you may not leave the house without reasonable excuse.

Section 6.2 offers 12 examples of a reasonable excuse, but crucially does not exclude any other reason.

There is nothing anywhere in law about how many times a day you can leave home, or how far you can go, by what means of transport or even - ridiculously - how close you can get to other people, including friends or family. After you have left home, you don't even need that reasonable excuse any more, so long as you had any sort of reasonable excuse at the moment you left.

This is why so many people seem to be ignoring lockdown with impunity: police have guidelines to follow, but they can't actually enforce anything unless the perpetrator is unfortunate enough to admit they didn't have any reasonable excuse when they left home.

This might be one of the main reasons why the UK has more coronavirus deaths than almost anywhere in the world. Well, that and the PPE, which doesn't make us look great either.

A. Pedant writes | 23.05.20 - 9:25 a.m. | #

I've broken most of those in that I am lucky enough to be qualified as an "essential worker" so I could also combine my daily exercise with cycling to work. You're wise to aim for mornings as the Olympic Park does get busy in the afternoon and evening with distancing being a problem despite most trying to adhere. Not having a bike yourself, have you considered renting a "Boris bike" if only to extend your lockdown horizons?

Tim | 23.05.20 - 9:27 a.m. | #

Given how uncoordinated a cyclist I am, I'm much safer on foot.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 23.05.20 - 9:33 a.m. | #

Your self-imposed rules are eminently sensible DG. Had everyone followed those rules the death toll would have certainly be lower.

The guidelines have been unclear from the word go and should have been more definitive. They have been further obfuscated by by the government telling us to use 'common sense' leading to even more ambiguity.

DG's and my idea of common sense is very different to those who's idea of common sense is to flock to the beach when there are probably no toilet facilities available, and a certain individual who went around shaking hands with all and sundry when he knew this virus was floating around.

Richard | 23.05.20 - 10:29 a.m. | #

A Pedant: the government belatedly realised the loophole mentioned above in Section 6(1), and amended it on 22 April - since 11am on that day the words in square brackets are included: "During the emergency period, no person may leave [or be outside of] the place where they are living without reasonable excuse."

Ewan | 23.05.20 - 10:46 a.m. | #

I admire you DG, you're eminently sensible and well organised.

Caz | 23.05.20 - 11:29 a.m. | #

The "no meeting friends or family" is not just a problem for extraverts. It is also very difficult for grandparents, and for children who happen to be emotionally and physically close to one or more relatives who do not live with them.

I admire DG and many others who have gone beyond what the rules dictate. It's the diametric opposite of loophole-finding, and it could do with a catchy name. Supercompliance?

Malcolm | 23.05.20 - 12:06 p.m. | #

I can barely believe what I'm reading here.

Roughly 1 in 400 people in the UK(less in London) are currently infected with Covid19, excluding hospitals and care homes, and a lot of those are probably at home in bed.

Contact tracing guidelines involve tracing people who were in prolonged close contact with an infected person, not people they walked past on the street.
The idea that you will drop dead if you go within 1.99m of someone infected for a fraction of second, or that every second you spend outside you home, even if it involves walking alone in a forest, equates to more deaths seems to have been drilled into the British, but I don't see the same level of terror in other countries that contained their outbreak with much lower casualties.

Not meeting up with friends for a drink or using crowded public transport makes sense since it reduces close personal contact, but nobody is "saving lives" by walking alone only 5 days out of 7 or staying in an abritrary box while doing it.

Jonathan P | 23.05.20 - 1:41 p.m. | #

Ewan - and by correcting that drafting error, they introduced another, making it potentially illegal to be at work (because the 'reasonable excuse' was *travelling to* work).

My greatest source of anxiety being the prospect of being subject to the capricious enforcement of badly drafted legislation, I haven't left home since April 1st, and fully hope not to have to until I can do so unconditionally.

Sarah | 23.05.20 - 1:56 p.m. | #

can you only pass it on/be infected by the virus in the afternoon then?

sarcasm? ... yes

but also genuinely wondering why you chose the self imposed midday cut off time.

jeremy | 23.05.20 - 2:56 p.m. | #

It's a pity Dominic Cummings couldn't keep to his governments rules

Tones | 23.05.20 - 2:58 p.m. | #

I'm fortunate in that my job stayed open... not "key" as such but working nights on deliveries into and out of a certain High Street Catalogue operation...

Also fortunate in that I live within 10 minutes' walk of the city centre and just 15 minutes from work. On many occasions I've taken advantage of the sanctioned shopping trips *and* those for exercise.

However (and this really grates!) I've been castigated on several occasions for stopping to take photos, even though doing it *on my way home* ("Oi! You're supposed to go *straigt home*... not take photographs!") Others have claimed (of course with *no evidence*) that I wasn't really shopping at all, despite the Sainsbury's bag.

Busybodies such as those annoy me immensely but I wondered, DG, if you've encountered similar reactions?

dg writes: None whatsoever, thankfully.

MarkMyWords | 23.05.20 - 4:05 p.m. | #

"Without stopping to sit down."

I wouldn't be able to walk very far without rests, so little exercise for me.

Luckily, I'm in Norway.

Dubidub | 23.05.20 - 4:16 p.m. | #

I don't consider my life to have been saved/improved etc by following arbitrary rules on where we're physically allowed to go. An unexpected call from my GP at the start of this stupid process was just the first of several events that I guess have rapidly advanced my position in the queue to see Dr D'Eath and has nothing to do with COVID-19. I know I am not alone in being in this position. No clapping for the NHS from me, I can tell you.

B | 23.05.20 - 4:37 p.m. | #

I have enjoyed my late evening walks into central London when there has been very few people about but plenty of foxes. Sadly it was an eye opener to see how many homeless people are still sleeping rough given the supposed measures to bring everyone in doors.

Reynard | 23.05.20 - 6:27 p.m. | #

I've not set time or distance rules in terms of my daily exercise, some days I'll walk longer, other days I'll have a token stroll and come home. It averages out at the recommended level.

Mikey C | 23.05.20 - 6:38 p.m. | #

The precautions and even the regulations (albeit appallingly drafted) may well be reasonable, sensible and proportionate. The alacrity with which they are 'enforced' by people with no official standing, high on their own self-righteousness, on the other hand, is downright terrifying.

Sarah | Homepage | 23.05.20 - 7:34 p.m. | #

Wow I had no idea how strict the UK lockdown is. In Germany it's mostly back to normal on the streets, except that all indoor places have compulsory mask wearing. I went on a train again a few days ago because my bike got a flat 40km from home, breaking my "no-public-transit-streak" of 63 days. Even domestic travel is allowed (not sure about hotel stays though)

Mo | 23.05.20 - 8:00 p.m. | #

A couple of comments refer to "UK rules. There are no "UK rules". There are separate rules in each of the four constituent parts of the UK. They're broadly similar but not identical. Example, in England you can now travel as far as you like (within England) for exercise or relaxation. Not allowed in rest of UK.

Though apparently, based on comments from most of the cabinet yesterday, you don't have to abide by any of the rules if you don't feel like it - Cummings behaviour has left me seething

IslandDweller | 24.05.20 - 9:20 a.m. | #

I've now broken all but one of the ten rules.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 24.05.20 - 11:18 a.m. | #

"how strict the UK lockdown is". It hasn't been a 'lockdown' at all : if this is lockdown then there are lots of duplicate keys floating around... If there *had* been a strict lockdown (and adequate testing and...) then we would also be like Germany now instead of being no. 1 in the European COVID deaths chart. The UK response to Coronavirus has been a disgrace.

Paul | 25.05.20 - 10:56 a.m. | #











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