Closing pubs and restaurants had to be done to protect the businesses from collapsing.  They can now claim compensation and financial support, whereas under voluntary closure they couldn’t. 

Not really the Government HAS to take temptation away ,its the only way 

Irrespective of the current crisis, large numbers of people do socially irresponsible things all the time. They drop litter, drive aggressively, let their children run amok in public places, are aggressive to nhs staff in hospitals, avoid paying taxes wherever possible, the list is endless.

The problem is that in our libertarian society they are used to getting away with it.

The only thing that will make any difference to most people is when they see numbers of their friends and family dying. Until then then won't see the virus as "their" problem.

I don't think it is practical yet to implement a total lockdown without some detailed planning and preparation to keep essential services running and that hasn't been done. This is immensely complicated. Who is going to enforce a lockdown? As others have noted, we don't have enough police, army, militia, whatever to do this. 

I may dislike Johnson, but I couldn't care less about politics, there are no party politics right now anyway. For example, the govt has taken many correct measures for the economy. 

I don't think there is, they are misbehaving during a national crisis that will kill people. I'd go as far as saying some of these people are committing involuntary manslaughter. 

I only used Gandalf's terminology and it's semantics anyway.

Pubs and restaurants had to close in order to save lives!!!

copper next door reckons 1k fines will be issued if lockdown not obeyed

The government need to react to societal behaviour. Yes, the public should apply some common sense to the situation, most do, but the significant group that do not are too loud and too risky to ignore.

I am not blaming the government for their current actions. It should be enough. The reaction, or lack thereof, shows that it isn't enough and tougher enforcement is needed.

Another big problem is the number of idiots who seem to think it is a bit of a laugh and anyway "I had it 6 weeks ago".

It really is the only way , otherwise ………………………….

But who can he call on to enforce the rules? I haven't seen a police officer on the streets of our village for years.

What I am saying is that people need to stop looking for something or someone to blame and accept they need to do their part in keeping themselves safe.  Saying the government, police etc should protect us, just isn’t enough. People lobby for freedom of this that and anything on the planet, except it seems, freedom to take responsibility for themselves!

A friend of mine has just re-emerged onto social media having been self-isolated for 14 days on his own at home. Sounds like he's had it and is now recovering. No test, no special treatment, no record of the case at all in the official figures. Just two weeks of self-isolated misery. He didn't want anyone to know he was ill.

He was one of the most gung-ho of them all before he got it himself - tune changed a bit now though.

It all depends on whether it is the right overall approach. Nobody knows. A country which implements full lock-down has to relax it as some point.

We are in a massive experiment and only in 12 to 24 months will we be able to look back and point to the best approach. I have just been in a meeting with my Danish colleagues and they were talking about the different approach in Denmark and Sweden - DK has gone for full lock-down, whereas Sweden is more or less in the same place as the UK. Will be fascinating to see which approach proves more sustainable in the long term.

Meanwhile, this is from the Telegraph:

"According to Professor Sheila Bird, comparisons with other countries, particularly Italy, in terms of their death rates, is unwise due to variations in testing. 

The former programme leader, MRC Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge, said:

“If other countries have varied their COVID-testing regimes as much as the UK has, then I would not suggest making direct comparisons on the basis of deaths per number of COVID-19 positive cases reported.

"Rather, consider aligning countries on the basis of the evolution of their epidemic (e.g. UK two weeks behind Italy’s COVID-19 deaths) and, for each age-group, comparing COVID-19 deaths per million of population.

“The starkness of the increase in relative COVID-19 death rates by age-group that we have seen in other countries is why the UK seeks to protect those aged over 70 years from becoming exposed to COVID-19.""

We can all agree on that. Utterly bizarre that they have not decided to postpone  for at least 12 months.

This is what I was talking about this morning:

https://twitter.com/DanJDobson/status/1242001214059024384

and those workers are getting in the tube:

https://twitter.com/coyleneil/status/1242017365203787776

Now is the perfect time for construction and maintenance, particularly on critical rail and road infrastructure - ideal since work can be carried out with minimum disruption since road and rail traffic are vastly reduced now. People need to be more careful about how they get to work however.

Here is the official approach from Israel - isolate the vulnerable whilst achieving herd immunity:

Spain: New Deaths +462

New Cases: 4500

Spain is now the new Italy. I fear it will be worse

Interesting question but I have no idea. I just looked at the act and, like most legislation, it's incomprehensible to mere mortals. 

I assume you saw the same pictures I did via Twitter?

Yes. However, now is the ideal time for construction and maintenance - the employers and employees need to be aware of best practice on avoiding spread of the virus however.

I assume you know how much major construction goes on throughout London. They have to be transported around to get to their sites. This means using a tube service that has been heavily reduced. They are also not key workers.

They are therefore not able to keep the required distance furthering the spread throughout London.

Building sites must be closed with immediate effect.