Euro Crowds.

Feels like England are the lepers of Europe.

 

How many do they test a day? Seeing as we test 6m a week do they just test those who feel ill or do they go fishing for cases like they do in the UK?

 

that number of tests include all the lateral flow tests though that struggle to give a positive result so much the Americans haven’t authorised their use

 

Stuck record

 

Maybe so, when Hungary are moving on and we have people scared of their own shadows thinking they are doing people favours calling for extended restrictions putting them out of jobs to "protect them" from a virus whilst throwing them on the scrap heap of unemployment.

 

This the same Hungary who have 30k deaths from a population of 10m, compared to our 130k from a population of 65m?

 

To have such a high death rate they have clearly not managed the pandemic at all well. So why then should we assume that their decision to cram 58,000 into a football stadium is a good one? I'd rather we follow the example of countries that have managed it well, not the ones that have screwed up

 

Faith in the vaccine and learning to live with the virus is where I stand, always have done. Also when the data shows 40 deaths under the age of 20, not rushing into a decision to vaccinate children is also my stance when it clearly isn't time limited in that age range to return to normality like it is for those over the age of 70.

 

Maybe the fact that the vaccine works, that people under the age of 25 are of low risk, that people aged 25 to 50 have been of low ro moderate risk but many now have had one jab unless they have made a choice against and those age 50 and above were moderate to high risk but have now had two jabs unless they chose otherwise.

If they don't feel safe they can make their own mind up. The average age if a Covid death is 82. Texas, is fully open for business and bodies aren't piling up. We are still in full fear mode here, in Texas they have backed the vaccine and were ridiculed for their stance, now they have been back to normal and no one says a word or points to the doomsday scenarios.

Sages latest predictions have cases running higher than the midwinter peak, and it is unquestioned as being gospel in the middle of the summer. 300k cases per day in a hugely vaccinated population in the middle of summer is just fantasy.

130 guests for the G7 seemed to be just fine, all masks and social distancing for the photos thrown out of the window when business was off the agenda. Why can't the 130 people just take the free lateral flow tests anyway?

 

Whilst I agree with a lot of what you've been saying above, I'm going to have to take issue with you on the wedding numbers.
Both of my kids were due to get married in summer 2020. Plans for these weddings were obviously made long before anyone had heard of Covid. Both have had their weddings postponed twice. One had invited 130 guests and the other 160. Both had to make difficult decisions about who to leave out in order to stay within those numbers. Neither was inviting FB friends.
Split the total number of guests in half (one half each for bride & groom) and it's not difficult for each side to reach 60 or 70 guests. Obviously you invite your parents, siblings and your siblings' partners and their kids, if they have them. Plus grandparents. It's also socially normal to invite aunts, uncles and cousins to weddings (especially if you or your parents have attended theirs or their children's weddings) in addition to your immediate family. And most of those people will have partners.
If you have a large family - my daughter's chap has fourteen aunts and uncles, so that's 28 guests including all their spouses, not counting their kids (ie his cousins, some of whom are more like close friends) - it can be very difficult to know who to invite and who to leave out without offending people. My cousin (who I rarely see) had a strop when told that his daughter wasn't invited to my daughter's wedding, because my daughter had attended her wedding - they are second cousins!

Then you get into friends, from various walks of life - home, school, university etc - most of whom now have partners; some have kids. The trend these days is for couples to invite far more of their own friends than used to be the case. And parents also want to invite some of their best friends, whose kids' weddings they may have attended. That trend has gone down since the days when I had about twenty of my in-laws friends at my wedding (most of whom I'd never seen before) but it's still a thing - proud parents naturally want their best friends to share in the joy of their own kids' weddings.
And so it goes on. It can easily end up with huge numbers, very difficult choices, and you still end up offending people and leaving out some people who you'd like to invite.

You will probably say that in a pandemic couples should trim their expectations. But that's hard. A wedding is a (hopefully) once in a lifetime event. It's a very special day and, of course, there is an element of showing off about it. It's a showpiece rite of passage and people of all cultures have always made a big deal of it. And, also, the nature of weddings in this country has changed pretty drastically. In the old days it was distinctly frowned upon, if not outright taboo, for couples to live together out of wedlock. A wedding was a statement of civil and religious long term commitment and a rite of passage from leaving home to living elsewhere with your spouse. Nowadays, unless you are ultra-religious, which most aren't, nobody gives a toss about that. Most couples live together before getting married and (like both my kids) buy property together - so their long term commitment to each other isn't in doubt. In these circumstances the actual wedding ceremony (ie the committment pledging) becomes less important than the dressing up and the big piss-up party afterwards. The big 'do' actually becomes the main purpose of doing it - it's the celebration rather than the ceremony that matters. If you're already living together in a shared financial commitment, what's the point of having a damp squib wedding with a small fraction of the people you'd like to invite?

Plus, all these plans were made before the pandemic and are very difficult to change without incurring big financial penalties. You can't get cancellation insurance now, so people are simply rolling over the plans they made for last year to avoid being penalised. Available venues are like hen's teeth because of the backlog, so switching to a smaller event, even if you are reluctantly prepared to go ahead with a half-hearted event with many of your nearest and dearest absent, is extremely difficult in current circumstances. My daughter's venue re-booked her from last May to this June, but when it was postponed the second time they were told that the next Saturday available is in June 2023, so they have had to re-book for a Thursday next year - this will exclude a number of their close friends who are teachers who can't get weekday time off during term time.
The whole thing is a logistical nightmare. Even though the numbers restrictions have been lifted I feel for those going ahead immediately. Who wants a wedding do without singing or dancing?

 

TBH I couldn't disagree more. A wedding is a a joyous opportunity to gather around your family and lots of people who've been important throughout your life. Aunts and uncles often have lots of contact with their neices and nephews, especially during childhood, so they are important people - even if they don't see them often now, a wedding is an opportunity to recreate the kind of extended family gatherings they valued as kids.
It's also a rite of passage for parents of the couple who want to show off their kids to their friends, and I see absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Just because you don't see your old uni friends etc doesn't mean you are typical. I'm still in regular contact with several people I shared a student house at 79 Cecil Avenue with from 1981-84. I visit them and they me, sometimes more than once a year. Those people have known my kids since they were born - they're not strangers.
Both my kids live in London and many of their uni friends, and several from school, also live in London and they meet up regularly. It would be inconceivable for those people not to be invited to their weddings.

I don't think you have a clue about the logistics of rearranging weddings in the current circumstances. Making arrangements to hold a wedding in a socially distanced manner when you don't know whether it will even be able to go ahead is next to impossible. How many people will be allowed? Will suitable venues be available (answer - highly unlikely)? Can we get a registrar? (ditto)? Will we lose thousands of pounds if we cancel our existing venue, caterers, DJ, band, whatever (almost certainly)?
Most people have simply rolled over their last year's arrangements to this year because they were allowed to do so with minimal financial penalty. Once you start cancelling and rearranging you hit lost deposits and no end of logistical issues.

As I said, nobody really needs to get married these days. The point of the wedding is to have a big celebration ceremony and party. If you have to cut it to the bone or do it without dancing etc it becomes virtually pointless.