https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coro ... -597mf5t0d
Crates of beer, bucket hats and Bluetooth speakers are filling Britain’s green spaces as many young people declare that their lockdown is over.
Students say they have been starved of sex and parties for more than two months but that their social lives resumed this week. Restrictions have been eased but gatherings are still forbidden and police have stressed that they will continue to break up large groups in public places.
However, the sunshine is drawing out “throngs� of the nation’s youth who are flocking to parks across the country to have picnics, play football and meet friends they haven’t seen for weeks.
Groups met in Hyde Park in London on Wednesday to enjoy “ice-cream and beer on tap at the kiosks�, one walker said. “This is cheap bottles of wine and tinnies weather.�
Parks were also packed with picnics in other cities including Manchester, Birmingham and Leicester.
A group of 100 teenagers gathered on Mothecombe beach, in Plymouth, on Wednesday before police attended and used a dispersal order to clear the area. One witness said they were “all drinking and having BBQs together — it was clearly a mass gathering that was prearranged.�
Yesterday in Bushy Park, near Hampton Court Palace in southwest London, a pile of beer cans was growing next to a dozen students sat on picnic blankets and listening to music.
Michael Lucas, 19, a commercial photography student, was among the group. He said that coming home from university and being locked away from friends had been boring. Clutching a can of lager, he told The Times: “It’s been like ten weeks that we’ve been in lockdown. It was bound to happen soon.
“Being in quarantine is not good for my mental health because I can’t have sex. We haven’t been able to meet anyone. In lockdown we’ve been working on our flirting skills online because all we have time for is flirting.�
Sat beside him was Chloe Rowland, 18, who is starting her studies as an English student in September. She said: “Quarantine has got easier — rather than staying in the house for ten weeks we’re all sat together. But I don’t think it’s going to last long because just look at us — there will be a second peak.
“Young people are getting a bit risqué,� she said as a friend chipped in to admit the group had “the odd look� of disapproval from passers-by.
At 8pm the music and chatter was interrupted by the sounds of clapping, fireworks and pots being struck as households stood on their doorsteps to show their support for the NHS.
The row over Dominic Cummings breaking lockdown rules had given many youngsters a license to socialise again, Ms Rowland said.
“As young people, we have been told, ‘you can’t do this, you can’t do that,’ about stuff we want to do, and we’ve been obeying for the last ten weeks even though we’re at the best years of our life. We should be going clubbing, making friends, or meeting the people at uni that we’re potentially going to settle down with for the rest of their life.
“But then the main adviser to the prime minister is going out and doing whatever he wants. So it’s like, why can’t I go outside and see people?�
Georgia Cook, 18, said: “I don’t really feel at risk. You kind of forget about it. No one is really wearing masks or gloves. It’s like everyone has taken a step back so you don’t really see it.�
The restrictions have not stopped young lovers enjoying the sunshine either. Many couples separated by the lockdown enjoyed their first dates in the relative freedom this week.
Aston Whiteling, 25, who works in product marketing, went on a romantic park trip with his girlfriend, Isabel Ashbaugh, 25, yesterday — their first date in more than ten weeks. The pair, who have been isolating separately in Putney since March, drank bottles of Corona beer on a nearby green to mark the occasion. Choosing to socialise again felt “like a breath of fresh air�, they said.
“There’s a real feeling of being able to pick up where we left off with each other — we’ve been sitting in the park with a few drinks and enjoying the sun,� Mr Whiteling said.
“Obviously things haven’t returned to normal completely but I think everyone is taking a sensible approach when it comes to meeting up.
“I’ve been cycling to see my mates who live a bit further out to have a few beers and laugh.�
“I think the improved awareness of hygiene in general — washing hands, maintaining distance — makes us feel safer because it’s become second nature.�
My bold. This is a real consequence of the Cummings affair. Anybody who was previously pretending to give a shit certainly has no intention of doing so any more. If Cummings is allowed to flout the rules, so can anybody else who fancies it. What are the police supposed to do in response? If they clamp down on it, they'll be wide open to accusations of political bias.
Boris Johnson is up shit creek without a paddle.
