Is the UK lockdown working and when will it end? - BBC Newsnight

It's been almost two weeks since the lockdown started, but there are fears that the discipline seen in the opening days of this crisis may not hold for the duration.

Use of transport has risen slightly in the capital and there were busy scenes in some parts of the country.

The prime minister, still in self-isolation due to coronavirus symptoms, pleaded with the nation not to go out this weekend as forecasts anticipated warmer weather in some parts of the UK.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the nation at the daily briefing that staying at home was ‘not a request, it is an instruction”

How long will the lockdown last, and can the public continue to observe social distancing?

Lewis Goodall reports and Mark Urban is joined by Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne, Department for Communities Permanent Secretary 2010-15 Sir Bob Kerslake and University of Cambridge Statistician Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter

#Coronavirus #Covid19 #Corona

Newsnight is the BBC's flagship news and current affairs TV programme - with analysis, debate, exclusives, and robust interviews.

[kerrybayton]

Somebody please explain why some people are being kept as virtual prisoners at home whilst planes continue to land at airports from around the world and the passengers from these planes go untested. Where is the logic in that..

[김진일-fb]

"Stay at home" should be replaced by "Go outside with masks on or you will go to jail" before we all die not from the virus, but from starvation with no income.

[lessmodelsanddioramas]

I am getting sick of hearing the words "stay at home" being told by government ministers, who we see doing interviews outside.
and all the photographers ect

[mauricetaylor]

You know things are bad when even Darth Vader is working from home.

[KeithSalisbury]

Oh look, Google has been tracking the population!! No surprise there...

[VegasMilgauss]

The hypocrisy and irony really is amazing, you protect the NHS by working and paying Tax. Dear, dear.

[suedenim]

If they want us to stay at home stop telling people fifty times a day how lovely the weather is going to be on the weekend!

[sockdip]

Woops, Matt Hancocks MK Ultra is showing...

[jerryjones]

This entire 'lockdown' is getting really creepy now.

[noctislucis]

HandCock messed up. "Stay at home. Protect lives." blinks vacantly. (Stay at home. Protect the NHS, and save lives) that was it.

[HShango]

i can't see it going well, it will end with a depression unfortunately.

[davidbarker]

I work in a call center. My life continues. I get public transport to work and back. Like many other I know. This isn't a lockdown. I cant stay home because my employer told me I need to return. Any days I have off past 7 days I dont get paid for and class as normal sickness which goes on my record.

[niknoks]

Police understand their communities? What friggin planet are you on lady? 🤣

[littlebrayutd]

When summer hits
This will all fall apart
Watch

[crossy]

They keep telling us to do our part over and over, but when are they going to do there part

[sagittariusa]

6 month of this 😂😂😂 people will be rioting 😂😂😂

[brownsuga]

Hmmm...I remember watching a video about Italys situation in lockdown. One of the women said that she could only hear the sirens of ambulances. I dont see any ambulances rushing around here in the UK 🤔

[ajjajk]

It just feels like doing time inside, without committing any crime.

[iAmTheSquidThing]

I've been supportive of the social distancing and lockdown measures so far. But it's starting to become nonsensical and draconian. It's apparently too dangerous to go and sit alone in the park. But it's okay to go to work?!

[auntviolet]

I’d like to know how driving somewhere for a walk and keeping away from others when you get there is going to spread the virus, unlike folk who arrive from hotspots by plane and hop on the tube? Lack of consistency here. Mitigating damage to the economy matters, why close garden centres? Let’s have less fascism and more common sense please.