//…do you know the law that might come into effect this Thursday NJ?//
Corby has provided a link, emmie. The only reason I can see that a separate specific law is needed to prevent people leaving the country is for when the restrictions are eased. It is currently illegal to travel anywhere without a “reasonable excuse”. Travelling to an airport unless your flight also involves a “reasonable excuse” is therefore illegal. When we no longer need a reasonable excuse to leave home we would be able to travel abroad were it not for these restrictions. I notice as an aside that the latest legislation includes “Step Instructions” which determine the relaxation of restrictions step by step as outlined by the PM. It is interesting that that legislation mentions “step areas”. Although at present the “step areas” include the whole of England, there is obviously provision for imposing different step measures in different areas (i.e. the entire country may not necessarily be under the same “step”).
On here we have people saying “I cannot imagine why people want to do this/that/the other.” Well I can. People want to resume their lives. Infections are low (the lowest they’ve been for six months); hospital admissions are low (ditto); deaths are low (the lowest for five and a half months). As more people are vaccinated (currently running at 600,000 a day) the numbers contracting the virus will reduce; because the vulnerable have been prioritised for vaccination those who do contract it are far less likely to become seriously ill.
Quite frankly the whole situation is becoming increasingly ludicrous. A few weeks ago the PM presented his “road map” (aka “plan”) for easing the most severe restrictions to which this country’s population has been subject at almost any time in the past (and I include in that, wartime). Such restrictions should only be imposed on people in the most extreme circumstances. They should only prevail for so long as is necessary and not a moment longer. So what “extreme circumstances” does the country now face which means its citizens are prevented from travelling abroad without a “reasonable excuse”? Come to that, what are the circumstances that prevail that means its citizens cannot meet up in a group of, say, half a dozen, to have a chat and a coffee on a park bench? Is it now that we are being cautious “just in case”? If so, in case of what? And when will that caution reduce to a level where people can meet in the park for a coffee?