Read on Twitter
I thought I’d attempt a thread to explain what the next stage of the COVID-19 mean for our community and what the Isle of Man Constabulary will be focusing upon. I’m doing this because some people seem to be getting a bit confused and the new laws are complex.
We are still in a state of emergency and we are still facing a real health threat. As much as we’d like it, we haven’t been dropped back to the end of February. So, things are still different and they will be for a while to come.
Staying at home remains the safest thing to do. The more time you are there the safer you will be from the virus. If you are not at home, then keeping to social distancing guidelines is essential and will be for the foreseeable future.
One of the things that changed today concerns exercise. You can now exercise as many times as you like, but only alone or with someone from your own household. And you must remain socially distant.
Some forms of exercise aren’t allowed. You can’t exercise with people fro outside your home, you can’t go to a golf course and you can’t go out to sea on your boat. Why? If you got into difficulties, a lifeboat crew would be crammed together to help you.
The law about essential travel has changed. You don’t have to have an essential reason to travel. This is good for people, who want to travel to sit quietly in a nice, or who need to go shopping more than once in a day. But please, please don’t travel too much.
If you are travelling, the temporary national speed limit of 40mph still applies. It is there to protect the hospital, so that he’s aren’t taken up after high speed crashes. As much as you would want to, please don’t try to take your motorbike for a blast over the mountain.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the law on gatherings. You can’t gather in groups outside your home and you can’t have people coming to your house who don’t live with you. This is is stop the virus spreading. It is a bit tough, but we have to stick with it.
And it is the gatherings that will cause problems for some people & possibly for the police. Sitting with a bottle of wine in a park ten feet from your friends is a gathering &the police will ask you to move on. Meeting your friends &children in a playground? It’s a gathering.
Another thing that hasn’t changed apart from gatherings, speed limits and social distancing is what to do if you feel unwell. If you’ve got symptoms phone the 111 line. The isolation rules will apply to you and the people you live with.
What will the police do? We will still engage, explain and encourage you to comply with the law. If you don’t, then we may well turn to enforcement. This might mean an arrest, imprisonment or a fixed penalty fine. We hope it doesn’t come to that.
There is a difference between the law and government guidance. We will enforce the law, but we hope everyone follows the guidance. Our priorities will be gatherings, people who are infected or who may be infected so that they stay isolated.....
....policing the roads, so that no one crashes or goes too fast, and tackling criminals, especially those who are causing harm. They include domestic abusers and people who deal drugs.
We are all in this together and we’ve done brilliantly well as a community so far, so let’s hold our nerve.
Thnak for the feedback
When I was a young fella I used to pay golf. A lifeboat would have come in handy on the old, wet parts of Pulrose golf course! And the words he’s in the speeding one should have said beds.
When I was a young fella I used to pay golf. A lifeboat would have come in handy on the old, wet parts of Pulrose golf course! And the words he’s in the speeding one should have said beds.
