@SA
I stand by my assessment that this was crass policing. That they have withdrawn the fines underlines this. Unfortunately it is the kind of thing that feeds into the fascist narrative. There is a reason behind the lockdowns which is to reduce situations in which transmission may potentially occur. Within the rules they have allowed for people to meet up with one other from another household locally to exercise whilst maintaining social distancing. In Ireland they defined local as within 2 km (lockdown 1) in the UK they haven’t defined it. What’s local in say London isn’t the same thing as rurally. That is what these two women did. The coffees were immatterial to any transmission risk.
What I am saying is that policng decisions should be judged aganst what may cause a transmission risk rather than what constitutes a picnic or local. And the need to be seen to be fair minded. It doesn’t help that Bojo as prime minister of UK was seen to be cycling 7 miles presumably with a security detail (at least I hope the Prime Minister isn’t allowed to cycle London’s streets without a security detail, notwithstanding that it would be greast if he could do so without worry).
Mixed messages, one of the major problems throughout.