Covidiots! The ‘ignorant’ revellers defying Boris
SPRAYING a bottle of fizz in the street, drinking in groups outside and cavorting together in a shopping trolley, young revellers risk catching and spreading coronavirus by defying orders not to visit pubs or clubs.
Bars and nightspots remained packed throughout Friday evening as Britons sought a final fling before a government ban came into effect at closing time.
But the merrymakers – many in their 20s or early 30s – were described as ‘morons’ for flouting Government advice.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Friday that bars, pubs, cafes and restaurants must close within hours as part of the drive to slow the spread of the virus.
He urged the public to avoid the temptation to go out for a final drink, saying: ‘Listening to what I have just said, some people may be tempted to go out tonight. But please don’t.’
But his plea was ignored in many town and city centres across Britain. Young revellers were pictured hitting the dance floor at closing time at the Lord Stamford pub in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester. Some bars, including the busy O Bar in Birmingham, were open until midnight.
Several pubs in Glasgow were open, including Nico’s on Sauchiehall Street, while Cheers Bar in Greenock, Renfrewshire, ignored the shutdown and even remained open for business yesterday. Premises that opened were condemned by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in a tweet. She wrote: ‘Lives are at risk as a result. Please do the right thing now.’
Elsewhere, on Friday night, boozers staggered home in Newcastle and people queued at the door of the Orange Tree in Altrincham, Cheshire, for one last tipple.
Drinkers gathered for a final pint in the Globe pub in London’s Borough Market, O’Neill’s in Clapham, London, and The Cambrian Tap in Cardiff.
On Birmingham’s Broad Street, a group of six friends posing for a photo shouted ‘coronavirus’ instead of cheese.
Actor Stephen McGann, who plays Dr Patrick Turner in the BBC drama Call The Midwife, yesterday accused the revellers of spreading the deadly virus. He tweeted: ‘Last night, all over the country, a virus returned from the pub in the bodies of people too selfish to believe that their own self-amusement was subordinate to the health of others.
‘This morning, that virus will shed from their hungover bodies and begin to kill people.’
Rich Gill, a PE teacher, wrote on
Twitter on Friday: ‘Pubs shut tomorrow. However the pub next door to me is packed now.
‘Folk aren’t taking this seriously and aren’t following government advice. They are ignorant, selfish and unintelligent’.
Mother-of-two Lizzy Beynon, from Wales, wrote: ‘To all the people that went out last night in the pubs for one last “hurrah!” You are all absolute morons.’
TV presenter Richard Osman tweeted: ‘People still congregating in busy spaces saying “It’s the Dunkirk spirit”, need to understand that in this scenario they are actually being the Luftwaffe.’
Tim Martin, boss of pub chain J. D. Wetherspoon, was criticised after he claimed – without any evidence – that ‘there’s hardly been any transmission of the virus within pubs’.
Mr Martin, 64, had warned that a shutdown policy would be ‘over the top’ but later said his chain of 900 pubs would comply with Mr Johnson’s request.
The Prime Minister has said the ban will be reviewed each month, and restaurants, bars and cafes will still be allowed to offer takeaway services, while Ms Sturgeon hinted in another tweet that emergency legislation ‘within days’ will force, not ask, pubs to close.
‘Dunkirk spirit? They’re more like the Luftwaffe’