The Lemon Fool

[rant mode activated]
Returned from Portugal last Wednesday, so under quarantine until 26th. Day 2 test negative, receive call every day to check I am still home. Now get a text/email telling me that I have been in contact with someone positive for covid and need to register and self isolate until the 26th and take an NHS covid test.
Obviously the 2 systems do not connect. I assume from the dates that someone in the plane tested positive (not left the house since Wednesday so little chance have actually contacted anyone since)? As I have time on my hands have fedback to them that their "software" has a disconnect and needs to be updated to link the 2 "systems".
Anyway another 5 days of boredom. Wish I was into Football would at least give me something interesting to watch.
[rant mode ended]

[hindsight (or is it?)}
Should've stayed in Portugal.
[/hindsight]

That sucks, I'm sorry
Am I right in thinking Portugal have been more sensible and won't ask you to isolate unless you have a positive PCR and symptoms?

seagles wrote:[rant mode activated]
Returned from Portugal last Wednesday, so under quarantine until 26th. Day 2 test negative, receive call every day to check I am still home. Now get a text/email telling me that I have been in contact with someone positive for covid and need to register and self isolate until the 26th and take an NHS covid test.
Obviously the 2 systems do not connect. I assume from the dates that someone in the plane tested positive (not left the house since Wednesday so little chance have actually contacted anyone since)? As I have time on my hands have fedback to them that their "software" has a disconnect and needs to be updated to link the 2 "systems".
Anyway another 5 days of boredom. Wish I was into Football would at least give me something interesting to watch.
[rant mode ended]

You can take a test at day 5 and break quarantine if negative.

I was called every day as well, but on my mobile, so I could have been anywhere.


Steve

stevensfo wrote:

seagles wrote:[rant mode activated]
Returned from Portugal last Wednesday, so under quarantine until 26th. Day 2 test negative, receive call every day to check I am still home. Now get a text/email telling me that I have been in contact with someone positive for covid and need to register and self isolate until the 26th and take an NHS covid test.
Obviously the 2 systems do not connect. I assume from the dates that someone in the plane tested positive (not left the house since Wednesday so little chance have actually contacted anyone since)? As I have time on my hands have fedback to them that their "software" has a disconnect and needs to be updated to link the 2 "systems".
Anyway another 5 days of boredom. Wish I was into Football would at least give me something interesting to watch.
[rant mode ended]

You can take a test at day 5 and break quarantine if negative.

I was called every day as well, but on my mobile, so I could have been anywhere.


Steve

Anyone who has ported their landline number over to a VOIP service almost certainly has the ability to set that to auto-forward all incoming calls to another number such as their mobile. Short of putting an ankle tag or equivalent tracker on me I can’t think of any practical way that the authorities could 100% guarantee that I am at home when contacted - not that I would break any quarantine rules.

- Julian

Julian wrote:Anyone who has ported their landline number over to a VOIP service almost certainly has the ability to set that to auto-forward all incoming calls to another number such as their mobile. Short of putting an ankle tag or equivalent tracker on me I can’t think of any practical way that the authorities could 100% guarantee that I am at home when contacted - not that I would break any quarantine rules.

True, although I switched off Location mode and Bluetooth just in case anyway.

I think the idea of the daily calls is that you are told the call is recorded. So if you lie about your location there is always the implanted fear that if that lie is discovered then there is evidence that you tried to conceal the truth. That is two charges against you.

They figure if such methods ensure 90% compliance that is good enough. Short of a police state, what else can they do?

Julian wrote:Anyone who has ported their landline number over to a VOIP service almost certainly has the ability to set that to auto-forward all incoming calls to another number such as their mobile. Short of putting an ankle tag or equivalent tracker on me I can’t think of any practical way that the authorities could 100% guarantee that I am at home when contacted - not that I would break any quarantine rules.

- Julian

Billing information has always been more secure than caller id information. Routing information is a available to somebody who has inside access to the phone system. Even if the authorities can't fully trace a call they could flag that a call is difficult to trace, and in theory, take further steps such as sending somebody round (or just assume guilt and act on that.)

But that misses the point. A 100% guarantee is not needed, and is not the goal. We do not make it impossible to burgle. We take some steps to make burglary more difficult and other steps to catch some of the burglars and put them in gaol. The purpose of locks is not just to keep honest people honest. locks also convert trespass into breaking and entering.

9873210 wrote:The purpose of locks is not just to keep honest people honest. Locks also convert trespass into breaking and entering.

Not if you pick them.

Although back in the day when I did that sort of thing, trespass was not even a crime; merely a civil issue. Hence the difficulty of getting rid of squatters. I think Thatcher might have changed that, although you would still be really unlucky or dumb to be arrested for trespass.

Lootman wrote:

9873210 wrote:The purpose of locks is not just to keep honest people honest. Locks also convert trespass into breaking and entering.

Not if you pick them.

Although back in the day when I did that sort of thing, trespass was not even a crime; merely a civil issue. Hence the difficulty of getting rid of squatters. I think Thatcher might have changed that, although you would still be really unlucky or dumb to be arrested for trespass.

Under common law picking a lock meet the "breaking" part of breaking and entering. There may be some statues where "lockpicking and entering" is technically a different crime than "breaking and entering" but I doubt there will be much difference in the way they are treated by most legal systems.

9873210 wrote:

Lootman wrote:

9873210 wrote:The purpose of locks is not just to keep honest people honest. Locks also convert trespass into breaking and entering.

Not if you pick them.

Although back in the day when I did that sort of thing, trespass was not even a crime; merely a civil issue. Hence the difficulty of getting rid of squatters. I think Thatcher might have changed that, although you would still be really unlucky or dumb to be arrested for trespass.

Under common law picking a lock meet the "breaking" part of breaking and entering. There may be some statues where "lockpicking and entering" is technically a different crime than "breaking and entering" but I doubt there will be much difference in the way they are treated by most legal systems.

The issue is more about the burden of proof. So if I carefully pick a lock there will be no evidence of that. It will appear to the world no different than the case where the door was left open. It is a similar rule for bailiffs, who are not allowed to break in but they can peacefully enter.

Of course when I did that to set up a squat in London many years ago I immediately changed the lock, thereby removing the evidence anyway!

Julian wrote:Anyone who has ported their landline number over to a VOIP service almost certainly has the ability to set that to auto-forward all incoming calls to another number such as their mobile.
- Julian

With VOIP you can take a "landline" call anywhere you have signal (sometimes even down to 2G if it's sufficiently consistent).

Forwarding - including to a mobile - goes back a lot further than VOIP. The mere fact that you answer your "landline" (if you have one in the first place) tells them nothing.