[rindalir]

It's true, a major part of setting public policy is making things as uncomplicated as possible, which results in often stricter statements than would be necessary if people were better at following directions. But from my observations (I live in the US but I read a lot of UK and European news), the government in the UK (less so Scotland) has been whipping back and forth on directives: Don't go in people's gardens! Get back to the office you lazy people! Go to school! Stop talking to people across your garden walls! You can only leave the house for an hour a day! By all means go to the pub, but leave before 10 pm when the corona comes out!

I think you have to take into account what people are going to be able to do for months on end, and it seems unreasonable to me to expect the population of an entire country to avoid seeing friends and relatives for half a year (as is now looks like will be the case going into the winter). While the US in general seems to have failed at this, we have had here in New England some good regional success thus far, without making human connections illegal (within limits -- I'm all for limits on gathering sizes, keeping bars closed, etc). The longer this goes on, the more the trade-offs need to be considered.