Brits take to Twitter to declare they are #notgoingout on New Year’s Eve
#notgoingout: Brits take to Twitter to declare they are staying in for New Year’s Eve as nightclubs offer half-price deals or even stay shuttered due to Omicron fears
Dozens of people shared their low-key plans to stay at home on social mediaIdeas include watching television, eating homemade pizza and drinking cocoaPopular events like fireworks in London’s Trafalgar Square already cancelled
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Britons have taken to Twitter to declare they are #notgoingout on New Year’s Eve tonight as the country remains gripped by Omicron panic.
Dozens of people shared their low-key plans to stay at home on social media, including watching Jools Holland, eating homemade pizza and drinking a mug of cocoa.
It comes as nightclubs in England, which are still allowed to open unlike neighbouring Scotland and Wales, frantically offer half-price deals in a bid to encourage revellers to ring in the new year with them.
Widespread celebrations have already been cut short, after London mayor Sadiq Khan cancelled the traditional firework display at Trafalgar Square due to the surge in Covid cases.
People in Manchester told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme this morning that they had concerns over going out.
One said: ‘There’s a plan in place that some friends might be meeting up in a local pub. I’m a little dubious as to whether I want to, so I’m more likely to spend it at home, to be honest.’
Another added: ‘We have been invited to a house party with a few neighbours. We haven’t quite decided yet but it’s something we’re thinking about.’
A third said: ‘I’m spending it with a couple of friends, we’ll probably get a takeaway, that sort of thing. I’m certainly not going into town.’
Nightclub owner Alex Proud said mixed messaging from the government over end of year celebrations had created ‘a really dire situation’ for the industry.
Alex Proud, who runs Proud Embankment in Brighton, told Sky News: ‘There’s hardly any staff here today, we’re not sold out tonight and that story is the same across the country.
‘Venues that are normally sold out two weeks in advance are half sold out, and we are screaming in pain.
‘Bookings are massively down. In my venue in Brighton we’re doing a half price sale now, and that’s unheard of in any venue.
‘Your local pub doesn’t do a sale on New Year’s Eve. It’s disastrously bad.’
With venues forced to close in other areas of the UK, Scottish and Welsh revellers have been arriving in England before hitting the town later tonight.
Work and Pensions Minister Chloe Smith said people are ‘more than free to move around’ the UK over the New Year on Thursday.
Asked if it would be wrong for people from Scotland to travel across the border into England to celebrate the New Year, Ms Smith told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme: ‘Well, I think perhaps I should just add the obvious constitutional point here, which is that we are one country and people are more than free to move around inside our country under the general law, obviously.’
From December 15, Covid passes for entry into nightclubs and other venues have been in place, and this also applies to indoor events with 500 or more people, where they are likely to stand or move around, such as in music venues.
Jools Holland’s Annual Hootenanny is once again expected to be widely viewed on BBC Two tonight in a packed TV schedule
Some venues, including this one in London’s Shoreditch, is advertising offers to try and entice revellers to join them
While many Brits pledged to stay at home tonight on social media, some others said they were still intending to go out and enjoy themselves
Meanwhile, Waitrose has seen a surge in people searching for recipes online, suggesting middle class families are planning to stay in for dinner at home rather than going out.
The supermarket chain says searches for ‘New Year’s Eve recipes’ are 160 per cent higher on its website than 12 months ago, while four times as many people are looking for ‘dinner party recipes’, compared to this time last year.
Will Torrent, of Waitrose, told the Times: ‘It’s clear our customers are hosting intimate dinner parties for New Year’s Eve this year and findings show that just over a third of shoppers are treating themselves and their guests to high-end, quality products and specialty ingredients.
‘We’re seeing people upgrading their menus to kick off 2022.’
Jools Holland’s Annual Hootenanny is once again expected to be widely viewed on BBC Two tonight in a packed TV schedule.
Popular soaps EastEnders, Emmerdale and Coronation Street all have episodes this evening, there is a special of Channel 4’s The Last Leg, while BBC One marks the end of the 2021 with ‘The Big New Years & Years Eve Party with Kylie and Pet Shop Boys’.
