"Lockdown started in the UK on 23rd March. The deaths reached their peak on 21st April (1166). That is about a 4 week lag before the restrictions started showing an effect."
I don't know if you're just making those numbers up 59, or getting them from some lefty Fake News source. Here are the official government figures, (check them here for yourself
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/) which show quite clearly the number of deaths peaking on April 8th.
Deaths within 28 days of positive test by date of death
April 5th 829
April 6th 805
April 7th 910
April 8th 975
April 9th 874
April 10th 850
April 11th 861
April 12th 857
And they continued falling consistently afterwards. I'm surprised you didn't know this 59, the graph showing the falling death rate from 8th April onwards was shown in every 5pm TV press briefing for three months, but strangely no one in the media picked up on it. One or two people did, but they weren't the sort of people who had their views reported on the BBC, or in the pages of the Guardian, so you wouldn't have been alerted to it, but it was in full view for those who cared to look, and the figures are still there on the GOV.UK website.
What is noticeable is that the death rate had only the one change, it goes up fairly consistently to April 8th, then it goes down consistently, and that change co-incides roughly with the onset of voluntary social distancing a month before, about two weeks before the official lockdown. It was around a month before April 8th that Mrs S told me we weren't going out, no more supermarket shopping, no more footy, no horse racing, her art and dance classes closed voluntarliy, as did local cinemas and theatres. If you look at the data around April 23rd, if the lockdown had had any effect, there should have been an acceleration in the falling death rate, there wasn't, it continued falling as consistently as before, as though the lockdown had never happened.
"To my way of thinking, if people are packed in bars, clubs, footy stadiums etc then they will catch any virus much more easily than if they kept away from each other???"
Agreed 59, but again it's another of your straw man arguments, no one is suggesting packing anyone into anywhere, you can get several thousand fans into any football stadium and a safe distance from each other, same with racecourses, which are basically huge wide open fields. I've been to several games recently at Clitheroe and one at Warrington, numbers are restricted, temperature taken on entry plus name and phone number, hand sanitisor used. So far I have not been contacted by either club, so the events must have passed off safely. Since July 4th we must have eaten out at least 50/60 times in various pubs, cafes and restaurants all over the north of England, name and phone number given at each and every one, we have not been contacted yet, so clearly eating out is not causing a surge in infections.
"As for the situation today, even under Tier 3 restrictions things are much more relaxed now than they were back then. We are in nothing like the same level of lockdown when we were told to stay at home etc. The Government are now trying to control the virus and keep the economy strong....and achieving neither."
Yes I agree with that, although 'keeping the economy strong' is a bit fanciful, the economy is total wreckage, and total lockdown would annihilate it, and still not eradicate the virus.