When is the London announcement due?

[bendmeoverbackwards]

Do you think the whole of London will be put into Tier 3?

Will the Christmas relaxation period of 5 days still stand?

They absolutely refused to split up county councils in the North for areas with lower levels for example Lancaster itself, if they allow areas like Essex to be split they will further damage the relations with the North.

Matt Hancock is speaking to the Commons at 3:30pm

www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-uk-news-live-covid-update-b1772949.html

Update just now

They did split off Trafford, Stockport and Wigan in GM for about 2 weeks at one stage from the rest of GM.

@vjg13

They did split off Trafford, Stockport and Wigan in GM for about 2 weeks at one stage from the rest of GM.

Review is still Wednesday. They just moved forward a decision for London, Essex and Hertfordshire due to the seriousness of the situation.

When will the next review be?

Red London’s economy has been permanently changed. Most big businesses have given up their Central London office space. Working from home in homes further out of London is the trend. It is a death nell for the host of SMEs that serviced those offices, not just shops, sandwich shops, pubs and restaurants but all sorts of ancillary services. There is no long term way out of that. Even in the suburbs within the M25, in spite of increased footfall many small businesses are already gone. It really has impacted ordinary people especially those with small businesses involved in all sorts of business enterprises, I suspect a large transfer of capital into larger corporations, especially ones like Deloittes profiting from the Covid cronyism. Now the leaves have fallen I can see that the accountants and bankers who live in our road have erected huge home offices at the end of their gardens.

The recent scenes in Soho and the West End, and associated increase in cases doesn’t reflect the long term economic damage experienced by the less well off. I haven’t visited the deprived areas of East London but they are amongst the most deprived in the country and I am sure that is why it is boroughs like Tower Hamlets, Havering and Redbridge that are experiencing such high infection rates. Traditionally the people from those boroughs would be involved in the City economy but with empty office that don’t need cleaners, post rooms, facilities management etc etc etc I doubt their situation is any less grim than northern cities.

However at the end of the day this isn’t a competition of suffering. We all need this government to get its act together.

Saying on the radio from midnight on Wednesday. Rather than straight away.

Of course London won’t be in tier 3. It’d be inconvenient to the clowns.

[quote tinseltinseleverywhere]@AcornAutumn ok so free for all is an exaggeration, but three social bubbles being allowed to congregate inside for 5 days is just ridiculous. [/quote]
Let’s face it many people are interpreting the three household thing very loosely. Mixture of don’t care and can’t really take on board the detail I guess. Makes me very sad for people who are vulnerable and have to go into hospitals over the next few weeks, including me! We will be so much more at risk because of the can’t be bothereds.

@Bubblemonkey

Of course London won’t be in tier 3. It’d be inconvenient to the clowns.

The bbc disagree

@bendmeoverbackwards, according to the BBC only Watford, Hertsmere and Broxbourne going into T3 in Hertfordshire.

[quote bathsh3ba]@bendmeoverbackwards, according to the BBC only Watford, Hertsmere and Broxbourne going into T3 in Hertfordshire.[/quote]
For now. Could be more come the end of the week.

Definitely London too. Not really a surprise at this point.

@Hardbackwriter

Hospital capacity as the key measure makes perfect logical sense but it's such a tricky sell politically, as it's essentially going: 'has your area been historically underinvested in for decades? Here you go, have some punitive measures that destroy your local economy. Do you live somewhere that's always had a disproportionate amount of investment and attention? You crack on!'. It's very 'to those that have, more shall be given'.

As someone in the North East, I'm happy with that. It is where we're at. We're not all in this together, many things will be unequal. If London capacity allows London to stay in level 2 then so be it. It will make the inequalities all the more obvious and something might get done about it longer term, rather than papering over the cracks with measures that try to pretend we're all the same. Unfair would be putting London in tier 3 if they don't need to be, to pacify the underfunded areas, them leaving the underfunded areas to continue to suffer from austerity measures.

@kittensarecute I apologise for my mean and snippy comment earlier, you are obviously struggling and I hope things get better for you.

@Bubblemonkey

Of course London won’t be in tier 3. It’d be inconvenient to the clowns.

Will be House of Commons bar shut or will it have special status and remain open?

already read london and parts of essex to be in tier 3-not fair to lump it all together when north essex have really low numbers

So they can separate out parts of Essex, but can't do the same in Lancashire, Gtr Manchester or Kent? My local area has a current rate of 89 per 100,000 and we're in Tier 3 because other parts of the huge county I'm in are higher. How can they continue to justify that?

its not fair elizabeth hopefully they'll review that aswell

In the same situation in my county @ElizabethG81 - makes no sense. the cases round me are minuscule, yet we are tier 3. No wonder people are losing faith in following these stupid restrictions. It's all arbitrary. We're just told to do as we are told blindly. What's the point?

What on earth is this 'new variant' that is causing faster spread? That is very worrying.
Is it related to the mink mutation?

@stepawayfromthekeyboard

What on earth is this 'new variant' that is causing faster spread? That is very worrying. Is it related to the mink mutation?

I don’t think so. The reason the mink were all slaughtered was because that mutation affected the spike protein that is the target of the vaccines. This will be some other change if they think the vaccines aren’t affected,