Highland moving tier 1 to tier 4 utter nonsense

[Coconut80]

My husband is a nurse, I have a DD in s5 a ds in 1st year at uni and a bed and breakfast. I have emailed Ian Blackford, Kate forbes and nicola sturgeon to express my displeasure and asking for the evidence to back why on earth we are going to tier 4. There are hardly any cases in Highland I live on a sparsely populated island.

NHS Highland is in no way overstretched yet we are plunged into similar conditions to central London.

How can I complain, protest about this except via ballot box. Does anyone have any links to websites, petitions or marches please thanks

What island are you on? The islands are excempt, the FM said this yesterday.

Islands are going into tier 3. Still a lot more restrictive than tier 1 (which they are currently in).

I'm on skye, tier 4 has a bridge classed as an island by delivery companies but mainland just now x

Feel our pain, no community cases but still lumped in T4, now back to a 3, then back to T4 premium from Boxing Day which as an extra bonus includes school and nursery closures (that’s not even happening in London!) and illegal travel throughout the U.K. This despite our council area having some of the lowest/not any cases at all.

No offence, but emailing any of the above wont make a jot of difference. Join our thread because at least it’s somewhere to moan. All tiers welcome! www.mumsnet.com/Talk/scotsnet/4108540-Tiery-Weary-Crackers

I'm completely with you on this. I live in the Highlands too and it's utter nonsense! I fail to see how the delivery companies can class us as "not mainland" yet according the government we are. Our case numbers have consistently been low. At the risk of sounding whiny, it really isn't fair.

Is Nicola just determined to outdo any pain inflicted by Westminster?

I'm in a similar geographical area, going from tier 1 to tier 3. I really empathise and understand the frustration, i'm going to be stuck in with my toddler and my big baby bump and it will be beet difficult! But I honestly think she is right to act before cases get out of hand, rather than after. This new strain is spreading so quick, she's hoping to nip it in the bud before it gets to our communities, because if it does reach us our nhs won't cope.

@NamechangedforAIBU

Is Nicola just determined to outdo any pain inflicted by Westminster?

I'm a huge fan of Nicola, but my family and friends who are doctors say that her strategy is to be as different from Westminster's as possible and is a bit ludicrous.

I still bloody love her, but I think she's called this one wrong just to make a political point.

I previously was a life long snp supporter and loved nicola sturgeon, even met her when she visited skye. I have no idea who I will vote for in the future. I think lumping highland into tier 4 as you say is point scoring and there is no evidence at all for her to do this. I only hope she will have a rethink but I doubt it.

It's very frustrating. We're next to Highlands and very low rate of covid cases. The most popular meme here just now is one saying we're charged Highlands & islands postage despite being not Highlands and clearly mainland, so surely this doesn't apply!
It's crap but a lot of folk are just going to ignore the advice as it's not enforceable. Can't ignore the lockdown sadly.

That's insane.

Here in Argyll and Bute we were probably going into Level 1 as of Friday. What a fall from grace Also totally disproportionate in my opinion

Totally disproportionate I think given stv saying 10 new cases in Highland. 10s of thousands of unhappy school pupils. I really can't bear it. Had to cancel two 5 night bb bookings in our bb we gave a full refund. No idea how we will get through winter. I can't shake myself out of it. How is everyone else feeling xx

30 tourists being driven in minibuses around Skye today! It's all so hard. But it's not going to be locals staying with you. And covid only travels when humans do.. you have a right to be angry though, we're an island and didn't need to be in this mess.

Same here OP literally just moved to level 1 last week to now be plunged to level 4! I work in community nursing so get hospital number updates every week. We have 5 in with suspected and 0 in ITU. Utterly ridiculous, don’t even get me started in the school closures I’m livid

@alaska I am livid about the utter mess of highers for my daughter she is stressed with the near weekly changing of the goal posts. I have emailed msp, mp and first minister how else can we express our dissatisfaction. I have not encountered one person who understands or supports highland being in tier 4. I fear it is political posturing x

@Coconut80 I just don’t know what is going on anymore, I’m reading on here people saying they’ve heard that the schools closure could go on till the feb half term. I understand that the new strain may be more transmissible but can’t get my head around it being in circulation since September but is only now a problem?

Is it not because if this new strain arrives it could infect a very high number of people very quickly, and small rural places could find their limited healthcare facilities being swamped very quickly?
I've friends in the Highlands who are reporting quite a number of visitors already, so people are pretty apprehensive.

I don’t disagree with you at all but do think the English L4 is different from the Scottish L4.

@icanboogieboogiewoogie but if it’s been circulating since September and it’s spreading as fast as they’re saying wouldn’t it already be here? I’m near the borders so would have thought we’d have seen increasing numbers already? We were harder hit this time around with a lot more positive cases but this didn’t = more people in hospital

It's not been in Scotland since Sept, only discovered here very recently in Borders and Glasgow. Not in the Highlands ( yet).

@Outsidemum1 yes I know it hasn’t been in Scotland since then but wherever it has been circulating it has been for 3 months nearly, surely it would be everywhere if it’s spreading as fast as they say

I'm the first one to disagree with Nicola Sturgeon usually, but in this case I think she has it bang on. I'm in Lothian and have watched really in horror as cases in East Lothian exploded after they went into Level 2. They were back into Level 3 within weeks.

Admittedly an awful lot of ppl in East Lothian work in Edinburgh so it's never going to be possible to maintain a border, but honestly OP I think if she'd left the Highlands at a lower level you would have been flooded with idiots looking for somewhere to go during the school hols. I'm sorry and I know it's cold comfort, but I think it's about keeping your area safe because people are eejits.

I am a Highlander and am pretty upset about being put back to Tier 4 and furious about school closures.

However as much as i dislike it I think it’s the right decision. If we stayed Tier 1 we would likely have been inundated with the tourists who brought the virus with them

@Varjakpaw

I don’t disagree with you at all but do think the English L4 is different from the Scottish L4.

What's the main differences?