Tier 3 lasted just three days and now we're in brand new tier 4, which is essentially lockdown under another name.
The headlines are that everyone should stay at home, non-essential shops must close and we can't meet anyone for Christmas. But what does the detail say? I've compiled this summary mostly in case it's useful but also for posterity.
There are a lot of simplifications in that table, so yes I know support bubbles exist, and schools have closed for Christmas, and I missed out libraries, and weddings should only take place in exceptional circumstances, and visits to care homes can still take place with arrangements such as substantial screens, but you can always click through forthedetail.
Three households in tiers 1 to 3 can still meet for Christmas, but only for one day, not for the previously announced five. This is particularly awkward for anyone who lives a long way from their family and doesn't have a car. The original plans permitted travel on 23rd-27th December but the new rules only allow 25th December and no trains run on Christmas Day. All those advance rail and coach tickets you bought to travel to/from your bubble should therefore no longer be used... but who's to say how many people will comply?
Here are the tier 4 travel arrangements, which I bet most Londoners will never read.
The relevant legislation has only just been published and is 33 pages long, which isn't helpful when you can only travel for legally permitted reasons. But yes, work if you have to, education if it's open, bubbles if you're in one, health if you need to, buying things, exercising and walking the dog.
What I've not seen before in the guidance is that exhortation to "stay local". Local, we're told, means the "village, town or the part of a city where you live". But that's neither entirely clear nor particularly equitable. Staying within a village is a lot more restrictive than staying within a town, particularly if that town is as large as Luton, Reading or Southend. And for those of us in cities there's no accepted definition of what "part of a city" means. It could mean borough, but I hope not because otherwise I wouldn't be allowed to walk to the other side of the Bow Roundabout. It could mean within a certain radius of home, for example two or five miles. Or it could just be deliberately vague because this government loves to suggest rules without ever defining them.
Shopping and exercise should also be done "locally wherever possible". It's OK to travel "a short distance" to do your exercising, but again this is undefined and could be any number of miles from home. Elsewhere in the guidance it says "You can continue to do unlimited exercise alone, or in a public outdoor place with your household, support bubble, or one other person", but it's unclear whether "unlimited" refers to time or distance or both.
And finally, just how quarantined are we?
"You must not leave your Tier 4 area..." is an interesting one. If you live in Peterborough, which is an isolated area of 4 surrounded by 2 and 3, it's pretty clear. But if you live within the amorphous mass of tier 4 elsewhere is it OK to travel from Dover to Bedford, or are you locked within your county, or is it the local authority district in which you live?
Again this has significant implications for Londoners because there's a world of difference between being restricted to Greater London (607 square miles), to Bromley (58 square miles) or to Kensington & Chelsea (4.7 square miles). Fortunately the government are not pedants and this is not a rule which will ever be enforced... unless Tier 5 has any tricks up its sleeve.
