The latest restrictions for areas of England with high levels of Covid 19 cases have been announced.
This morning a series of numbers by medical experts were skewed to back-up the governments claims, followed by the dodging of questions in an effort to get people on board, using fear, before this afternoon’s announcement. The main question to come from this press conference was when the medical experts have had time to study the data when they have quite obviously been having lesson from Cummings on how to duck, dive, lie and deceive.
After the set-up the much rumoured 3 Tier System was announced after a series of frantic meetings over the last few days with local MP’s from the areas affected. It looks like this:
Three tier system:
Tier 1: Medium Level – Current national measures i.e. rule of 6 indoors & outdoors and 10pm curfew for hospitality.
Tier 2: High Level – All mixing between different households indoors banned but rule of 6 outdoors applies. Nottinghamshire, East & West Cheshire fall into this tier as do most of the restricted areas.
Tier 3: Very High Level – Pubs and bars closed. Social mixing is banned indoors and outdoors. Retail, schools and universities to remain open. Local leaders in each area will work with the government to come up with a plan with regards to details.
The only area which has reached an agreement is Merseyside who will, from Wednesday, be placed in the Very High Level. Pubs & bars will close along with gyms, leisure centres, betting shops and casinos. No news on the other areas reportedly facing closure measures such as Manchester and Newcastle.
Local authorities will receive an extra billion pounds in support, and Tier 3 areas will receive extra money for enforcement and track & trace.
So, where are we? Well, it will come as no surprise for anyone who’s been following these announcements from the government that it is about as clear as Boris Johnson’s family tree.
For starters what about restaurants and cafes? They can apparently stay open. Can they serve alcohol? If so then alcohol only increases the chances of getting infected with Covid 19 with it is consumed without food. Well that is huge news, no doubt there will be plenty of data to back that up.
UPDATE from 7pm briefing: Pubs and Bars have to shut unless they can run specifically as a restaurant serving alcohol only as part of a main meal. How the hell that is to be enforced remains to be seen. If I order a burger and chips can I have 6 martinis? Can my bar offer Brunch with bottomless Bloody Mary and Prosecco? How long can I drink before and after my meal? FFS more questions less answers.
If restaurants can’t serve alcohol then that is potentially worse. Numbers eating in restaurants have already dropped dramatically, without being able to have a bottle of wine with the meal and without going for a drink before or after we will see those numbers drop off a cliff. Yet they will not be able to access any of the financial support. Shall we be honest and just agree the only restaurants he gives a cunt about are McDonalds, Burger King, KFC and Pret.
What about these other areas? How long will the likes of Manchester have to wait in limbo? From what we have heard the local leaders there are kicking back hard to protect businesses and people in their area. Good on them. Some fight is what is needed and we can only wish them luck with their mission.
The sad thing is I probably could have written this article yesterday. It is just confirmation on the rumours that were flying around. We don’t report on rumours as we wait for the facts and for clarification on the details. Neither were forthcoming.
If anything it is more confusing now than before. He is speaking again at 6pm and answering questions…… we will give you an update after that, but goodness only knows what that will show us. Sorry we can’t give you more details but we can only work with what we’ve been given. This article will continue to update.
Important point here is that we at BarLifeUK aren’t against ways to stop the spread of Covid 19. We want as many people as possible to get through this horrible situation. We simply want answers and transparency, we want to know why hospitality is being picked on, the stats that back this up being made available and we want financial packages that support this hugely important industry.
Stay safe everyone and good luck Merseyside.
