On Tuesday evening I supported the transition from the second national lockdown to the regional tiered restrictions. I did this, despite the flaws in the proposed tiered system, both to avoid a continuation of the extreme provisions of the lockdown and because the government has responded to many of my criticisms I raised earlier in November.
I had criticised the national lockdown because it represented a gross overreach of government power over our basic freedoms; because the tiered approach had not been given time to prove itself out; and because the information provided by the government was inadequate and unpersuasive.
I also made the following requests of the government. I asked them to operationalise rapid testing on a community and venue basis; to put COVID19 into context with other illnesses so the impact on other treatments are not hidden; and to make available the assessment of policy consequences before Members of Parliament have to make a decision.
In response, Government has made progress on many of these. Freedom of communal worship is restored and the freedom to trade has been substantially restored but unfortunately, with continuing restrictions on pubs. Freedom to associate remains restricted but the relaxations over Christmas will, I believe, have to become the basis for government policy in the New Year: effectively replacing restrictions with a reliance on the common sense of individuals and families.
Rapid testing has been started and can be deployed in communities that request this support on a needs basis. The “test and release” scheme for international travel is helpful but has come far too late, and we still need more action to provide instant testing at venues such as theatres, concert arenas and exhibition halls.
Crucially, the government took three steps to share the information and appraisal that guides its decisions on COVID restrictions. The regulations voted upon on Tuesday for the first time explicitly stated the criteria that were being used. The government provided the data sets for each criteria, but this could have been done in a more coherent, easier to digest manner. In the future, government decisions will be open to public challenge on a data-led and factual basis rather than the more mystical “trust the experts’ projections” approach.
And the government did provide an Impact Assessment. I said in the House of Commons that, sadly, it had the hallmarks of being prepared in an “essay crisis”, raising numerous points but not really investigating any of them with the necessary rigour.
There are many concerns with the drawing of the regional boundaries for the tiered restrictions. Prior to the vote in House of Commons, I raised directly with the Health Minister my concerns about rural Bedfordshire being grouped together with the urban centres of Luton and Milton Keynes. These boundaries will be reviewed in December and again at the end of January, but we are crucially dependent on these towns keeping their infection rates low.
The tiered restrictions are irritating for all of us, and for some they continue extreme anxieties – for the survival of our pubs; for the natural interactions of family life; or for the growing pressure on our mental health and wellbeing.
The vote on Tuesday required an alternative to the proposed tier restrictions and the only one on offer was a continuation of the national lockdown. That had to be avoided at all costs and so I voted for the tiered restrictions but I am asking the government to:
- Publish the projections for bed utilisation – general and ICU – for each hospital trust for the period through March 2021;
- Progressively narrow the geographic boundaries for the regional tiers to focus more tightly on those specific areas where there are continuing problems;
- Recognise that almost immediately in the New Year, government policy will need to change to a reliance on public consent rather than this slew of government restrictions.
I spoke in the debate on Tuesday although there were over 100 speakers so speeches were limited to three minutes. My speech can be viewed above.
