Will Christmas end this Disunited Kingdom?

Friday 27th November 2020

Dave Edmonds

Over the last week the UK and devolved Governments have sought to present a united front in order to save Christmas. But in the run up to Christmas and in all likelihood in January, this show of unity will be put aside as each nation implements its own, often very different response to the pandemic.

Scotland's decision to introduce tier 4 restrictions for 11 out of 32 Council Areas, whilst Wales came out of its 3-week lockdown and England comes to the end of its 4 week lockdown provides us with an opportunity to compare how consistently COVID-19 restrictions are being applied across the different parts of the UK. With England announcing its new, stricter 3 tier system to run through to March, at More Metrics we asked ourselves the question:

What if ... the Scottish rules were applied across to England?

To keep things simple, we have used our data for Scotland to come up with a set of criteria for putting Council Areas into Tier 4 that we can apply consistently for Local Authorities and Local Government Areas across England.

Whilst recognising the rules within the Scottish and English tiers are different the map above indicates the areas who perhaps might feel hard done by in being put into the highest category 3. It may also point the way to those areas who might find an earlier route down the tier categories, including large areas of the Midlands, North East and Kent. Much of the South and East of England could also feel they are being penalised by a less granular approach.

Contact us for more insightful data.

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