Only an escape route from strictest tiers can win public compliance
sir – The Government must clearly define and make public the triggers for movement between the tiers in its new post-lockdown system (report, November 24).
These need to be directly measurable and easy for the public to understand, and they should be published on a daily or weekly basis. That way local buy-in will be achieved and the restrictions stand a chance of being adhered to.
Roger Cliffe
Hayfield, Derbyshire
sir – I note that the Government is minded to impose revised tiers of restrictions for England according to geographical regions (Leading Article, November 24) .
I live in a village in a rural district and am concerned that our region (East Midlands) may be allocated a high tier in recognition of the relatively high rates of infection in cities such as Leicester, Nottingham and Derby.
Surely it makes no sense for rural areas to be assigned an economically destructive set of restrictions that might only be appropriate to cities. Bill Davidson
Balderton, Nottinghamshire
sir – One objective of running a business is to offer an attractive proposition to customers at a profit. Drinking-up time in a pub has always been a delicate negotiation. The customer often wants one more drink and will promise to finish it quickly. Landlords want to send staff home if they can’t sell more products.
The Government proposes stopping serving at 10pm, preventing turnover but allowing customers to hang about for an hour, with staff doing very little but still getting paid – increasing overheads. Wow.
Roger Smith
Oxford
sir – The Government’s plan to allow persons arriving in the UK to end quarantine after five days if they have a negative test (report, November 24) is a triumph of hope over experience.
As Sir Graham Brady pointed out (“Quarantine should be made to be followed, not broken”, telegraph.co.uk, November 17), evidence suggests that those who do not receive a test or who are asymptomatic tend not to comply with quarantine and self-isolation.
Given the cost of the test, I should not be surprised if most travellers ignored the offer to test and release and just released themselves anyway, as they have been doing. Without rigorous enforcement, the plan will fail to control the spread of the disease. Richard Duncan
Guildford, Surrey
sir – Boris Johnson’s appearance at his Zoom briefing on Monday for once matched the status of the office he holds. He delivered his Covid update with the gravitas expected of a prime minister, and with his hair neatly brushed – extraordinary how this added to the picture of a serious man delivering a serious message. Norman Macfarlane
Kingston upon Thames, Surrey