Advertisement

The Tier System Is Doomed To Fail – But There Is A Way Out

A new three-tier system of alert levels for England has been implemented following rising coronavirus cases and hospital admissions.
A new three-tier system of alert levels for England has been implemented following rising coronavirus cases and hospital admissions.

This was the week when things fell apart. Rumblings of discontent about the government’s handling of the pandemic turned into open revolt as the Northern mayors – particularly Andy Burnham of Manchester – stood up and refused to accept proposals to place them at the highest level of the new three-tier system of Covid restrictions.

Why? At first glance it seems eminently sensible that different areas of the country with different levels of infection should be subject to different measures.

Why close the pubs in Lowestoft (where the case rate per 100,000 is under 50) because of the problems in Liverpool (where the rate is pushing 600)?

Indeed, the general idea of local tiers is not in itself a bad one. However, we are not dealing with generalities.

Somehow the tier system has managed to be even more unclear and generated a greater sense of inequity (and hence resistance) than before.

Rather, we are faced with an acute crisis and we must consider whether the specific tier system devised by the UK government makes sense and whether it makes sense to impose it at this specific time. The answer to both questions is a resounding no.

Let’s start by looking at the details of the present system. It has three core problems.

First, a central justification for replacing the present hodge-podge of restrictions across the country with three tiers was to create clarity and a sense of equity.

No-one – not even the prime minister – could remember who was allowed to do what and where, and there was a growing suspicion that some areas (the South) were being treated better than others (the North).

In principle, a tier system would overcome that by creating a simple and transparent system where it was clear that the same rules applied to everyone.

But that is dependent upon there being clear, health-based criteria for moving from one tier to the next, along with consistent restrictions within each tier.

But in the event, the basis for deciding which tier you were in was...

Continue reading on HuffPost