I am more of the opinion that the new strain is more of a convenient excuse for leaving large parts of London, Essex & Kent in Tier 2 despite the fact that it was obvious that rates were increasing exponentially, as opposed to it being the sole contributor towards what's going on.
If you look back to when Manchester went into tier 3 but Andy Burnham was unwilling to accept the quite pitiful financial package put towards the region, London numbers were quite comparable.
Since then- a month ago? - much of the South East has remained in Tier 2. You could argue that Kent was in Tier 3 because of what was going on in Swale & Medway but what's stopping them from going to Bluewater and acting like a knobhead or getting the high speed into London and living life like it's semi-normal. I drove home from work the other week when it was "Wild Wednesday" at Lakeside and it had brought the M25/tunnel/A282 slip to a standstill. They're fucking idiots.
There's gross negligence at play here in order to allow the powerful of London (and associated MPs etc) to continue to live in a semi-indulgent fashion.
Yes I'm sure the new strain is a belter but isnt this just the same scenario as the Spanish Farmer strain from the summer which was 60% more virulent (than what? What is the initial base level here ).
Tory incompetence home to roost again. Shut down the city once we've all fucked off to our winter gaffs for Xmas, let everyone else deal with the consequences.
Now the SE is supposedly in tier 4 till they roll out the vaccine. I'm sure they will use this as a reason to prioritise the financial centre of the country too.