the moment that Boris Johnson cancelled his 5-day Christmas relaxation of the restrictions:
- now most people are limited to a single Christmas Day with wider family
- 18m people in new toughest Tier 4 (including London) can’t have an Xmas bubble at all and must stay at home
people in “Tier 4” will be ordered to "stay at home" for a fortnight and will be restricted from socialising with more than one person even outdoors, while shops, leisure facilities, gyms and hairdressers will be closed.
Tier 4:
- London
- Kent
- Buckinghamshire
- Berkshire
- Surrey (ex Waverley)
- Gosport, Havant, Portsmouth
- Rother and Hastings
- East of England
- Bedford, Central Bedford, Milton Keynes, Luton, Peterborough
- Hertfordshire
- Essex (ex Colchester, Uttlesford and Tendring)
I know everyone is distracted by the USA but Rishi Sunak extending the entire 80% furlough to the spring is a huge U-turn - even by the standards of this, the *government of the U-turns* - and a reminder of the grim winter prognosis
here’s the @ft story - it’s hard to think of an economic statement that has been as comprehensively ripped to shreds as Sunak’s September “winter economy plan”
- first (September announcement) it was 22% state support for furloughed jobs
- then they added 67% for furloughed staff in Tier 3
- then (late October) overall scheme became 62% of hours not worked
- then it was 80% for 1-month November lockdown
- now it’s 80% for six months
Sadiq Khan has just confirmed that the Greater London Authority (GLA) will leave City Hall (aka the glass gonad) next year and move to The Crystal building in the Royal Docks - estimated saving £61m over five years
if you're interested in the etymology it was Ken Livingstone who dubbed it the "glass testicle", Boris Johnson who called it the "glass gonad" and then latterly "The Onion"