At the end of the day it is people that spread the virus and not the government.
Also you have to remember that government in this country is by the 'consent' of the people - which means basically if overwhelming numbers of people don't want to do what the government asks/tells them to do, then there's really not much they can do to stop them doing whatever they want.
We've seen the government basically 'ask' the people to abide by lockdown and after about three or four weeks people got fed up of it and started to break the rules.
Then when the virus inevitably started to spread out of control again the government introduced local lockdowns and got embroiled with all the quibbles by the local Mayors who were from a different political party to the government like the week long stand off with Burnham and his political point scoring stance.
We also have the 'political' game within a game, where you have newly elected Conservative MP's in traditional Labour seats where Covid had got out of hand and where 'lockdown' was unpopular by their electorate - so what should they do, stand up for their own government or vote against it because they represent their electorate - who wont forgive or forget if they don't - and a Conservative party not wishing to lose immediately these northern safe Labour seats they have only just won!
I'm sure everybody will have done their sums and worked out that these Tory 'rebels' can vote against the government (so stand up for their electorate) knowing the vote will still be carried.
Did I mention that it's all a game?
So lets move on to area 'lockdowns' - yes of course it's harsh to be in level 2 if there's no Covid in your 'village' but if Covid is active 20 minutes away - and people are the ones who spread it - then does anyone really think that you are 'locked up' in a Tier 2 area and everybody is completely free and 'unlocked' just 20 minutes away, then how many people will simply just jump into their cars and drive 20 minutes and go to the pubs and restaurants there which are open whilst those at home are shut?
Loads will.
And that's exactly what we saw with people driving halfway across the country to go to the sea side when their areas where under lockdown!
The only real way you can stop it if you more or less put most of the country into the same tier - which in effect they've done - the north and midlands in tier 3 and the rest of the country in tier 2 with just a few tweaks here and there.
Then there is the question of should we even have any lockdowns anyway?
My view is basically is 'the greater good' one, meaning protect the elderly and sick and let everyone else get on with their lives, rather than 'stop the world' to protect the few.
To my mind the positive cases have been strangely consistent since the schools and universities went back and have in general terms averaged around the low twenty thousands over that period - which is rather odd!
It is odd because we are led to believe cases 'double' about every fortnight - and that hasn't happened - as I say its seems to have remained constant - why is this?
My reasoning is that it is because of three 'mini' waves - as one falls the next one rises - and so the amount is about the same.
I think the numbers shot up dramatically (as I expected they would!) when the universities went back and the kids went wild being away from the parents for the first time. As the cases eventually began to drop you had the next mini wave of the virus catching hold in the communities in the north - and as the numbers dropped from the uni students they were replaced by the rise in the community towns and city's such as Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Bradford, etc.
Once their numbers started to fall the third mini wave of the community's in the midlands and the south took off and replaced them - and so the numbers kept at a surprising consistency over a period of several weeks.
High positive cases in themselves aren't a problem it is the effect on the NHS that is and hospitals have began to fell the strain.
If this was summer I don't think even now it would have been such an issue but the big worry is the seasonal demand on the NHS over winter and if it could cope with the normal seasonal increase plus Covid as well - and clearly the thinking is that it could not.
The government is trapped between a rock and a hard place, don't put the country into tier 2 and 3 and the NHS may well fail, or save the NHS and have everyone moaning about being in lockdown.
Politically they fear deaths getting out of hand more than anything else, they know people won't follow local lockdowns - they'll just drive 20 minutes to where there isn't a lockdown instead (and pass on the virus in doing so), so really the government has done the only sensible thing it could do - even though it is unpopular with many such as Wanderlust.
And fwiw Broadland had more positive cases today (and yesterday) than Norwich!