I am appalled that after all they have put up with this year the good people of South Gloucestershire will find themselves in tier 3 when national lockdown ends on 2 December.

I feel particularly sorry for our excellent pubs and restaurants and others in the hospitality sector who have striven so hard to establish their businesses. I thought a Conservative government would support such hard-working and enterprising people. They have been treated so unfairly. Where is the evidence that they are the source of a disproportionate number of outbreaks?

Covid-19 is a threat to a small and identifiable proportion of the population, unlike Spanish flu of 1919-20 or Hong Kong flu in 1968. Those people should be helped to protect themselves, rather than the rest of the country being shut down. Having made the mistake of restricting our liberties in such a draconian fashion back in March, spurred on by mathematical modellers, the government needs to swallow its pride and admit it was wrong. Then we can start to rebuild, rather than making the damage worse.

Noel Wheatley

Thornbury