Notts students react to Tier 3 restrictions

‘It’s really odd that they are putting us in it now, just as cases are going down’


Despite Nottingham’s coronavirus situation continuing to improve, with cases again declining in the last recorded week, the city will be subject to Tier 3 restrictions from Friday.

Upon hearing the gutting news, The Tab Nottingham spoke to students to find out their reactions.

“If restrictions begin to limit our ability to access university resources, I’d start questioning staying here”

Whilst he would like to stay, “it’s my final year and I still want to try and have a good university experience”, Will is unsure that he would remain in Nottingham if restrictions further impede his ability to access uni resources. He joins many students who are already questioning the logic behind shelling out bucketloads of rent towards what is, essentially, an online course.

Speaking more generally, he is not convinced that the increased restrictions are warranted. He said: “I would say that they will have some sort of an impact. But it’s a hard decision because will the impact be worth the loss of business for the local economy? Probably not.”

With the data suggesting that current restrictions could be sufficient in driving down the rate of Covid, might the government be jumping the gun by imposing Tier 3?

“I still have a good time in my house so I wouldn’t go home”

Final year student, Ben, has just come out of isolation and isn’t yet ready to leave behind the banter of his student home. For the moment, he is happy to stay put and continue perfecting his newfound skill – smashing his houesmates at Fifa 09, on the Wii- whilst simultaneously necking a bottle of Lidl’s own Shiraz.

With this said, he has sympathy for those freshers currently living in halls: “I do wonder whether first years should have come to uni as they aren’t getting the proper experience.”

He continued: “I understand why it has been done but I think that the government have dealt with this poorly. Test and trace needs to be better and the app is useless as two of my housemates tested positive and my phone didn’t tell me to isolate.”

“To be honest, I don’t see much difference between Tier 2 and 3”

Felix thinks that the upgrade to Tier 3 restrictions will not feel markedly different from what we have experienced over the last two weeks.

He told The Tab Nottingham: “They are slightly different in theory but I imagine that they will be mostly the same in practice.” He added, in response to the rumoured introduction of a fourth tier, “this would probably detract from the seriousness of Tier 3 anyway.”

Felix is pretty optimistic that the government bumping us up will not drastically change our ‘new normal’ social lives. He points out that “most pubs will stay open and the football will still be on.” For those of us that enjoy spending Saturdays sinking Carlsbergs at the Rose and Crown, debating whether or not Patrick Bamford is more clinical than Messi, perhaps the upgrade to Tier 3 won’t impact us in a too dramatic way.

“What Boris doesn’t know won’t hurt him”

Frankie lives with her mates but is banking on being able to continue seeing her boyfriend, especially after having spent the lockdown period in different parts of the country. She said: “After spending four months completely apart, I’ll take anything. Even if I could only see him with two metres between us, this would be better than nothing.” She is not convinced that the majority of people in her situation would be prepared to adhere to a draconian rule that bans couples from meeting if they don’t live in the same household.

Aside from that, Frankie is relatively unfazed: “I mean I really don’t see a massive difference. House motives are the way forward. Having gone through isolation, my house has got used to this anyway.”

“I’m worried that I’m going to feel isolated in my uni room especially if the gyms shut”

Libby, a first year, is closely monitoring the gym situation. As is relatable for many of us, working out is integral to her “daily motivation and mental health”. Despite initially closing in Liverpool, gyms are now open in all Tier 3 areas. It, therefore, seems unlikely that closure in Notts is in the pipeline, so hopefully gym-goers will not be barred from entering David Ross any time soon!

“Tier 3 doesn’t really mean anything in my eyes”

Second year UoN student, Liberty, doesn’t think that Tier 3 will meaningfully change the way students act. She said: “It won’t stop people from doing what they want. What’s the point of going into whatever Tier 3 means?” It is true, as a 40k fine will attest to, that people aren’t exactly rigidly following the existing rules and it is unclear whether or not the upgrade will change this in a significant way.