It is very possible - other culturally Anglo-Saxon & Celtic originated states have shown that to be the case - and it is at that point in Summer that a hard lockdown could have the biggest medium term payback.

It would be more difficult to implement than for Australia, New Zealand or even Isle of Man, given our geographical location, dozens of international entry points and our reputation as an open global-hub, but our independent island status makes it more achievable than Germany for instance. We'd probably need a 5 nation approach, and recruit the Republic of Ireland in the effort, so that the island of Eire can also achieve covid-free status.

However laissez-fair Britain under Boris lacks the political will, or the public appetite and discipline, to sacrifice 10 days of high-summer, to avoid thousands of additional lives lost and months of extended draconian measures next winter.

My question was as much a thought experiment, and if anyone's response was a shrug of the shoulders, and a sense of fatalism that it can't be done, it is just another sad reflection of the sorry state the UK polity is in, as well as we as individuals.

If we tighten restrictions and quarantine at the border and limit international entry points to three or four, and if we have a 10 day Melbourne-style hard lockdown with ramped up contact tracing at the beginning of August 2021 when like last year, daily reported new cases nationally may only be in the hundreds, or low thousands, combined with the vaccines, could the UK extinguish Covid on the island of Great Britain, and achieve zero-Covid ahead of autumn/winter 2021?

The geographic tiered system can work in areas of England, as it has done in Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Auckland, and is still the best way forward. However:

The geographic units used in England need to be clear, stick to County Council areas, Unitary Authority areas, and where applicable entire Metropolitan Areas (e.g Metro West Mids, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, West Yorkshire). Consider adding a buffer around areas with an elevated covid incidence. Hence if Metro West Mids is placed into lockdown, so should Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and Staffordshire also be placed into lockdown.

A much more binary approach to the tiered system is required, so Tier 1 (a Summer phase) would basically be the levels of restrictions we saw in southern England in August 2020, and Tier 2 (a Winter phase) would be full on lockdown as we have now, but even stricter in terms of limiting out of area travel. There would also be Tier 0, which would basically be a return to normal (as the Isle of Man, although not part of the UK, has achieved). Tier 0 would really only be plausible and achievable for isolated areas, such as Isles of Scilly and Isle of Wight, also potentially Norfolk and Cornwall.

We need to close down international air travel for passengers. There should be three entry points into UK, preferably away from populated areas, but most plausibly Heathrow, Manchester and Glasgow. Eurostar passenger services should only run from mainland Europe to Ashford, and not into London. ALL international travellers should be quarantined on return to the UK (not including road hauliers).

We have vaccines, but it still a question mark as to how effective they are against the South African variant, and there will be newer variants that emerge, so we have to plan for a worst case scenario where we are back where we are now in October 2021.

Certainly a unique take on how we have wound up where we are. You are right to say that the Remain camp are far from blame free when it comes to explaining the current mess.

What a mess Boris has made, but is anyone really surprised?! It looks as if he will likely go down in history as being the PM who performed the worst act of political vandalism in at least 300 years with his ramshackle Brexit deal - and the end of our Union as we know it is the price we will all pay, along with, and as importantly, peace in Northern Ireland.

The internment and imposed cultural cleansing of the innocent individuals in the Uighar-Muslim population is unacceptable (even if the motive for that policy is understandable).

However it is not what I would term as genocide, given what I have read about the treatment of individuals in that region. Brits should definitely not turn a blind-eye to it, and it does justify the imposition of sanctions on China and the communist regime to hit home the message of our disapproval.

If it were to escalate to full-on genocide, we would have a moral duty to intervene militarily.

Boris has betrayed Northern Ireland - his shoddy Brexit deal, like his response to covid, is turning out to be another car crash in slow motion. Some kind of customs union with the EU is the only thing that can square this circle - but does Boris have the wherewithal to push for reopening negotiations to reach for that deal? If not, we will wave bye bye to a United Kingdom of four Nations.

To be honest I don't see any difference these days between CGTN, RT and our own BBC.

The only difference is the BBC pumps out propaganda on behalf of the European Union and promotes a Globalist Liberal agenda - the "privilege" for which is paid out of the pockets of the mugs willing to be rinsed for the annual TV license fee.

Maybe CGTN and RT aren't that bad after all.....

I don't think Aus or NZ are good comparisons given their warmer winter climates and opposite seasons to ours (combined they have had about 1000 covid deaths), so let's take a look at Canada. Population of 37 million people (more than half the size of the UK), highly urbanized diverse population - Toronto is the third most populous city in North America. Total deaths about 20,000. We do ourselves a disservice if we think we could not have responded far better. The magnitude of the car crash in slow motion that has been the second wave is particularly unforgivable.

I suppose 100,000 dead people weren't able to vote in the poll.