Blaming the north, never blaming London

[Malteser71]

So I used to think this stuff was imagined, chip on shoulder type stuff.

But it’s apparent that the current Omnicron crisis is much worse in London. Bigger numbers, more unvaccinated. Pretty much twice the case rate to the part of the country where I live.

However, I don’t hear this much in the news.

I do remember hearing that cases were huge in the north west last winter. Those dirty northerners!

It does seem that you can’t criticise London, but you can tear the north apart and make examples of them.

Meh!

There's such a thing as travel. It's not unheard of for Northerners to travel to London and vice versa

Well, london is a mega city with fuck loads of people coming in and out of several huge international transport hubs and the country's highest population density plus a range of different cultural attitudes towards vaccination and groaning services/hospitals.

What is the north's excuse?

The Government and media are based in London. They aren’t going to lobby for harsher restrictions for themselves (or even follow the restrictions we do have, apparently).

It isn’t a North/South conspiracy. If Westminster suddenly relocated to Newcastle, suddenly the story would flip and it would be crime-ridden overcrowded London, full of reckless youngsters socialising without a thought for anyone else. The media were quite happy to be rude about Kent when the alpha variant appeared.

Oh dear. That'll teach me for popping in one final time before bed. I'm up too late as it is.

Here you go OP

Not the North, but if you want a 'dirty Londoner' story. A Devon news publication refers to the many many returning locals (who live temporarily in London) as 'Londoners fleeing'. Erm no. They're locals returning home for Christmas.

The Government and media are based in London.

No. MPs are there temporarily for work. Outside of that, most fuck off from London as soon as they can. Boris to Chequers, Rishi to his affluent North Yorks constituency (or California), the others all over the country. And actually the media - some of them - moved to Greater Manchester.

And as you know OP. Who suffers from lack of reporting/mitigations? That's right. Londoners. Particularly the million+ elderly and vulnerable ones.

You'll know too that each time mitigations have been put in place, before each bad wave, it's come too late for London.

Right. Enough playing the regional division game. I'm off to bed. Sleep well.

I think you just focus more on news that is local to you. I live in a completely different part of the country and I don't remember hearing anything about large numbers in the North-West last winter. I only remember that my town had the highest number of cases in the country last Christmas.

I live in the North West and I find it frustrating that we keep getting the highest number for the longest period of time. And no one can give a reason why. So I can understand why other areas get annoyed at us.

I don’t know where you get your news, but I’ve certainly read very recently that a third of Londoners are not vaccinated. It was probably in the Times, and was put down to a young/transient population who aren’t registered with a GP, plus the numbers of ethnic minorities who are wary of vaccines.

I do remember lots of coverage of numbers in the North last winter, however I also remember London being Tier 4 and having Christmas cancelled last winter along with the North, when the rest of the country were allowed to meet. Regional factionalism doesn’t help anyone.

@alienbaby

Well, london is a mega city with fuck loads of people coming in and out of several huge international transport hubs and the country's highest population density plus a range of different cultural attitudes towards vaccination and groaning services/hospitals.

What is the north's excuse?

Oh look we’re still getting blamed! Last year my area of Lancashire had 0-3 cases per week consistently yet we were in tier 4 and accused on here of being dirty, lower class and less intelligent.

What hope have we got in fighting a global pandemic when these petty divisive attitudes towards covid continue to prevail in our own country?

I don’t hear either London or ‘the North’ being blamed for anything or criticised.

Kent got plenty of negative attention though when the virus was found to have mutated there, and Kent is right next to London.

I don't understand this thread. I regularly read about how large sections of London are unvaccinated (variety of reasons). What are you reading?

Or is this another opportunity to do exactly what you complain about others doing - stoking division.

@alienbaby

Well, london is a mega city with fuck loads of people coming in and out of several huge international transport hubs and the country's highest population density plus a range of different cultural attitudes towards vaccination and groaning services/hospitals.

What is the north's excuse?

The north has its own areas of dense population and different cultural attitudes towards vaccination. We also have full hospitals, long waiting lists, and services blaming Covid for all their problems. So not much difference.

I hate threads like this. They're just so divisive. And pointless. Rates have fluctuated all over the country. In the summer they were high in Cornwall and very low in the part of London where I live. At various times they've been higher in the north than in London.

I'm a northerner who lives in London.

The major difference with the higher infection rates in the North last year and earlier this year was that with the same variant and and similar vaccination rates the infection rate was still considerably higher in the North.

The infection rate is currently higher in London as it has more Omicron, it will be higher everywhere once it has spread more, if future spread follows previous data then when it is properly endemic in the North then the North will have higher infection rates than the rest of the country.

London's issue is the lower vaccination rate, this has been commented on quite a lot on the news and in the media, both in terms of it being a public health issue, as well as many people asking why (which largely seems to be due to much lower update amongst ethnic minorities across the whole country and a far higher ethnic minority population in London).

1. The high infection rates in London are all over the news.
2. Low vaccination rates in London are largely due to lower take up in some ethnic groups and in areas of substantial poverty. It's really concerning and needs action, not sneering.

Really struggling to see the point of this thread or why anyone would think it acceptable to try to score points over people dying. A truly horrible post.

I live in the North. Southerners pointing the finger and saying how we were dirty and full of germs gave me the rage. Because a large part of the reason why we had big spikes was because southerners were bringing it here.

I live near Lake District. We didn't get bad outbreaks until people started coming on holiday here.

@alienbaby

Well, london is a mega city with fuck loads of people coming in and out of several huge international transport hubs and the country's highest population density plus a range of different cultural attitudes towards vaccination and groaning services/hospitals.

What is the north's excuse?

Well I live in Bolton ,where we have had the highest rates in the UK twice We have our fair share of idiots who refuse to follow guidelines/ restrictions etc but I don't think that's Unique to us ,we are a large town ,with some densely populated areas,we are also a fairly multi cultural town ,with quite a bit of multi generational living But it's a virus and it spreads .

I'm hearing a lot about how cases are high in London But I do live in London, so I would.

I don't think anyone was pointing fingers and saying "dirty northerners" as people on the thread have commented. I know I was mostly commiserating with my BIL and SIL when they were under harder restrictions than us at points in Manchester.

Christmas day is the only day of the year I drive from my zone 4 suburb to my mum in zone 1. It's easy and quick cos London is empty over Christmas, cos everyone goes to their family elsewhere. Londoners aren't different people to everyone else, they're the same people, they are just currently living in London.

@alienbaby

Well, london is a mega city with fuck loads of people coming in and out of several huge international transport hubs and the country's highest population density plus a range of different cultural attitudes towards vaccination and groaning services/hospitals.

What is the north's excuse?

@alienbaby

The area of the North West where I live, we had one of the lowest covid rates in the UK during the first lockdown. It was when people started coming here on holiday that the shit really hit the fan. A lot of southerners come to my area on holiday. Most of the holiday homes are owned by southerners.

I think it depends what news feed you’re reading tbh. Ive heard loads about the rates of infection in London being high and vaccination rates being low?

I don’t remember any finger pointing, but I’m a southerner so maybe wasn’t as aware of it. If there was, maybe it was because areas of the north west had stubbornly high infection rates despite there being strict restrictions and so there was a perception it was due to them ‘breaking the rules’? This time there aren’t any rules to break.

Sadly, I think it’s a matter of time before Omicron hits the industrial north pretty hard. Omicron’s ability to reinfect people will mean that areas who have low rates currently due to high numbers of previous infection will be hit again, especially where booster rates are low. Although hopefully the fact it’s reinfection will result in less severe disease, as I think that’s what they’ve been finding in South Africa.

Anyway, hope all have a wonderful Christmas - north, south and everywhere in between. Being a dirty tier 4 near-Londoner we couldn’t spend it with family last year, so looking forward to it this time (if I can avoid Omicron, which genuinely is bloody everywhere in London 😬).

I agree OP

I should add I don’t believe we should be ‘blaming’ any part of the country, only the govt’s horrendous incompetence throughout this pandemic