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.

Not another North V South bashing. So tedious

@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?

Are you joking? Ever been to Manchester?

Strange thread- it’s a virus and it’ll spread as viruses do, it’s not about blame.

All I’ve read is about how high cases are in London, how it would be dominant strain in London first, how many Londoners would be infected by Christmas. I’ve barely heard anything about other parts of the UK other than Scotland.

You want vinegar with that huge chip OP?

@Cakemonger

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

I don't think one can blame "part of the country", because those areas still contain many varied people, but there are certainly a lot of people who will accept no personal responsibility and I do blame them.

I am no fan of the Johnson administration, they have made many mistakes, but the reality is that their response has been pretty much in line with most of Europe and that infection and deaths were inevitable.

Many, many people have refused to test, have ignored positive tests, have said that "it's only a cold" then gone on to spread Covid around. Even during the first lockdown when compliance was generally high there were groups of people who continually ignored the rules. Those are the people I have an issue with. I don't disagree that the government has made many mistakes, the public have also got weary and less compliant as time has gone on, but there was a significant minority of the public who would have screwed things up regardless of what the government did.

I remember last year there was a thread on here saying that the North should be made to lockdown and the rest of the country left to enjoy their freedoms as the North had the highest infection rate and was therefore responsible for covid, it was said on the thread that it was the Northerners own fault for not sticking to the rules. Never mind that parts of "the North" had recently had influence of tourists from other areas ehich was all well within the rules of the time, never mind that covid infections spread like a wave/ripple and at that time "the North" was at the edge of the epicentre so while cases were dropping elsewhere they were climbing up here as that wave spread outwards.

FWIW I live in "the North" and my area has one of the highest vaccine take-up rates with over 90% of residents having had at least one dose, we also had one of the highest rates of compliance with lockdown and subsequent restrictions.

So nobody remembers Andy Burnham’s stance on Manchester last year? How it was being placed into constant restrictions when London had not (at compatible stages)?

Wouldnt say I’ve a chip in my shoulder. I live in the north now, but I lived half my life in Wiltshire. Do remember friends in both Wiltshire and Suffolk joking about ‘filthy northerners’ when our rates were high here in Lancashire. Hadnt crossed my mind before that.

Hadn’t personally ever viewed it as a regional problem, more a wave that starts in one place and spreads to others. But definitely know people who thought that way

It just starts in London because that’s a bigger transport/travel hub. Then it spreads north and west. I don’t blame London. If Londoners blame or blamed northerners last year then they’re morons.

Do remember friends in both Wiltshire and Suffolk joking about ‘filthy northerners’ when our rates were high here in Lancashire

Sounds like you need better friends, OP. I’d be appalled if I heard people joking like that.

Andy Burnham’s remarks were aimed at the government in Westminster. He wasn’t blaming Londoners (although to be fair he does have form for stirring up division where it helps him politically). Poor people dying in Tower Hamlets aren’t to blame for poor people dying in Lancashire or vice versa. Blaming people for being the victims of a mismanaged public health crisis is pretty low.