Leicester

[GreenPlum]

What's going on in Leicester? They've had restrictions imposed since the summer yet their rolling rate is still 440 per 100,000.

The sweatshops are probably still open in Leicester it is the capital of UK for it.

Basically a huge part of the community in Leicester is flouting the rules continuously. I work there, but live rurally. It’s quite a complicated city but there’s problems with crowded multi generational housing and religious celebrations continuing outside the rules. Alongside poor working conditions and high levels of deprivation.
There’s very little compliance essentially.

Last time I went to Leicester, I was really surprised at the number of people in shops that weren't wearing masks. I'm in Nottingham and almost everyone wears one.

@Megan2018

Basically a huge part of the community in Leicester is flouting the rules continuously. I work there, but live rurally. It’s quite a complicated city but there’s problems with crowded multi generational housing and religious celebrations continuing outside the rules. Alongside poor working conditions and high levels of deprivation. There’s very little compliance essentially.

Where are the Marshalls?

@Toddlerteaplease

Last time I went to Leicester, I was really surprised at the number of people in shops that weren't wearing masks. I'm in Nottingham and almost everyone wears one.

Leicester's a very libertarian city.

I see. Thank you so much for taking some time to explain.

@User158340
I can’t say I’ve seen many, it’s a bit challenging because no one wants to say it-but it’s the Asian areas that have the highest numbers and no-one wants to be accused of prejudice (even though it’s plainly obvious that it’s a factor in the spread due to the cultural norms in those communities). So they are just being left to get on with it.
Interestingly our student numbers are quite low and compliance is good on campus. But large weddings etc are still taking place on the quiet in the community.

Yep unfortunately people are just fed up and have given up on the rules.

Unlike the rest of the country we have been in some form of lockdown/enhanced restrictions since the beginning of the first lockdown.

It has been against the rules for us to mix households indoors since MARCH!!

Me and my family are still following the rules, we hate it, we miss our relatives dreadfully, my in laws are in their 70s with underlying health conditions and care for gran who's in her 90s. We have seen gran a few times through the window and met up with in laws in parks socially distanced or talked to each other on the driveway. That's it. Me and DH both WFH now so we really have had no interaction with anyone outside our home for 8 months other than a brief hello at school drop off and pick up and a handful of visits with family in a park.

Everywhere I go people are not wearing masks, gathering at school gates for a chat, independent small shops that should be closed are staying open, people are not getting tested because that way they don't have to self isolate.

Lockdown fatigue is well and truly embedded and I have absolutely no idea how the situation will possibly improve here now because until there is a vaccine we are reliant on compliance.

You paint a grim picture Shrinking Fat Girl. I can totally understand lockdown fatigue and you have my sympathy. The sacrifices you are making take their toll and for you, I hope they will not be in vein. It's a sad situation with no hope that people will all of a sudden do the right thing. What would it take?

I think the only thing that would cause people to comply now would be enforcement. I just don't know if we should be fining and arresting people on a mass scale.

Could at least some of it be to do with the mass testing trial of the rapid test at de Montfort university? They’ve been doing it there for a week or so already, I believe.

Large swathes of the community (and especially the Asian communities) haven't listened to the restrictions from the start, a mayor who is too busy breaking them himself (and selling off public buildings for £1) to do anything about rules breakages, and everyone blaming it on each other will be the main factors.

Not to say any of it is the fault of the Asian community, many of whom are literal slaves or are being exploited by others and forced to work in unsanitary conditions for much below minimum wage.

The issues elsewhere in Leicestershire are largely due to non-compliance with social distancing amongst children and parents on the school run and in playgrounds, older people seemingly forgetting there is a pandemic and local businesses failing to enforce mask use or social distancing on their premises.

It is complicated. It's also clear that some communities have not complied and nothing is being done to deal with this.

People also feel forgotten, and desperate. Restrictions never lifted for the city centre, and it does feel like none remembers this or cares.

@FatGirlShrinking I agree with all of your post with the exception of some shops being open.

I haven't seen any open shops which fall outside of the quite broad definition of shops which are allowed to open. Many are allowing click and collect, but again this is allowed.

I'm sorry, but this thread is in poor taste and has a nasty undertone to it.

If Leicester is doing badly because of the Asian community, then why don't other areas with high numbers of Asian people have the same problems?

I live in the North East, and the council estate close to me has been notorious for disobeying the COVID rules. Every time I drive past I see people (without masks) breaking the rules. The police are there most nights breaking up parties/ fights. Sadly, the small number of rule breakers there are making everyone on the estate look bad, but there's no way I would solely blame the COVID spread on working class white brits (The majority of the people on that estate are white British).

There’s a lot of rubbish being talked in this thread. It reeks of ‘I’m not racist but..’.

Leicester was initially locked down due to a spike in cases in one area of the city - there was a lot of spread between exploited employees in workplaces with very, very poor working practices and the often multi-generational households they were living in. Locking down initially was the right decision, and it did work - cases came down.

As cases came down in Leicester, however, they were shooting up in other areas of the country. At one point Leicester’s rates were sitting at about 90, while other towns and cities which WEREN’T in lockdown were in the 300-400’s. The rates here remained considerably lower than a lot of places that weren’t in lockdown for quite some time. Why is that? I’m not sure, but there was certainly a sense that the city had been forgotten about. Since then cases have of course increased everywhere, including Leicester.

I can’t remember the last time I saw anyone in a shop in Leicester who wasn’t wearing a mask. As far as I’ve seen, and I live fairly centrally in the city, adherence to the rules has been pretty high amongst all communities. I’ve noticed zero difference in mask-wearing between different races. In fact the worst offenders I’ve see in my work travels (usually on trains) are white males aged 25-40.

I also know there have been a LOT of cases in student halls in the city. There are two universities here so there’s a high student population. My stepson’s girlfriend is in halls in the West End and her entire (very large) building seem to have had it. Only a third of her classmates (on a hands-on course) have been able to attend classes over the past month because they’ve all been ill too.

@NonCisWoman
The particular problems with the Asian community in Leicester are nothing to do with the race of the people in said community and are entirely down to the combination of mass exploitation within the community and the long running cowardice of the police and local council to take control of issues within the community that has led to gang masters effectively taking control of the community. While large swathes of the population continue to feel forced to follow the advice of gang masters and the police and council are effectively being controlled by the gang masters nothing can be done that will get the situation under control.

It's also important to state that it is an exceptionally small number of individuals who are involved in the exploitation of others and that the much larger problem is the long term failings of the city council in ensuring those moving to the city were able to access things such as English lessons and employment support as well as devolving the provision of what little support to community groups of varying standards and that were not properly being overseen that has allowed such a situation to take hold.

@nonciswoman other areas are having similar problems, Oldham, Blackburn, Bradford......

The area of Leicester city that I live in is predominantly white not Asian and compliance here is not great.

Every time I go to Asda there's a man on the door handing out free disposable masks to people wandering in without them. They aren't refusing due to exemptions they just had no intention of wearing a mask.

My daughters school have had a wear a mask at drop off/pick up rule since they went back in August, probably 50% of parents actually wear one.

We have had parties happening in houses round her all the way through.

The newspapers liked the sweatshop angle as it was a good controversial story and it is happening, but not on the scale that some would have us think.

[quote Megan2018]@User158340
I can’t say I’ve seen many, it’s a bit challenging because no one wants to say it-but it’s the Asian areas that have the highest numbers and no-one wants to be accused of prejudice (even though it’s plainly obvious that it’s a factor in the spread due to the cultural norms in those communities). So they are just being left to get on with it.
Interestingly our student numbers are quite low and compliance is good on campus. But large weddings etc are still taking place on the quiet in the community.[/quote]
There's a lot of towns and cities in England with similarly high Asian population though that have been far less affected. There's something unique about Leicester.

@FatGirlShrinking

I think the only thing that would cause people to comply now would be enforcement. I just don't know if we should be fining and arresting people on a mass scale.

Leicester's at the point where you either enforce the rules vigorously or just accept the majority will not comply. As i said above there's a unique feel about Leicester in terms of rebelling against Covid and fatigue is part of that, as they've never fully come out of lockdown.

The problem is, the authorities rely on the majority complying and factor in a percentage of non-compliance. Those who are doing what's right are actually the minority in Leicester which just isn't the case in a lot of other places.

Loughborough is nearby, has a higher rate at the Uni compared with the Leicester picture I believe (someone may correct me), and Charnwood (wider area) was going into Tier 2 before the national lockdown announced?