The north/south divide still alive and well

[Heatheronthehill]

So infections are dropping considerably where I live in the North West, we’ve had some sort of restrictions in place since July. Now that London and the South East have an increase in infections they are considering not allowing the mixing of households at Christmas time, my question is would they do the same if the situation was reversed?
I’m also angry that there’s an uproar over tier 3 and how dreadful it is, when we’ve been living with the same up here for months.

I suppose many will disagree, but I feel there’s a real bias towards the North unfortunately.

Me too. We’ve been in Tier 3 forever, school cases really high.

But it’s looking after the boys in London isn’t it?

I cannot believe that London went into tier 2 at all.
I’ve been reading about/ watching the reactions online and it’s as if this is a new thing! Loads of sob stories about people losing money. The North has been dealing with this for weeks if not months.
We should have all been in this together from the start. A level playing field.

Yes - agree 100%.

Our cases have fallen hugely - no mention of moving us to tier 2, everyone's too busy being outraged that London and the SE are moving into tier 3.

Yes totally, my area of the north east is under 100 cases per 10000 and has come down by more than any other authority..bet we are still in tier 3 on Thursday.

I completely agree.
I'm the NW too and we should move into tier 2 but I bet we don't.

It's utterly depressing

I agree but do you want people from the London and South East bringing it to where you are?

The NW suffered a spike when students brought the virus there. Do they have plans to prevent the same thing happening again in Jan?

Part of the SE is already in tier 3 (Kent) but we always get lumped in with London and the vitriol towards it. So sick of being treated as a London extension simply because we're in the SE. We'll be bearing the brunt of Brexit next month and the roads around Folkestone and Dover have been blocked with lorries for weeks now. Human excrement thrown into gardens. But who cares because we're not London. Not a South North divide but a London rest of England one.

I agree. Where is our mass testing? School testing? Why are the south getting it now?

They announced today that rapid tests would be made available for all secondaries from January

www.gov.uk/government/news/secondary-schools-and-colleges-to-get-weekly-coronavirus-testing

@PotteringAlong

I agree. Where is our mass testing? School testing? Why are the south getting it now?

We're not getting it in my part of Kent.

Absolutely I've said it before and I'll say it again it's a shit show .
I don't know what to believe anymore !!

*We'll be bearing the brunt of Brexit next month and the roads around Folkestone and Dover have been blocked with lorries for weeks now.

Kent voted for Brexit, London didn’t. I’m not sure you can blame us for that.

I do think the north has been ignored though, I hope those areas that have seen drops and have had restrictions for so long move into tier 2.

@TicTacTwo

They announced today that rapid tests would be made available for all secondaries from January

The plans for rapid testing will lead to more spread of covid within schools. The purpose of the tests is to test close contacts so that they can stay in school if negative rather than 10 day isolation.

It's not about revenge it's about treating everyone the same . Greater Manchester had extra restrictions imposed in august when the cases were as low as 20 over 100,000 in some parts, of course they increased because schools and universities went back etc but Boris said it was too early to say if it worked this was before the 2nd lockdown.
It may well have been or it may have just been inevitable but cases have gone down a lot where London is increasing so what will Boris do ?

Yep. I’m in West Yorkshire & frankly I’m disgusted at how we’ve been treated. We’ve basically had restrictions the entire year. We had 3 weeks when we could go in other peoples houses & to dinner with other households. 3 weeks. We’ve been in ‘tier 2’ since August. Except they banned us meeting in parks as well. Our hospitality industry has obliterated. With zero support until it bloody affected London.

I’ve got no issue with the north/south thing usually. My OH is from Hampshire & I lived there for years. I’ve never really considered it any kind of issue. But this really highlights how little we are thought of. It makes me angry.

@chloworm completely agree. Originally from Kent but now in south west. Rates down here don’t look too bad but our cities are small and hospitals can’t cope with much more. My theory with the tiers was that they needed a tier 3 in the south so went for Kent and London would have had more economic impact so Kent was the only one in 3.

However, the north/ south London/rest of England is a politician and media thing. Normal people care that people in our country have had far stricter restrictions. We’re not unsympathetic southern bastards.

I’m in north and agree opp I think tomorrow all of England will be in tier 3. If London is everyone is

Like to say tier 3 isn’t nice but you get used to it. I have nothing against southerners, but there is a divide I hadn’t noticed before

It's a north / London divide. South west is an afterthought.

@PotteringAlong

I agree. Where is our mass testing? School testing? Why are the south getting it now?

We’re not getting it in my part of London, in fact the majority of London isn’t getting it. 67 places (including the North) are getting it

The whole of the UK went into lockdown in March when case levels were low everywhere but London.

When levels were high in the North (actually our first wave) London/most of south didn't lock down.

High rates in London + new strain = potentially banning Christmas mixing for the whole country

Anyone who DOESNT see the north/south divide is obtuse