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.

*High rates in “northern” cities. It’s too hard to split counties so lock the whole County Down.

High rates in southern cities. Break the County Down and avoid inconveniencing everyone*

Yes. I live in west yorkshire. Huge county. Massive area. I live in a small rural town with very low infection rates. But we’ve been lumped in with Leeds, Bradford, Dewsbury and all the densely populated areas. Yet Harrogate is physically closer to those areas, but by virtue of being North Yorks, escapes Tier 3.

The pandemic has really highlighted inequalities and people are frustrated. I am in Kirklees and we have been under restrictions since July when numbers were pretty low, we weren’t even been allowed to meet a family member outside throughout the summer. Yet in other areas people were given more much more freedom until the numbers were far higher. I don’t expect us to come out of restrictions any time soon and I’m certainly not glad to see other people going into higher tiers but it does feel like we have been treated differently. Media coverage was all people scoffing at us in the north wanting decent support in place for people, yet now it is in London people are all over the news worrying about business and theatres etc.

And as for contacting my MP, I was blocked by him for politely disagreeing with his decision to vote against free school meals while representing an area with huge deprivation. I could email but nobody ever gets anything but a standard cookie cutter reply.

The pandemic has really highlighted inequalities and people are frustrated. I am in Kirklees and we have been under restrictions since July when numbers were pretty low, we weren’t even been allowed to meet a family member outside throughout the summer. Yet in other areas people were given more much more freedom until the numbers were far higher. I don’t expect us to come out of restrictions any time soon and I’m certainly not glad to see other people going into higher tiers but it does feel like we have been treated differently. Media coverage was all people scoffing at us in the north wanting decent support in place for people, yet now it is in London people are all over the news worrying about business and theatres etc.

This is the crux of it really.

We also have a strong hospitality and entertainment sector and that has been decimated. This is not unique to London.

I think this country’s biggest issue is the pitting of one side against another all the time, always looking for the one “bad guy”, which is typical of a 2-party system. People don’t take smaller parties seriously, even when they have serious things to say. Two party systems do not comprehend the meaning of the word compromise.

Walkaround
I agree with everything you have just said.

PMQ fuel this each week. BJ is the worst offender imho. He is like a petulant child.

I agree with whoever said it's a london/everywhere else divide. London is used to take the temperature of the whole country even though its the least like everywhere else.

I'm in a rural county which during the first lockdown, had 5 cases per 100000. Being locked down that early was ridiculous for us.

I could understand the need for a national lockdown to ensure compliance. I agree that it is appalling that Northern areas have experienced ongoing severe restrictions since summer and I suspect if that had been the situation in London, they'd have reduced the isolation time and started mass testing in schools and universities from September.

Was quite appalled to see an article in the Guardian featuring London restaurant owners and the impact Tier 3 will have on them. Not a mention of all those business owners up and down the country have had Tier 3 (or equivalent) for months and months. But the media is London centric, and so it will ever be thus.

As others have said the News reporting hasent helped at all ,for the last few days the main head line is London going into Tier three and how badly it will affect Business ,s and hospitality ,as though Buissness,s and Hospitality collapsing in the rest of the country doesn't count .

Totally agree with you . Tier 3 all around me here and we’ve just got on with it , London goes into tier 3 and all of a sudden there’s talk of changing Christmas guidelines.
Schools round here managing bubbles and isolating now all of a sudden London’s in tier 3 and they get rapid testing .
Pathetic

There seems to be endless London bashing these days. People talk as if everyone in London is rich and in power. The majority of Londoners are just ordinary people struggling on the best they can and there are areas of London amongst the poorest in the country. Ordinary Londoners did not make the decisions about Tiers and are equally concerned about people nationwide.
It's only the London/southern bashing that tends to make Londoners anti Northerners.

We're not bashing Londoners - just the decisions that have been made which just scream inequality.

I am in Yorkshire in a area that’s been in Lockdown more or less constantly since May. Our rate has now dropped by over 50% and it’s now much less than London’s was when it was in T2 but will we get moved from T3 to T2? not a bloody chance

We need to look at why there is endless London bashing though. It’s not just a random made up thing. Something is driving it. Can you guess what?🤡

thesearmsofmine hello neighbour!

Have you read the post @Fairystory I don’t see anyone bashing Londoners(I am one, just I now live in the north) we are fed up of unequal treatment by those making the decision so and the media coverage,

Some posters that are accusing us of having a chip on our shoulders have short memories. There was a huge amount of vitriol towards the north when our cases first started to rise. Post after post of people ‘wondering’ why cases were higher in the north than the south, with the consensus being that it’s because we’re poor and too stupid to wear masks. There’s absolutely no posts wondering or suggesting the same things now cases are higher in the south. I don’t wish suffering on anyone but, if you’re southern, please don’t come on here trying to tell us in the north that our feelings are invalid when you have no idea what it’s like to live here. It’s the same as a man telling a woman there’s no such thing as female oppression based on his own experiences not actual women’s.

This is not about Londoners themselves at all. This is about media and government.
It's all poor London hospitality businesses, theatres etc. School's suddenly having increasing cases (we've had whole schools closing up north without this media attention) so we must do testing in schools etc.

So true @LadyCatStark ,it was all those ,poor ,thick Northerners do they not understand the importance of mask wearing etc

@Fairystory totally agree. I'm sick of hearing stuff like "oh poor Londoners how will they cope" we didn't choose any of this and the bitterness is directed the wrong way. Also it's clearly been said that the Xmas plans are not changing so probably no need for this thread

Colleague of DHs who lives in London said it just went nuts at the start of the month, people just letting off steam and going out loads. Which was entirely predictable and why London should never have been in Tier 2.

So now there’s the situation that cases of a faster spreading virus at exploding there, just in time for Xmas when loads of people will be leaving the capital and heading home all over the country, to areas that are still struggling, or areas that have managed to get on top of things one way and another.

What could go wrong and woulda thunk it eh?

Government is utterly biased, incompetent, callous and nonsensical.

I don't live in London or the North but I've seen those pics of Harrods and Oxford Street being touted as the reason why London is surging atm. Those are shopping places for tourists and daytrippers.

@TicTacTwo

I don't live in London or the North but I've seen those pics of Harrods and Oxford Street being touted as the reason why London is surging atm. Those are shopping places for tourists and daytrippers.

They are but all the people that work in those shops are Londoners. I think people expect that tier 3 will lead to pictures of a single pigeon in a deserted Oxford street - that’s not going to happen. They will be just as busy this coming weekend.

What people that don’t live here may not know is how closely London is linked.
An infected person getting on a tube in East London & travelling in to work could easily come in to contact with someone from every single London borough in the space of a return journey. Those people can then take it back to their respective boroughs.
There is no other area of the country where so many people can be reached by an infection so easily & starting from such a small number.

London theatres being so special- there are theatres in every major city and town shut for months, but it's only the London theatres that "bring joy" to it's patrons.

You do realise that London theatres haven't been open for months too right? The issue was that they JUST opened, two weeks ago, and now have to close again.

Can someone please explain what extra restrictions "the north" had over the summer? I can find an exclusion in Yorkshire and Manchester of not having people in your home, but we didn't really in "the south" either. Everyone pretty much met outside. Everyone was allowed to go out, shops were open, restaurants and pubs were open, people were allowed to go on holiday (which became the main driver of September infections), am I missing something, or was everything shut down in the North throughout the summer?