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New lockdowns in northern England are nonsensical and deeply unfair

preston - afp
preston - afp

Even in a pandemic, we're not immune to the age-old North-South divide 

Today my native county of Lancashire returns to semi-lockdown. My summer romance with the new normal is consciously uncoupling – goodbye summer and goodbye freedom, it was nice while it lasted.

But while my neighbours and I re-bolt the front door and close the garden gate, as for the foreseeable we’re banned from seeing anybody from outside our household in the privacy of our own home or garden, there is something nasty spreading throughout our village – confusion.

I agree the threat of a second peak in coronavirus cases is alarming and something needs to be done to curb the virus taking grip of what’s left of 2020 – but surely there must be a better way than imposing new, confusing and last-minute rules, without, it would appear, a nationwide standard?

New measures now in place across the North West vary so much it’s mind-blowing – when Boris introduced his rule of six (remember that?) the aim was to simplify his approach and get a firm grip on the virus. But the latest interventions throw any coherent message to the wind.

Since the official announcement on Friday that Lancashire (excluding Blackpool) was joining other areas in Manchester, Merseyside and the North East in semi-lockdown my social media feed has been filled with “Can I do this?”, “Can I go there?” and “Can I see you?” – it’s becoming seemingly more difficult to know the answer.

I’ll have a go though. From today, I'm allowed but advised not to visit the pub (until it closes at 10pm) with my brother who lives 15 minute away (in the same borough), but I cannot go out for tea with my friend who lives just five minute away (in neighbouring Preston city). However I can meet her in the Lake District for a socially-distanced walk (she’d be going against advice, not me) and I’m allowed to share a car with both of them if it's necessary, at different times, (better if we have the windows down though). While there’ll be no catching up over a coffee and episodes of Coronation Street at home we can see each other at the gym or hairdresser (from a safe distance). Meanwhile I’m allowed to let an estate agent into my house but am advised not to go watch my nephew play football at the weekend – but my mum can still pick him up from school. Oh, and forget the rule of six. You get the (blurry) picture – confused? It’s hard not to be.

We’re constantly reassured each Government decision is backed by science – so is Lancashire’s new normal all justified by numbers? Maybe. Cases in Preston (the closest city to my home), which has been under tight local lockdown restrictions since August 7, are alarmingly high – 1,339 per 100,000. But in neighbouring South Ribble (my local borough), a stone’s throw across the river, cases are significantly (more than half) lower – 633 per 100,000.

Us northerners are made of tough stuff but it’s hard to not take the new restrictions as a dig at the age-old North-South divide. In London’s boroughs, such as Redbridge, Southwark and Lambeth, cases are only marginally behind those in South Ribble, but no such restrictions have been brought in there. Can my Lancastrian friends and I not be trusted? What immunity do the residents of the capital have over us? I lived in London for over two years and never witnessed any immune-system superiority among my southern colleagues. A cough is a cough, whether it calls dinner, tea or lunch, dinner.

At the height of the pandemic fear mongering ruled the waves. Now it’s bewilderment, which unfortunately is only leading to dwindling trust in the rules. This will inevitably be followed by flouting, whether intentional or not, and then nobody is a winner.

You just have to look at images from Blackpool at the weekend to gauge the lack of understanding or respect people have for the new measures. As the sun shone on the Lancashire coast the promenade was full to bursting. Nobody would have guessed there was a pandemic resurgence.

Anyway, Blackpool is ‘safe’ – or so the new measures, or lack of them being introduced in the seaside town (despite its county border being within Lancashire), would suggest. However, the scientific reality is much different. Blackpool’s case rate is over a third more than that in South Ribble (900 per 100,000) – but families there can still pop round to each other's houses for a brew and a biscuit.

The new lockdown rules are the equivalent of a 10,000-piece jigsaw puzzle that Aunt Joyce bought you for Christmas as a way to keep you entertained during the cold winter nights, but in fact just leaves you frustrated and bored for the foreseeable future – an uncanny resemblance to my impending life in Lancashire’s semi-lockdown.