Anyone live in Leicester? The lockdown there has been extended.

What do you expect when the mayor visits and does odd jobs for his girlfriend (the other side if town) and stays the night during lockdown.No one has stuck to the rules so we all have to suffer.

Well said, those people pointing out that the population of Leicester with PakistanI origins is minute - about 2%, against over 50% white. Some of these posts are frankly racist, especially the ones about plane-loads of people from Pakistan flying in and going straight to hospital. Worthy of the appalling Daily Mail. Shame on you.

No one has said plane loads of people are going straight to hospital. But some people are. We cannot have people flying in from virus hotspots without being quarantined. We should have done it with people returning from skiing holidays in Italy and we need to do it with people returning/arriving from Pakistan. The number of cases in Pakistan is under reported. The fact that it's Pakistan is irrelevant. It's the fact it's a virus hotspot at the moment. If people want to think I'm a racist for saying so then sobeit.

The fact is MayBee70 that we DO have plane loads of people flying in with no quarantine because despite the UK government saying there is a quarantine and making a You Gov page to register on, NO ONE is checking either at airports or in any other way. I flew in on Sunday. I registered but there are no checks at all.

An alternative perspective on the UK situation is that WE are being reported on around the world as being 'Plague Island'.

It may well be that Pakistan has an outbreak, but as far as Europe are concerned WE are the risk factor.

‘We went through Leicester a year or so ago and it was mainly asians living there‘
I am afraid this is a lie, Timetogo.
The population of Leicester is over 50% white.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

The population of Leicester is not over 50% white! linkypinky I'm very proud of the diversity of my home city.

kittylester

The population of Leicester is not over 50% white! linkypinky I'm very proud of the diversity of my home city.

It was in the 2011 census. It was 50.6% white

Kittylester, where are you getting your information? I looked at the census data, demographic reports from the university, the local government site and even Wikipedia. Diversity is indeed a matter of pride, but it doesn’t alter the fact that the majority in Leicester is white. This is important to know to counteract the lazy tendency to blame ‘Pakistanis’, (while still respecting the disproportionate burden BAME people carry from Covid-19).
This is from the Local Government site:
Leicester residents hail from over 50 countries from across the globe, making the city one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse places in the UK:
51 per cent White
37 per cent Asian/Asian British (of whom 28 per cent are of Indian heritage1) 6 per cent Black/African/Caribbean/Black British
4 per cent Mixed/multiple ethnic groups
3 per cent Other ethnic groups

My son does not live near Leicester. He does have an Asian family live nearby. Every Thursday when the "clap for NhS" was ongoing he we t outside and found the Asian family of 4 children and two adults had at least 10 people outside. One evening he had a quick count of 13. He called over he thought they must be having a party in a joking way. The response he got was 'oh I know, they just won't stay away'. Apply this approach to lifestyle up and down the country and of course hot spots will develop. We need strict testing of all arriving in the UK and compulsory isolation not the let's hope people follow the rules. And of course, as in Germany everyone tested to find those who carry with virus without knowing and follow up on their contacts. No if buts and maybe's strict policies with penalties if not followed.

MayBee70

Illte; please can I reassure you that I didn't mention the flights due to racism of any kind on my part. Right from the start of the pandemic it was obvious that BAME people were disproportionately affected by covid, especially in the NHS but [as Maw pointed out] it seemed to be ignored for fear of it appearing racist/politically incorrect. It just reminded me of the way this country allowed Italians to enter from known hotspots right at the start of the pandemic and lessons did not appear to have been learned from it. Dr John Campbell is still convinced that BAME need to be given VitD supplements as a protection but this is still something being largely ignored in this country. It's beyond me that people from anywhere are still flying into the country without proper checks and I, too will be self isolating way into the future and not seeing my children or grandchildren, even outside in gardens. By doing so I hope to protect both myself and others. But we can't let political correctness get in the way of protecting people. Certain things have to be eliminated to get to the bottom of these outbreaks. Meat processing plants have been hotspots throughout the world; I do hope that they are being studied carefully.

No! There was actually a report on it, which has been ignored by the government. Kemi Badenoch, the Equality Minister, is supposed to be investigating. However, she stood up in Parliament and said nobody knew enough about the causes of the excess deaths. She flatly denies racism in the UK. She happens to be my MP and I know she also thinks the poor are responsible for their own circumstances.

So it's not race nor poverty which has caused excess deaths. What is it? Not surprisingly, the report into excess BAME Covid deaths seems to be still in her inbox.

4allweknow

My son does not live near Leicester. He does have an Asian family live nearby. Every Thursday when the "clap for NhS" was ongoing he we t outside and found the Asian family of 4 children and two adults had at least 10 people outside. One evening he had a quick count of 13. He called over he thought they must be having a party in a joking way. The response he got was 'oh I know, they just won't stay away'. Apply this approach to lifestyle up and down the country and of course hot spots will develop. We need strict testing of all arriving in the UK and compulsory isolation not the let's hope people follow the rules. And of course, as in Germany everyone tested to find those who carry with virus without knowing and follow up on their contacts. No if buts and maybe's strict policies with penalties if not followed.

And it's just Asian families who have ignored social distancing, is it?

BTW Are they Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladesi, Malay ...? Asia is a big continent.

tigerfangran

What do you expect when the mayor visits and does odd jobs for his girlfriend (the other side if town) and stays the night during lockdown.No one has stuck to the rules so we all have to suffer.

Are you seriously suggesting that Soulsby deliberately infected Leicester residents? This is a "non sequitur".

There are so many reasons why Leicester is in lockdown. If you lived here you would know why. Primarily young people socialising outside of takeaways, carparks. Eid could have been an issue. Police, ambulances etc try their best but dealing with large groups is not easy. It's depressing. Just hoping I can hold on to my hair appointment but I doubt it.

timetogo2016

Spot on JenniferEccles.
We went through Leicester a year or so ago and it was mainly asians living there.

Walsall will be next.
And before i get accused of being racist by some,let me tell you that is far from the truth as i am stating a fact.

.....people can “state facts” AND still be racist.

It’s not mutually exclusive

Just trawling through the various posts on gransnet you'll see that loads of people are mixing with friends and family. Lots of hugs and it was worth it. Lots of encouragement from others - "go for it."

Believing that it's someone else who's responsible means that people still aren't taking responsibility for their own behaviour.

Ive just been visited by a neighbour who was rather put out that I wouldn't open the door to her and talked through a window. I opened it a fraction because she couldn't hear me and then she coughed!

That's me on edge for the next week!

Well trigger, you're prepared to take the risk with the hair appointment.
Lots of different clients, one after the other, all going back to families, work, friends.
It's not much different to seeing your mates in a car park really.

Illte

Just trawling through the various posts on gransnet you'll see that loads of people are mixing with friends and family. Lots of hugs and it was worth it. Lots of encouragement from others - "go for it."

Believing that it's someone else who's responsible means that people still aren't taking responsibility for their own behaviour.

Ive just been visited by a neighbour who was rather put out that I wouldn't open the door to her and talked through a window. I opened it a fraction because she couldn't hear me and then she coughed!

That's me on edge for the next week!

Well, we must all “do what feels right to our own common sense now” mustn’t we?

It’s bonkers how many people say that, and then get upset that other people are doing the same thing.

My son and his family live in Leicester, they think they had the virus in April but can't be sure. When lockdown was eased they went out to support local business by buying food and drink from kiosks and doing some non essential shopping. Granddaughter was allowed a few friends to her birthday party in the garden. Local grandma joined their bubble, such as it was. Now they're locking down again and wonder why.

Listening to the Leicester mayor and wondering what he is paid for. He was waiting for local statistics from central government and was unaware of local outbreaks. Surely in a time of crisis local councillors would have their fingers on the pulse in their community and report regularly to the mayor, seems he was busy elsewhere.

I shouldn't have opened the window.
That's twice I've let someone over rule my gut instinct.

At the beginning of June a relative asked to pay a garden visit. I said yes though I was uneasy about it. She seemed so relaxed and confident it was OK. Two days later she had a cough and a positive test result.

You have no idea how stressful it was waiting to see if I'd caught it. And now I've let politeness and social pressure put me back there!

Illte, you're making assumptions and I resent it. I have a mobile hairdresser. We have known each other a long while and are both intelligent and mature people. For instance I am sure we would wear a mask before opening the front door to a neighbour rather than not answer or talk through the window. Don't be surprised if she never speaks to you again and probably coughed as a joke.

There is a difference between stating cultural facts vis racist comments. I live in a part of Leicestershire where I am part of the ethnic MINORITY. In Leicester we have made cultural diversity work, we have had to. Certainly, we have had our problems but we have a lot to offer each other.

The local Mayor needs to be informed about the number of cases in the area. They can't depend on 'hearing about it' from locals or pick the knowledge out of thin air. Of course he didn't realise there was a serious outbreak until he got the government data. 2 weeks late....

Now, if the government had used Local authorities' expertise in tracing contacts the Mayor would have known about the outbreak a great deal earlier.

Our border should have been policed weeks ago its not political its a public health issue When Foot and Mouth was rampant we policed the border for essential traffic and that should have been the case now.
We've been doing well after a shaky start when Nicola Sturgeon followed Boris' dodgy "scientific advice" thats the advice the "scientists" at the briefings wouldn't endorse!

Since we've had our own advisory panels its gone much better and the figures are heading the right way .That how we would prefer it to stay and the tourists or "returning natives" should stay where they are for the forseeable future