I think the mistake by northern Labour is to pose this as the North vs the South issue. The disease impacts the poor and the vulnerable far more than the better off. I completely agree with what
@Monitor Gold 10 has been saying. In a similar vein, there was a story this week about Royal Mail in Cardiff refusing to deep clean a depot where there has been a big outbreak, in a squabble over who was to pay for it. As we have seen, there is no unity between Burnham and the right wing Tories in Lancashire over poverty, low wages, a shocking benefit system etc, which affects people in the London boroughs, the Midlands and Wales etc., as much as in parts of GM. A defeat for Burnham i.e imposition will have repercussions elsewhere. I can just imagine Burnham running to courts challenging pub closures, it's just not the kind of Leadership in public health that we need. Soon Manchester, like Lancashire, will have more patients on ventilation than during the first wave but Burnham will have opposed the measures (however pitiful). Better to agree and say but...
