I was talking with a London friend two days ago, an evening voice call at an agreed time. It was chiefly a long catch-up conversation, but we touched on other subjects, such as the rapidly growing number of coronavirus cases in certain areas of the country. And my friend said something that I hadn't occurred to me.
We were discussing why London, South Wales, and the cities of the North - a whole swathe of them - were now generating such a high rate of infections. I'd put it down mainly to local conditions of one kind or the other, mixed in with particular local attitudes and social customs that made cross-infection likelier than in - say - the Devon countryside.
My friend went further. She said that these high-infection places were the very ones that had remained staunchly Labour in the December 2019 General Election. The inference? That diehard Labour supporters were getting infected in large numbers by ignoring all the social-distancing rules.
Her suggestion was that these places were full of people totally opposed to the current Conservative government, now and forever. And fully minded to ignore or defy any health measures that the government were promoting, simply to spite the government. Regardless of the penalties. And never mind the high risk of contracting a serious respiratory disease that might prove an uncomfortable experience, and in some cases life-threatening or even fatal. If not for them, then for those in their circle.
As for who in these Labour strongholds was being so reckless, it was presumably the younger constituents (meaning young adults) who felt invulnerable to infection, and didn't care about infecting somebody older who definitely was vulnerable. These were places where night-time clubbing was very much part of the social scene.
I thought afterwards that my friend had made a good point, but I still wanted to compare maps of election results with a recent map of infection cases. Fortunately I had taken screenshots of the December 2019 General Election results, and the ZOE Covid-19 app gave me the current infection map. Here they are. The ZOE map first, then three maps that between them show (in red) where the Labour vote won the seat.
Well, there does seem to be a strong geographical correlation - in England and Wales anyway - between the constituencies who returned a Labour MP (coloured red) and the locations of the latest infections (the black dots on the top map). So I'm thinking my friend was spot on. Hard core Labour voters must indeed be refusing to comply with national safeguards. In effect, deliberate civil disobedience.
Who are they? Surely not responsible mums and dads? Are they then young macho working-class men who want to give a vigorous two fingered salute to Boris Johnson? Could some - or many - be university students bent on enjoying themselves? Or is it just a rump of ill-educated, feckless idiots out of their minds with boredom, booze and drugs?
This striking correlation hasn't yet been highlighted by any public body or political party. Little wonder about that: it would be a political hot potato. You know, 'good' conservative voters versus 'evil' Labour voters. Not to be discussed.
Still, I hope that the Labour Party has already launched an urgent internal enquiry into why people in its heartlands seem to be contributing so greatly to an ongoing and worsening health crisis. I look forward to results from that. After all, Labour is so good at taking a deep, honest look at itself.
