Covid surges in the north and a loss of trust

If the government is looking for reasons why the spread of Covid-19 has necessitated the renewal of restrictions across the north of England ministers should stop visiting gin factories and look at the housing in former mill towns. Back-to-back homes, overcrowding, and casual employment that means that many were not eligible for furlough payments or had to continue working in the service industries are the reasons.

As JB Priestley wrote in the 1930s: “Every future historian of modern England should be compelled to take a good long slow walk round Gateshead. After that he can at his leisure fit it into his interpretation of our national growth and development.” Perhaps next time Boris Johnson ventures up north he could spare time to do just that.
Sarah Sheils
York

• Living in an area adjacent to one with increased restrictions due to a Covid-19 spike, my experience is that residents in lockdown areas are suffering misery – split between those who will not comply and those who are increasingly anxious about social contact of any sort. These are often in the same family. The result of this nightmare will be increased mental illness, domestic violence and divorce. Trust in our government has eroded and the behaviour of Dominic Cummings and Stanley Johnson was the final straw. Why comply when they don’t?
Dr Pauline McGovern
Brindle, Lancashire

• A couple of weeks ago, six retired Guardian-reading blokes who used to meet for a monthly pub lunch met in my garden. We observed two-metre distancing at all times, brought our own food, and used hand sanitiser and disinfectant sprays. No one entered the house.

Last Thursday such gatherings were banned here in Kirklees and across most of the north (Report, 31 July). We are allowed to meet in pub gardens, which round here have been packed, and in which none of the distancing rules seem to be obeyed. The government again seems guided by anything other than health and safety logic.
Neil Hanson
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

• The more I hear about people’s responses to the new restrictions in the north of England, the more I am reminded of the resentment felt when a teacher could not be bothered to investigate to find the culprits so detained the whole class.
Roy Grimwood
Market Drayton, Shropshire