I don't think it's controversial to observe that the darker blue parts of Oldham, Rochdale, Halifax, Dewsbury, Bradford, Keighley, Leicester and other places connote some sort of link with a higher proportion of BAME populations.
Sooty's map link
www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=47574f7a6e454dc6a42c5f6912ed7076
The Calderdale MP Craig Whittaker has come under fire for saying that Muslim and BAME communities aren't taking COVID seriously. I think that's a bit of a leap and he was a bit naive to say it. Shared multi-generational housing, density, and the mooted higher vulnerability of some ethnicities should be in the frame somewhere. I dare say age profile comes into it as well.
Frankly the boss and I have a very easy time with the COVID measures - The pensions roll in, we have no work to go to, and we don't share a house with people who are going out to work, school or whatever. To start having a go at people with more challenges in avoiding infection without a clear basis would be a bit glib.
The authorities could probably have targeted this better, but maybe they thought that precisely identifiable BAME areas would look like indirect racism. Just look at the areas:
Greater Manchester:
City of Manchester
Trafford
Stockport
Oldham
Bury
Wigan
Bolton
Tameside
Rochdale
Salford
Lancashire:
Blackburn with Darwen
Burnley
Hyndburn
Pendle
Rossendale
West Yorkshire:
Bradford
Calderdale
Kirklees
My brother lives in Brighouse. It's a town of 40,000 or so that didn't register on Sooty's map but is included in lockdown2 presumably because it is in Calderdale.
But the numbers are all quite small at this level of granularity in such a short time frame.
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