How do you solve the North/South divide?
Discussion
Let's presume that The north ( and Wales) has been in recession for probably 20+ years.
This is a 'guesstimate' predicated on the fact that the SE has been massively booming for about that time, and overall UK output has exactly been stellar.
Assuming this blanket approach is right, what stimuli can transform the North, Wales, etc from net beneficiaries to net contributors?
-10 points for any mention of Thatcher or miners strikes, btw.
Forward thinking responses please.
This is a 'guesstimate' predicated on the fact that the SE has been massively booming for about that time, and overall UK output has exactly been stellar.
Assuming this blanket approach is right, what stimuli can transform the North, Wales, etc from net beneficiaries to net contributors?
-10 points for any mention of Thatcher or miners strikes, btw.
Forward thinking responses please.
We could cull the social underclass with gladiator events? 
Would the shale gas sector create many jobs? The reports of new sites seem to be mostly located in the North? If that was the case we could perhaps push forward with that although I'm unsure of how much training would be required.
Would the shale gas sector create many jobs? The reports of new sites seem to be mostly located in the North? If that was the case we could perhaps push forward with that although I'm unsure of how much training would be required.
HarryW said:
Move a lot of government jobs and agencies there, relocate the bbc......hang on a minutes didn't someone recently do that...
The public sector jobs capital of the UK is the lovely little market town of Morpeth in Northumberland.Almost 90% of local economy is funded by the public sector both directly and indirectly.
Makes me sick.
The current Mayor of Blyth is a dyed in the wool communist. He dated my aunt for a few years and was so enamoured with the soviet union he even wanted to import a lada to drive around in.
You don't. Solving the north/south divide is roughly as possible as eliminating relative poverty; there are always going to be richer and poorer parts of a country, and richer and poorer people. The north of the UK is at the end of a process of de-industrialisation, and if the workforce was mobile it would be seeing a process of de-urbanisation such as that seen in Detroit.
Give the countries of the UK their own government with fiscal responsibility, like a federal system.
At the moment the UK government worries if it should invest in a deprived area of england or scotland/wales, an english government wouldn't have responsibility or give two hoots what happens in wales and vice versa.
At the moment the UK government worries if it should invest in a deprived area of england or scotland/wales, an english government wouldn't have responsibility or give two hoots what happens in wales and vice versa.
davepoth said:
You don't. Solving the north/south divide is roughly as possible as eliminating relative poverty; there are always going to be richer and poorer parts of a country, and richer and poorer people. The north of the UK is at the end of a process of de-industrialisation, and if the workforce was mobile it would be seeing a process of de-urbanisation such as that seen in Detroit.
Clearly, there are relatively rich and poor.Not sure why they should remain to be statistically distributed as they are currently.
Comparing, say, Yorkshire to Michigan is a bit odd. Substantially more diverse industry in Yorkshire, whereas Detroit made cars and not much else.
Given the cost of real estate in the South East, what is the draw for businesses to locate there that offsets the increased cost base? Proximity to London and the ports?
One would think that industries like, say, software etc would be able to be based anywhere. So why the South East?
Seems to me the cost in both time and money of getting from the north to, say, London for meetings doesn't help.
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