The North-South divide
“If the first wave of coronavirus brought a tide of national unity, the second has seen a descent into local squabbles,” said Camilla Cavendish in the FT. Regions of Spain and Germany, once happy to comply with federal measures to slow the infection, are now resisting them. But nowhere in Europe has regional political conflict broken out as fiercely as in England. Last week, the Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, accused the Government of forcing a “brutal” settlement on his city when it refused to accompany tough Tier 3 curbs with what he deemed sufficient financial support ( see
page 22). Now even the Prime Minister’s northern allies are growing fractious, said Amy Walker in The Guardian. This week, the new Northern Research Group (NRG) of 55 northern Tory MPs, founded by Lancashire MP Jake Berry, warned the PM that the region risked being “left behind”. The virus, it said, had “disproportionately” affected the North, undermining the Government’s pledge to “level up”, and exposing “in sharp relief” the region’s “deep structural and systemic disadvantages”.
At long last, British politics seems to be shifting its focus beyond Westminster, said John Harris in The Guardian. Although now suffering the worst of the pandemic, the North has been “denied the means to cope”. The regions need “decent tax-raising and borrowing powers”, and control over health and education. At the heart of the problem is the centralisation of power, which began in the 1900s and “reached a peak” with Thatcher’s assault on local government, and the “idiotic” decision to abolish metropolitan councils. The metro mayors introduced by David Cameron went some way to undoing the damage. But their powers are still far too limited: Covid restrictions are imposed on them “at a moment’s notice”. “London-centric thinking infests Whitehall,” said James Meadway in the New Statesman. Just look at the five major projects proposed by the National Infrastructure Commission. Three of them – Crossrail 2, more Thames crossings, and a third runway for Heathrow – are in London. Another, HS2, is designed to provide better connections to the capital.
The Northern Research Group wants the PM to set out a roadmap out of tiered lockdown, said The Times. Yet with the UK’s Covid-19 death toll passing 60,000 this week, and 367 deaths recorded on Tuesday, he “cannot reasonably” lift restrictions as things stand. The NRG shouldn’t be underestimated, said Eliot Wilson in The Daily Telegraph. With 55 members, it has the numbers to erase the Government’s 80-seat majority; it also includes former ministers like Berry, Esther McVey and David Davis. The group wants major state spending on infrastructure in the North, in the hope that private enterprise will follow. That would be “a significant change of direction for the Conservative brand”. But “if Boris wants an -ism, perhaps the NRG have shown him the way”.