North South Divide - When is Enough Enough?

I'll soon be 44 years old and for as long as I can remember, people have been discussing the North/South divide.

I'm not talking about what people in London have on their chips vs what we have on ours, or the diffirence between bath or baarth, I'm talking about serious, real world issues that affect us all.

As a Northerner, I'm expected to die younger, earn less and have fewer opportunities (both educational and vocational) than my Southern counterpart. I will have far less spent on my local infrastructure and services by central Government, and only this week, we've learned that when my lot is done, I can expect to receive less hospice care than those down south (Story here).

Various Governments of various political leanings have promised to do something about the divide, but all have invariably failed as the gap grows wider by the day.

So at what point do we, as Northerners, say enough is enough and do something about it? What would it take to make you take a stand?

I'll soon be 44 years old and for as long as I can remember, people have been discussing the North/South divide.

 

I'm not talking about what people in London have on their chips vs what we have on ours, or the diffirence between bath or baarth, I'm talking about serious, real world issues that affect us all.

 

As a Northerner, I'm expected to die younger, earn less and have fewer opportunities (both educational and vocational) than my Southern counterpart. I will have far less spent on my local infrastructure and services by central Government, and only this week, we've learned that when my lot is done, I can expect to receive less hospice care than those down south (Story here).

 

Various Governments of various political leanings have promised to do something about the divide, but all have invariably failed as the gap grows wider by the day.

 

So at what point do we, as Northerners, say enough is enough and do something about it? What would it take to make you take a stand?

What would you suggest we do? Declare independence and form a 'People's Republic of Yorkshire'? Which would inevitably end with Leeds being decared the capital and getting even more of a chunk of investment than it does now. So then us in the 'South' can go back to doing what we do best and complaining about the 'Posh Northerners'.

See this link i posted in the brexit thread

http://scrappybook.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/n-1528274442l4c8p.jpg

Depends where the divide is, but londons the richest in northern europe, quite a few of the poorest are in the "northern" half of britain, along with west wales and NI

What would you suggest we do? Declare independence and form a 'People's Republic of Yorkshire'?

There were some off-the-cuff remaks a while back about London being somewhat independent from the rest of the country.

They were willing to take investment money from UK tax payers for decades, but now don't want the rest of us "dragging them down" :roll:

I don't think we do too bad in the north. Any negatives are far offset by not having to live in the south with Cockernees.

What would you suggest we do? Declare independence and form a 'People's Republic of Yorkshire'? Which would inevitably end with Leeds being decared the capital and getting even more of a chunk of investment than it does now. So then us in the 'South' can go back to doing what we do best and complaining about the 'Posh Northerners'.

It's not just Yorkshire that this affects. The whole of the North (Barring a few anomalous pockets of wealth) suffers the same (and I 'd also throw Scotland and Wales into the mix too).

The north doesn't need to be split still further along county lines, we would need to be unified to make our voices heard in any meaningful way.

We could look at things a bit differently. The same wages here can afford average rent for the area or even a modest mortgage. Every week there are social housing properties that no one seems to want. They'd be snatched up in London.

We could look at things a bit differently. The same wages here can afford average rent for the area or even a modest mortgage. Every week there are social housing properties that no one seems to want. They'd be snatched up in London.

Well yes, of course there will always be no shortage of affordable housing in deprived areas, that doesn't really equate to parity though and it's a pretty solitary crumb of comfort all things considered.

There’s even a north south divide on this forum.

The government enthused about how HS2 would benefit the north. But in rolling it out first in the south, and then working up country, by the time it benefits the north, the south will have had many years of additional growth through having HS2 for longer.

If they had any desire for the north to make up the current deficit, schemes such as HS2 would start in the north and work south.

The government enthused about how HS2 would benefit the north. But in rolling it out first in the south, and then working up country, by the time it benefits the north, the south will have had many years of additional growth through having HS2 for longer.

 

If they had any desire for the north to make up the current deficit, schemes such as HS2 would start in the north and work south.

HS2 is designed to speed up the movement of goods and people into London, and effectively increase the size of the London commuter belt - any benefit to the outlying regions is purely a byproduct.

The government enthused about how HS2 would benefit the north. But in rolling it out first in the south, and then working up country, by the time it benefits the north, the south will have had many years of additional growth through having HS2 for longer.

 

If they had any desire for the north to make up the current deficit, schemes such as HS2 would start in the north and work south.

Apart from London Euston there is no HS2 station in the South, unless Birmingham and Lichfield is 'south'.

I do agree with the sentiment.

Government ministers have one 'in-tray' marked 'London' and a shredder marked 'other'