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North South Divide - When is Enough Enough?

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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'

But they are quite happy to fill their army with soldiers from the North, Wales, and Scotland.

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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'

 

One of the starkest figures for me to illustrate the gap is the diffirence between spending on transport. In Yorkshire and the Humber its £190 per head. In London, it's £1940!

 

Source

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I agree with Anonni Mouse's original post. This is serious. We desperately need a Northern assembly to fight the North's corner.

 

They could start by turning Doncaster/Sheffield airport, which has one of the longest runways in Britain, into a state of the art International airport, instead of building yet another Runway/Terminal at Heathrow.

 

They could also expand the docks at Hull into a hub to rival Rotterdamn and take some of the pressure of London.

 

Get connectivity right and the rest will follow.

 

What we don't neeed is another expensive talking shop ('Northern Powerhouse') which gets nothing done.

 

---------- Post added 08-06-2018 at 16:14 ----------

 

It's alright for London to get 'London weighting' in salaries etc. for living down South.

 

How aboout a Northern weighting to make up for the disadvantages. As we don't live as long, we could start with reducing the pension age - never going to happen though is it...?

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So where do the Midlands stand in all this are they the equivalent of Korea's demilitarised zone?:D

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I agree with Anonni Mouse's original post. This is serious. We desperately need a Northern assembly to fight the North's corner.

 

They could start by turning Doncaster/Sheffield airport, which has one of the longest runways in Britain, into a state of the art International airport, instead of building yet another Runway/Terminal at Heathrow.

 

They could also expand the docks at Hull into a hub to rival Rotterdamn and take some of the pressure of London.

 

Get connectivity right and the rest will follow.

 

What we don't neeed is another expensive talking shop ('Northern Powerhouse') which gets nothing done.

 

---------- Post added 08-06-2018 at 16:14 ----------

 

It's alright for London to get 'London weighting' in salaries etc. for living down South.

 

How aboout a Northern weighting to make up for the disadvantages. As we don't live as long, we could start with reducing the pension age - never going to happen though is it...?

 

Good post Anna, as to your last point, probably not. There are too many who are happy to accept the status quo, sadly. We, as a region, are often our own worst enemies.

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I agree with Anonni Mouse's original post. This is serious. We desperately need a Northern assembly to fight the North's corner.

 

They could start by turning Doncaster/Sheffield airport, which has one of the longest runways in Britain, into a state of the art International airport, instead of building yet another Runway/Terminal at Heathrow.

 

They could also expand the docks at Hull into a hub to rival Rotterdamn and take some of the pressure of London.

 

Get connectivity right and the rest will follow.

 

What we don't neeed is another expensive talking shop ('Northern Powerhouse') which gets nothing done.

 

---------- Post added 08-06-2018 at 16:14 ----------

 

It's alright for London to get 'London weighting' in salaries etc. for living down South.

 

How aboout a Northern weighting to make up for the disadvantages. As we don't live as long, we could start with reducing the pension age - never going to happen though is it...?

 

What on earth is the point of building a runway where it's not needed? Robin hood doesnt even use it's existing runway to capacity why on earth would you build another where it's not needed?

 

Docks at Hull great... Where are all the goods going to go? Oh right - down to London. So why add docks there - why not add them in London where theya re needed? Otherwise it's just another unnecessary movement by rail, which will hinder development.

 

If you want to grow the North then it simple. Create jobs. There is no point adding infrastructure that isn't yet needed - you want to add infrastructure that creates jobs. Liverpool is reworking the old Littlewoods building - a new film studio. That creats jobs - and when that is booming *then* they will need more runway capacity at John Lennon airpory. Build a business park and an innovation/tech hub for the Universities to spin up starter companies - that creates jobs then you can build docks to move the stuff in...

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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'

 

"Say it loud, say it clear" lol

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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.

 

All of the north certainly isn't deprived, there are high levels of poverty in the capital, but the demand for housing is huge. Lots of families have good standards of living across the north, and it's made even better because they don't have to pay 3/4 of a million for a basic semi, or have lengthy commutes to work.

 

Obelix is right though, more jobs are needed.

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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

 

Ironically though, some of the London boroughs are high in social deprevation. Tower Hamlets is regularly described as one of the poorest areas in the UK, while Hallam is generally described as one of the prosperous.

 

I often wonder if the £ per head figures are not a bit skew-whiffed in favour of the south because additional funds are ploughed into the poorest London boroughs with their large populations?

 

And it's not a new thing & the UK deprevation was already in place & got only worse during from the Blair days onwards, so Labour aren't entirely without blame.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27694833

 

As the above link from 2014 states: 'What is remarkable, perhaps, is that every other part of England (England, not the UK) has become relatively poorer since 1997.'

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What on earth is the point of building a runway where it's not needed? Robin hood doesnt even use it's existing runway to capacity why on earth would you build another where it's not needed?

 

Docks at Hull great... Where are all the goods going to go? Oh right - down to London. So why add docks there - why not add them in London where theya re needed? Otherwise it's just another unnecessary movement by rail, which will hinder development.

 

If you want to grow the North then it simple. Create jobs. There is no point adding infrastructure that isn't yet needed - you want to add infrastructure that creates jobs. Liverpool is reworking the old Littlewoods building - a new film studio. That creats jobs - and when that is booming *then* they will need more runway capacity at John Lennon airpory. Build a business park and an innovation/tech hub for the Universities to spin up starter companies - that creates jobs then you can build docks to move the stuff in...

 

Not working though is it? The North isn't growing.

 

Meanwhile London is all but saturated, bursting at the seams. It makes sense to transfer some of it up here. An international airport would create jobs, and make the North of England seem like a viable alternative to London and open for for business. Build it, and they will come...

 

Your way of thinking is what keeps all the business in London. I doubt many international businessmen have ever travelled further north than Watford Gap. They don't even realise the rest of the country is here. Without connectivity they aren't likely to want to stay. A railway, 30 years down the line, just isn't going to cut it.

 

We could be a hub for Northern Europe; the Scandinavian countries. Nor is there any reason why, with today's technology, London should hog all the action.

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We could build a wall from east to west, somewhere near Nottingham and charge them from darn sarf every time they went through it. Passports to be shown of course.

 

Angel1.

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Not working though is it? The North isn't growing.

 

 

Would any Northerners swap their Northern home for a London one? Surely its a better living standard in the North, once house prices are taken into account.

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