Interesting programme on BBC last night. John Harris a Mancunian living in the south travelled to Yorkshire, Godalming and Cambridge to find out if there was a north south divide. Apparently people in the south don’t recognise such a thing but that seems to demonstrate their insularity. People in the north recognise it but seemed to be involved in small project lower return activity, or blindly smug like in Harrogate.
One researcher commented that the north had its time when industry was a force but now that services and intellectual products are prominent with trade to Europe there is a natural drift to the south that is only inhibited by planning laws. This is something that I’d sympathise with as I’ve wondered what is the purpose of the north of England? It no longer has a differentiating factor like textiles or shipbuilding. Trade no longer mainly points across the Atlantic so the north west is on the wrong side. Theoretically an intellectual product can spawn anywhere there is a group of like minded people. However being close to a market and a community of like people, e.g. Cambridge, gives an advantage. Only Manchester in the region has this.
Also how many in the population are capable of doing these jobs? The textile industry employed mainly manual workers so what are they going to do. It does seem that sources of intellect like universities need to spawn local businesses. Government jobs need to spread around. Fast communications like High Speed Rail and very fast broadband needs to be built into the whole area to keep it above water. On the other hand if you’re retired like me it is less hectic but we need to make work for our younger ones.