The right, the north, and the south

It’s difficult to know what to say (without being rude)about the paper from the conservative think tank, Policy Exchange, that essentially declared the death of northern England by stating that cities like Bradford, Liverpool and Hull (all of which I have represented either in the past or currently) were “beyond revival” and their citizens should head south.

It’s quite clear that they are not and have in fact been revived to an incredible degree since Labour came into power back in 1997. Indeed, the improvements in some cities are so impressive, you wonder whether any of the authors of the report actually visited the north since it was left to rot in the 1980s by the Tories.

There is plenty of work still to do but the paper shows the inherent difficulty the Conservatives have in understanding the north, as their record in many northern cities illustrates.

John Prescott described the paper as “the most insulting and ignorant policy I've ever heard” while also making the important point that the Tories still see “people as economic units to be moved around.” It is indeed a policy that would be a disaster for the south as well, implying as it does that several million people, needing homes, schools, hospitals, transport and so on, converge on the congested south.

This Policy Exchange paper has justified many people’s concerns about the Conservatives and their relationship with the north so it was no surprise to see David Cameron trying his best to distance himself from the policy, and to play down the close and very real links between Policy Exchange and the Tories.

After all, from its infancy up until 2007, the director of Policy Exchange was Nicholas Boles, a key figure in the modern Conservative Party. Only this year he was appointed Chief of Staff to London Mayor Boris Johnson, while he is also he prospective parliamentary candidate for Grantham and Stamford. Before entering parliament, shadow secretary of state for education, Michael Gove, was the chair of Policy Exchange. It has also published papers written by Tory MEPs.

Since its creation Policy Exchange has essentially served as an academy for future Tory MPs, and influential ones at that, which suggests Cameron’s Conservatives still have a long way to go before they are seen as credible in much of the north of England.