Brown’s flawed welfare policies real cause of North-South divide

08 August 2007

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“The proceeds of turbo-capitalist London are being used to create a level of state dependency in the British regions reminiscent of the Soviet era”

If you add up those working for the state and those in receipt of its benefits (excluding the ubiquitous tax credits) you begin to appreciate the true extent of the state payroll. Just over a year ago, I compiled a study to find the extent to which Labour has got the vote bought up. In Liverpool Walton, 68% of the electorate either receives key benefits or is employed by the state. In Birmingham Northfield, it is 65%; in Manchester Blackley 63%; in Newcastle upon Tyne North 63%. These statistics are more redolent of the Warsaw Pact economies than today’s booming Britain.

How can Liverpool hope to function as an economy if a sickening 26% of its workforce is on out-of-work benefits? The same picture holds true across several of Britain’s largest cities. In Glasgow, it is also 26%; in Manchester 23%; in Birmingham 22%. Yet head south, and this figure shrinks. It is 11% in Westminster and Lambeth, boroughs of London. In Kingston-upon-Thames, it is 8%. In Woking, a commuter area, it is as low as 5%. This is the true North-South divide: the difference in people being paid not to work.

So the proceeds of turbo-capitalist London are being used to create a level of state dependency in the British regions reminiscent of the Soviet era. For as long as this continues, the regions will lose their most aspirational people and be disfigured by government policies that have socialised vast tracts of the national economy. Having a quarter of the workforce on benefits may share some of the South’s wealth with the North. But it does not, and never will, close the prosperity gap.

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John Lewcock

August 9th, 2007 12:28pm Report this comment

What do you expect when our current Government leaders were brought up to believe that Stalin's failure was that he didnt make Socialism work. The man from the manse and his sycophants will show how socialism works.

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