Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Our lost towns: is investment the answer to the town-city divide?

Why is politics everywhere in such a mess? Here’s one answer. The rules of the game have changed, but no one has told the players. They’re thinking left vs right or, at a push, libertarian vs authoritarian. And yes, the crash did raise concerns about inequality – but there have been other forces at play; new ones that politicians have not yet recognised – like cities vs regions. Writing in The Spectator recently, William Galston, a former Clinton aide, put it thus:

“Most cities are now thriving but most smaller towns are not. Once, the fortunes of large cities and their hinterlands were linked. Now, cities are like black holes, absorbing skilled labour and resources — but failing to emit either wealth or opportunities to surrounding areas. Compounding this trend, we have the rise of higher education, which has created new cultural divisions. A degree not only ups potential salaries, but also reshapes an individual’s entire outlook.”

His theory: you end up with cities that talk to each other (or want to connect to each other with HS2), rather than spread wealth out to the regions who feel ignored, their citizens seen as old, pale, male and stale. And while the cities relish change and diversity, the regions see in this a new creed that alienates them. This leads to support for populist parties, who like to say they represent forgotten people. This, to a greater or lesser extent, this can be seen all over Europe. So what is to be done?

This was the topic of the first Spectator dinner discussion in Tory Party conference, sponsored by Barclays, for which we hosted numerous Conservative MPs and ministers, think tank giants like Demos’s Polly MacKenzie, and other business and industry leaders.

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