North–South divide in England
However, Danny MacKinnon, Professor of Regional Development and Governance at Newcastle University, noted that Labour's vote share in the north outside of metropolitan areas had declined consistently since 2001, with the exception of 2017.
[2] An article in The Economist published in 2012 argued that the gap between the north and south in life expectancy, political inclinations and economics trends was growing to the extent that they were almost separate countries.
As a generalisation, the following tend to indicate that there is some sort of north–south divide: However, when factors such as the cost of living[17] or urban poverty are included,[18][19] the divisions are sometimes less clear.
On the other hand, geographically southern areas such as the Isle of Thanet in Kent have struggled with the same industrial decline as parts of the north.
[citation needed] Cornwall, many London boroughs such as Hackney and Haringey and southern towns like Luton are other anomalies to the north–south divide with poor health and education.
[25] While those in the north complained of having fewer cultural opportunities, the book also provided a view of southern life as faceless and bland.
[27] For example, the affluent suburban constituency of Wirral South was held by Labour, whereas deprived seaside towns in Thanet were represented by the Conservatives.
The journalist Kelvin MacKenzie suggested in 2012 that the South of England needed a political party to campaign for its interests, including "home rule" for the region.
[29] City A.M. editor Allister Heath had made a similar suggestion in April 2012, and opined that increased powers for the London region might be obtained when the constitutional status of Scotland is debated.
For example, Ken Livingstone (a Londoner) suggested that the press's unsympathetic treatment of John Prescott was partly because he is one to "speak like ordinary people".
"[36] On the subject, K. M. Petyt wrote that several respondents "positively said that they did not prefer the long-vowel form or that they really detested it or even that it was incorrect"[37] Mark Newbrook has assigned this phenomenon the name "conscious rejection", and has cited the BATH vowel as "the main instance of conscious rejection of RP" in his research in the West Wirral.
[40] During the Industrial Revolution, many northern cities underwent a process of intense industrialisation, as raw materials such as coal and iron ore could be found in these areas.
[41] This led to comparatively high wealth; Shaw, Greater Manchester reportedly had the highest concentration of millionaires in the country at the time.
The film Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2004), starring Ricky Tomlinson, was made in the character of the straight-talking and dry humoured northern comedies.
Examples include Manchester, Kingston upon Hull,[52] Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle upon Tyne, Sheffield and the English Midlands cities of Birmingham, Coventry, Derby and Nottingham.
It has become the de facto digital hub city outside London for the UK, between 2012 & 2017 private equity investment in Manchester tech companies showed the fastest pace of growth in both volume and deal values in the EU – higher growth than cities such as London, Berlin, Paris and Stockholm.
This cluster is reflected not only in BBC digital output but also the setup of the non-London UK-base for tech giants like Microsoft,[54] Google & the open secret of around 1000 Amazon employees setting up near Piccadilly.
[55] Similarly, the decision in 2022 from Channel 4 to open its new Headquarter offices outside of London resulted in bids from various cities across the country, with Leeds prevailing as the destination for the move.
The Bank of England retain their only offices outside London in Leeds, which as well as strong big data & medical software specialisms, also hosts BT and Royal Mail's secondary communication centres for the UK.
To northerners it means home, truth, beauty, valour, romance, warm and characterful people, real beer and decent chip shops.
An example of this is the Lancashire LEP, formed in 2011 (following a period of factory closures and job losses due to deindustrialisation) with the goal of improving business growth and investment.
