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That's how infrastructure projects are prioritised in the UK. Return on the pound. The south east returns something like 10x the investment versus the north o

That's how infrastructure projects are prioritised in the UK. Return on the pound. The south east returns something like 10x the investment versus the north of England. Just look at HS2 - everything north and north east of Birmingham has effectively been cancelled, leaving yet another "national" infrastructure project serving only London. This Government, or the previous one, or the previous one, ad nauseam, continually fail to invest in the north, and north east. In fact the last major national infrastructure in those regions would be the building of the motorways. (edit) And just look at the North East, Sedgefield had Labour PM Tony Blair, Hartlepool had MP and cabinet member Peter Mandelson, and yet the investment there during that 15 year period was negligible. It's a London-based Government thing, not a political thing. If you're not "close" to London, you're going to be poor by comparison. Bringing Newcastle closer to Leeds by faster road and rail, and hence York, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool and the Potteries, would hugely increase economic productivity in the North of England. I too hope that WFH will redistribute the wealth around the UK. I hate the fact that we have an idiotic adversarial political system. Which ever party is in power is invariably hamstrung by the opposition voting the other way just 'because', is pathetically childish. The best time to build infrastructure was yesterday.

flir 3y ago
They're almost never hamstrung by the opposition voting against them. If they didn't have a majority, they wouldn't be the government. Right now the majority is, what, 80? They could pass anything they wanted.
- dazc 3y ago
  But choose not to? I really don't understand why people choose to have a career in politics so that they can achieve nothing at all?
  - ilyt 3y ago
    They want to achieve stable cashflow
- DrBazza 3y ago
  Except they haven’t. Party members continually voting against the whips. Party in fighting and 3 PMs. And so on.
  - flir 3y ago
    That's not the opposition's fault, or the adverserial system's. It's infighting. And to be honest they could still get a fair bit done with a majority of 80, should they feel inclined.
pjc50 3y ago
> Which ever party is in power is invariably hamstrung by the opposition voting the other way just 'because' As the other comment has pointed out, this is irrelevant: in practice, as with Brexit, a majority of 1 can let you do almost _anything_ in the British constitution. No, the real constraint is either internal opposition - party infighting - or what the newspapers will hammer you for. Many of the UK's most depressed towns voted for Brexit, seemingly in the belief this might mean funding diverted towards them. It did not, because why would it? Nobody cared about them before, nobody cares about them after. Only marginal constituencies matter. It's not like their local MP is going to help: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackpool_South_(UK_Parliament_constituency) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackpool_South_(UK_Parliament... was sacked from the party after a bribery sting https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65193097 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65193097 > Bringing Newcastle closer to Leeds by faster road and rail "Fun" fact: Leeds is the largest city in Europe that doesn't have a metro, tube, or tram system.
- DrBazza 3y ago
  Except that the Commons is only the start of votes. Then there is the Lords. Then there are legal challenges.
  - kaashif 3y ago
    The House of Lords is at most a speed bump (they can only delay, not block), and legal challenges cannot block primary legislation.
dundarious 3y ago
That is certainly the case now, more than ever before in modern history. I am not a booster for Labour at all, but at least to an extent, that wasn't always so: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/05/video-emerges-of-rishi-sunak-admitting-to-taking-money-from-deprived-areas https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/05/video-emerg... > Sunak said: “I managed to start changing the funding formulas to make sure areas like [Tunbridge Wells, Kent] are getting the funding they deserved. We inherited a bunch of formulas from Labour that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas and that needed to be undone. I started the work of undoing that.”

flir 3y ago

They're almost never hamstrung by the opposition voting against them. If they didn't have a majority, they wouldn't be the government. Right now the majority is, what, 80? They could pass anything they wanted.

dazc 3y ago
But choose not to? I really don't understand why people choose to have a career in politics so that they can achieve nothing at all?
- ilyt 3y ago
  They want to achieve stable cashflow
DrBazza 3y ago
Except they haven’t. Party members continually voting against the whips. Party in fighting and 3 PMs. And so on.
- flir 3y ago
  That's not the opposition's fault, or the adverserial system's. It's infighting. And to be honest they could still get a fair bit done with a majority of 80, should they feel inclined.

pjc50 3y ago

> Which ever party is in power is invariably hamstrung by the opposition voting the other way just 'because' As the other comment has pointed out, this is irrelevant: in practice, as with Brexit, a majority of 1 can let you do almost _anything_ in the British constitution. No, the real constraint is either internal opposition - party infighting - or what the newspapers will hammer you for. Many of the UK's most depressed towns voted for Brexit, seemingly in the belief this might mean funding diverted towards them. It did not, because why would it? Nobody cared about them before, nobody cares about them after. Only marginal constituencies matter. It's not like their local MP is going to help: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackpool_South_(UK_Parliament_constituency) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackpool_South_(UK_Parliament... was sacked from the party after a bribery sting https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65193097 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65193097 > Bringing Newcastle closer to Leeds by faster road and rail "Fun" fact: Leeds is the largest city in Europe that doesn't have a metro, tube, or tram system.

DrBazza 3y ago
Except that the Commons is only the start of votes. Then there is the Lords. Then there are legal challenges.
- kaashif 3y ago
  The House of Lords is at most a speed bump (they can only delay, not block), and legal challenges cannot block primary legislation.

dundarious 3y ago

That is certainly the case now, more than ever before in modern history. I am not a booster for Labour at all, but at least to an extent, that wasn't always so: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/05/video-emerges-of-rishi-sunak-admitting-to-taking-money-from-deprived-areas https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/05/video-emerg... > Sunak said: “I managed to start changing the funding formulas to make sure areas like [Tunbridge Wells, Kent] are getting the funding they deserved. We inherited a bunch of formulas from Labour that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas and that needed to be undone. I started the work of undoing that.”