i always read paul routledge in the mirror online.havent bought a paper in years but id buy this just to read him.i think he always talks a lot of sense :thumbsup:
They're dying to live in the North
Paul Routledge 14/09/2007
The great Victorian statesman Benjamin Disraeli coined the term "Two Nations" to describe a Britain he saw as cruelly divided between rich and poor.
That was in 1845. But you could still say the same thing today.
Despite 10 years of a government that calls itself Labour, our country is still split between a healthier, richer South and a less healthy, impoverished North.
In the dockside Middlehaven area of Middlesbrough, healthy life expectancy - the age people can expect to reach before ill-health sets in - is 54.9 years.
In the Ladygrove neighbourhood of Didcot, Oxfordshire, people can expect healthy lives until they reach 86 - more than three decades longer.
The other social indicators tell the same story of divided Britain. In Middlehaven, only 29 per cent of adults are in work. Didcot boasts 86 per cent. Up north, 27 per cent are owner occupiers. Down south, 88 per cent. Car ownership - 94 per cent for the richer folk, and 29 per cent for the poorer people.
It goes without saying (though I shall say it all the same) that Didcot has a Tory MP, while Middlesbrough has a Labour man at Westminster.
These figures are taken from the first detailed survey of the north-south divide, carried out by the Office of National Statistics. The report makes grim reading.
Nine out of 10 of the worst districts for early onset of ill health are in northern cities. And nine out of 10 places with the longest healthy lives are in the south.
Disraeli spoke of two nations "between whom there is no intercourse or sympathy, who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts and feelings, as if they are dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets."
More than 160 years later, these nations-within-a-nation DO live in different places. And they might as well be on different planets.
Middlehaven and places like it have lost well-paid jobs in dockwork, mining and steel. Rich Britain doesn't want their steel or their coal, and the privatised docks have moved to super-efficient container ports to bring in cheap imports.
Rich Britain doesn't want to know about poor Britain. It should have its face rubbed in the facts till it cries for mercy.
Gordon Brown spoke at the TUC conference this week about tackling deprivation. As Chancellor, he made some strides towards the alleviation of pensioner, child and family poverty. This new study shows he has much, much more to do.
The PM had nothing to say about the super-rich City slickers who are trousering £14 billion a year of the UK's wealth. He should have made clear his disapproval of these bloodsuckers.
If he can't legislate, he can help show the existence of this divide as a disgrace - which must be ended.
They're dying to live in the North
Paul Routledge 14/09/2007
The great Victorian statesman Benjamin Disraeli coined the term "Two Nations" to describe a Britain he saw as cruelly divided between rich and poor.
That was in 1845. But you could still say the same thing today.
Despite 10 years of a government that calls itself Labour, our country is still split between a healthier, richer South and a less healthy, impoverished North.
In the dockside Middlehaven area of Middlesbrough, healthy life expectancy - the age people can expect to reach before ill-health sets in - is 54.9 years.
In the Ladygrove neighbourhood of Didcot, Oxfordshire, people can expect healthy lives until they reach 86 - more than three decades longer.
The other social indicators tell the same story of divided Britain. In Middlehaven, only 29 per cent of adults are in work. Didcot boasts 86 per cent. Up north, 27 per cent are owner occupiers. Down south, 88 per cent. Car ownership - 94 per cent for the richer folk, and 29 per cent for the poorer people.
It goes without saying (though I shall say it all the same) that Didcot has a Tory MP, while Middlesbrough has a Labour man at Westminster.
These figures are taken from the first detailed survey of the north-south divide, carried out by the Office of National Statistics. The report makes grim reading.
Nine out of 10 of the worst districts for early onset of ill health are in northern cities. And nine out of 10 places with the longest healthy lives are in the south.
Disraeli spoke of two nations "between whom there is no intercourse or sympathy, who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts and feelings, as if they are dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets."
More than 160 years later, these nations-within-a-nation DO live in different places. And they might as well be on different planets.
Middlehaven and places like it have lost well-paid jobs in dockwork, mining and steel. Rich Britain doesn't want their steel or their coal, and the privatised docks have moved to super-efficient container ports to bring in cheap imports.
Rich Britain doesn't want to know about poor Britain. It should have its face rubbed in the facts till it cries for mercy.
Gordon Brown spoke at the TUC conference this week about tackling deprivation. As Chancellor, he made some strides towards the alleviation of pensioner, child and family poverty. This new study shows he has much, much more to do.
The PM had nothing to say about the super-rich City slickers who are trousering £14 billion a year of the UK's wealth. He should have made clear his disapproval of these bloodsuckers.
If he can't legislate, he can help show the existence of this divide as a disgrace - which must be ended.
