The North-South Divide

The Young Fabians Podcast

The North of England has been disproportionately affected by the Coronavirus crisis. Having the highest amount of cases and deaths in the country has led to strict lockdown restrictions for months on end, understandably causing tensions in the North to grow. However, last week another sharp blow was delivered by the government to Andy Burnham and the people of Greater Manchester through an insufficient amount of funding to support the area and reverse the damage that Tier 3 will bring to the area.
It's worth remembering that Boris Johnson, in his first speech as Prime Minister, made clear that he would not take the support from the 'red wall' for granted and expressed his intent to 'level up' the North, but so far it's been quite the opposite, with more attention and support being afforded to London and parts of the North feeling dejected and forgotten.
The North-South divide is a very real thing which more than ever represents deep inequality and growing disillusionment - with the Covid crisis exposing the many gaps between the two sides of England.
This week I'm joined by three fellow Young Fabians: Donya Jeyabalasingham, Amy Dwyer and Tom Laing for a chat about all of these different factors behind the exacerbation of the North-South Divide in recent months.
Read Donya's piece for the YF Blog here: https://bit.ly/3jDoJqF
Speakers:
Donya Jeyabalasingham - Freelance Journalist https://twitter.com/Donya_N_J
Amy Dwyer - Chair, University of Manchester Young Fabians and Women's Officer, NW Young Fabians https://twitter.com/AmyDwyer23
Tom Laing - Disability Officer, NW Young Fabians and Co-host of The New Wave Podcast https://twitter.com/TomLaing14
Louie Marlow - Content Producer at Young Fabians https://twitter.com/louiemarlow
This event was recorded on Thursday 29th October.
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The intro music is by ‘One in a Googolplex' and used under Creative Commons. Find out more about them here:
https://oneinagoogolplex.bandcamp.com/