This story about a new report from a Tory think-tank caused me to do a cartoon double take this morning. They can't really have said that, can they? Well, they did. According to the bright sparks at the Policy Exchange many northern towns and cities are beyond regeneration and people need to move to Cambridge, London or Oxford to sort themselves out.This kind of crass social lunacy shows, if anyone seriously needed reminding, that the Tories have not really changed their spots - and have as little clue about the importance of regeneration as they did when they proposed the "closure" of Merthyr Tydfil in the 1930s. A case of history repeating? By the way, I recommend anyone reading the wonderful Ted Rowlands book on this period, which remains instructive today.
Such blundering nonsense from the Tories also ignores the remarkable regeneration success stories visible in Leeds and Salford for example - not to mention the fact that Liverpool is undergoing its own huge redevelopment programme fired by its European Capital of Culture status.
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If the Republican Party catches wind of this "idea," every American city not within the state of Texas or not named New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, or Washington DC will be "closed" by year's end. All we'll have left is the glorious lily white suburbs, where manna falls from the heavens and crime does not exist...
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