Britain’s north-south divide is the widest on record. New government figures show that economic disparities between the regions are bigger even than when Margaret Thatcher (玛格利特•撒切尔) was in office.
The figures, produced by the Office for National Statistics as “regional competitiveness indicators”, reveal that London and the southeast have become significantly more wealthy relative to the north than in 1989, the peak of the divide when the Thatcher’s Conservative government was in power.
The most comprehensive indicator, based on gross domestic product, or national income, shows that people in London and the southeast are now 59% better off than those in the northeast—the poorest region—compared with 43% in 1989. The gap with the northwest has gone up from 31% to 41%, and with Yorkshire (约克郡) and Humberside (亨伯赛德郡) from 34% to 40%.
A leaked Downing Street memorandum in The Sunday Times (《星期日泰晤士报》) last weekend revealed that the prime minister plans a post-election transfer of billions of pounds of public spending from south to north in an attempt to improve public services in poor areas.
