The stories of Robin Hood are legendary. The man who would steal from the rich and give to the poor. Then you find the modern-day, Reverse Robin Hood: the person who steals from the poor and gives to the rich. That person is embodied by the many people who take on the role of Prime Minister and some other government ministers. But then, a new variant of Reverse Robin Hood’s MO comes into being: take from the North and give to the South. Successive politicians and governments do this; it’s why we have the North/South divide, it’s why the North East is England’s most deprived region while London, the South East and South West all thrive. Now, a new infrastructure project between Kent and Essex serves to deepen the North/South divide as, once again, the government takes from the North and gives to the South.
All roads lead south
Announced by the government on Tuesday 25 March, sixteen years of uncertainty were brought to an end when Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander gave the green light for the Lower Thames Crossing to be built, a 14.5 mile stretch of motorway-style road linking the A2 and M2 roads in Kent and the A13 and M25 roads in Essex, bypassing the Dartford Crossing in what is an attempt to reduce congestion on it. The cost of the project is estimated at between £8.3billion and £10billion.
No money for the North?
Last year, a similar and less costly project for the North East was cancelled. In Northumberland, the situation with the A1 has always been a contentious one. The A1 is Britain’s primary road, running between the capital of England and Britain, London, and the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh. It is Britain’s longest road and boasts massive motorway and dual carriageway design. Until Northumberland, that is. Once you reach Morpeth, the dual carriageway parts of the road become sparser and sparser and north of Alnwick until the Scottish Border, you may as well be on a country road with a couple of short exceptions. The road between Berwick and Morpeth is rife with congestion and extremely dangerous, with deaths on the road occurring far too often.
Labour Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander last year scrapped ongoing plans to dual the A1 between Morpeth and Ellingham. Why? It was “poor value for money” and would have exceeded £500million. Yet again, under yet another government, the North lost out.
Is the North not value for money?
So, is that it then? Is it not value for money to stop, or at least ease, the congestion on Northumberland’s main commuter road? Is it not value for money to stop the deaths? How come the government can find at least £8billion for projects around the outskirts of London but can’t send £500million to Northumberland? To the Prime Minister who is MP for Holborn and St Pancras in London and the Transport Secretary who is MP for Swindon South in the affluent South West, does the plight of the North even register with you? To paraphrase Scotland’s independence campaign, where is the North East on Westminster’s radar?
What’s most shocking, however, is who this is happening under. From the Conservatives, this should be expected. The party of capitalism, corruption and sleaze with personal wealth for the few built on the backs of the many. But from Labour; the party of the poor, the workers and the most vulnerable who are meant to stand for the many and not the few, this is devastating. It’s a bad time, right now, to be poor, vulnerable and struggling. Not that any time is good, of course. The government are gunning for you, just like the last one. £5billion in cuts to disability benefits, the continuation of the two-child benefit cap, cutting the winter fuel allowance for those who actually need it. But now, it’s also a bad time to live in the North as money is denied to the most deprived region in favour of the affluent regions of England. Perhaps it’s ironic that the new Hunger Games prequel should be released now because, as Panem’s affluent Capitol takes from the impoverished District 12, so too does England’
