Aditya Chakrabortty (A tale of two towns – one in the north, one in the south – exposes the lie of ‘levelling up’, 2 February) is quite right to point to the dishonesty that is at the centre of the Tory “levelling up” slogan. First, because the money available is nowhere near what is needed for the task – much is bluster and spin. Second, because it deliberately creates a false division between working-class communities in the north of England and in London, when the government dumps on both equally.
In the 1960s, Edmonton, which Chakrabortty’s article refers to, was part of the significant Lea Valley industrial area, as was Tottenham, where I live. The Tottenham sound of the Dave Clark Five rivalled that of another industrial working-class area, the Merseyside of the Beatles. In the 1980s, both areas were laid waste by the Thatcher government as part of a deliberate strategy.
The neo-Thatcherites in the present government are not about to sort out the industrial mess and the destruction of working-class lives that their predecessors managed 40 years ago.
Keith Flett
Tottenham, London
• The levelling up that’s needed is not just regional – it’s about building a fairer society in the whole of this wealthy country.
It means children from state schools having the same opportunities as those from private schools, and families from Cornwall to Norfolk, Newcastle to Bristol and Stoke being able to afford decent homes. It means no one having to choose between heating and eating, while for others the choice is which of their houses shall they spend this weekend in and in which car shall they travel to it.
It means taxing the rich, closing tax loopholes, giving contracts to the best rather than the best friends, and using a proper proportion of the nation’s wealth for those whose needs are greatest. It will never happen under a Conservative government.
Joy Webb
Penistone, South Yorkshire
• The government must have spent more time developing the front cover of the levelling-up white paper than its contents, because after a decade of Tory-driven austerity and the deindustrialisation of the 1980s, the government’s proposals are woefully inadequate. The proposals are merely a reshuffling of the deck chairs on the Titanic.
As a 15-year-old student, I have seen firsthand the devastating impact of austerity cuts in schools. The secretary of state for levelling up oversaw these brutal cuts when he served as education secretary. He decimated the education service, thus levelling down the performance of students, so how on earth can he be considered the right man to level up Britain?
Harry Aldridge
Plymouth
• The disproportionality of allocation between rich constituencies such as Bromsgrove and poor local authorities such as Knowsley (Report, 2 February), suggests that Michael Gove and his colleagues are great fans of Billie Holiday, and of one song in particular. God Bless the Child starts with the words “Them that’s got shall get, Them that’s not shall lose”, an apt strapline for the mockery that is levelling up.
Andy Stelman
Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire
• Looking forward so much to our levelling up – to the day when every British citizen can afford to send their child to Eton.
David Rintoul
London
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