Britain’s north-south divide

The gap between the poor north and the prosperous south is turning into a chasm, according to experts. What can be done to close it? Simon Wilson reports.

Is there a divide?

Britain's north-south divide has existed in some form or another for more than 1,000 years. For example, today's calls for a regional government to promote economic prosperity and effective government in the north of England are a direct echo of the 15th century, when centuries of war and economic depression in the north had caused a critical north-south divide that threatened to split England. King Edward IV set up the Council of the North in 1472 (his brother Richard III became its first Lord President) and the body continued to govern a large swathe of northern England until 1641, when the Long Parliament abolished it as posing too great a threat to rule from London.

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Simon Wilson’s first career was in book publishing, as an economics editor at Routledge, and as a publisher of non-fiction at Random House, specialising in popular business and management books. While there, he published Customers.com, a bestselling classic of the early days of e-commerce, and The Money or Your Life: Reuniting Work and Joy, an inspirational book that helped inspire its publisher towards a post-corporate, portfolio life.   

Since 2001, he has been a writer for MoneyWeek, a financial copywriter, and a long-time contributing editor at The Week. Simon also works as an actor and corporate trainer; current and past clients include investment banks, the Bank of England, the UK government, several Magic Circle law firms and all of the Big Four accountancy firms. He has a degree in languages (German and Spanish) and social and political sciences from the University of Cambridge.