Where Is The North?

The above question was asked of me by a young lad in a school in Croydon a short while ago. At first I thought he was asking me where magnetic north was, as in the north pole. But he then quickly added, “the country that you come from.”

I asked him if he thought that I was from another country and not from the same country that he lives in, to which he replied, “yes”.

I can forgive him for thinking that Yorkshire, the biggest county in Britain, is in another country. He was,after all, only ten years old. Though I can't forgive the suited Etonians in Westminster for thinking the same thing. How else could you explain the lack of investment in the north of Britain? Why, when the wicked witch of Downing Street closed all the coal mines in the eighties, did they not invest money to rebuild all the local economies? Why, when industries such as fishing, textiles, engineering, shipbuilding, and coal mining were decimated, did no government think of the effect it would have on the people that depended on them? I think you will find that all these industries were the mainstay of the north of Britain. The people of the north have become more and more detached from what happens in London, as they are treated as if they are a separate country and forgotten.

The other day, while I was watching the national weather forecast, the forecaster said, “It's good news for us all today with lovely blue skies and sunshine. But there will be rain in the north.” 'Us all?' How does she equate that? But that is the problem with people who live in the south: they think that Britain stops at Watford. We here in the north are slowly becoming a waste land. This is not over-dramatic! Go into lots of former thriving town centres in northern industrial towns and you will find most of the shops closed. Those that are open will be either charity shops or betting shops. That is a sure sign that a town is dying. The suits in power say that towns have to be more competitive, but how? Councils are being asked to cut their budgets not just to the bone, but down to the marrow! How can they rebuild an economy when they can't even afford to open a library?

A friend sent me a piece that he had read online about how there's been a petition raised in Manchester by people calling for the north to become part of Scotland, as we have more in common with them than the people of southern England. I agree, the Scots are lucky enough to have politicians that care about the people and not about what old school tie you wear. Nicola Sturgeon and her MPs are for me true socialists, the type of socialists that I believe in. They have done something that our sorry bunch of inbred political excuses could never do, they have re-ignited a passion for politics in their country. They are offering a real alternative to what the people of Scotland have been forced to endure for years. While we are still stuck with the careerist, self publicising, pocket-lining school bully politicians.

The Labour party have become a party of the old boys network just like the Tories. They don't represent working people anymore, they just play the political game of one-upmanship with each other. When I was a kid, we had politicians such as Harold Wilson and Ted Heath, and you knew where you stood with these guys - they were different, they were like the people they represented. Harold Wilson, by the way, was a prime minister, and from my home town of Huddersfield. He was accused of being shifty and underhanded in his dealings, but he did it for what he believed in. Now we have people like Peter Mandleson, who always reminds me of a camp bond villain, trying to convince people he is on the side of the working class, while accusing Ed Miliband of being too left wing! If we regard Ed Miliband as being too left wing, then socialism is truly dead and buried in Britain.

It's time we too changed our political system, and our outlook on the people that represent us. We don't have to accept the rubbish that our public servants tell us to be the truth. We need more investment here in the north. We want a system where conglomerates are made to reinvest back into local economies, instead of taking tax breaks then running. We need training and apprenticeships for our young people. We need worthwhile enterprises that help people to build their own businesses. We need to spend money on proper social housing instead of creating the slums that we now have here in the north. We need more grass roots politically minded people that want to work for their community, and we need more power given to local authorities, backed by proper funding. Maybe then the north can once again become the powerhouse of the Britain, as it once was.