Article Commentry: English North/South Divide, The Guardian

Résumé du document

England is traditionally seen as a 'divided country', split between a prosperous South, taking advantage of the power of London, and a deprived North suffering from the decline of the industries born during the Industrial Revolution. But regarding the recent economic changes the country has gone through, contradictory surveys about the economic situation of England has raised a public debate about the reality of such a North-South gap. In 2001, an article titled 'Northern Renaissance' was published in the Guardian. It dealt with this division between Northern and Southern England, and more accurately, with the problem of poverty in the North. We can thus wonder, to what extent the author of the article proposes solutions to this issue, which he believes is badly managed by the British government? In order to answer this question, we will first highlight the way the author tries to present a clear report of the economic gap between the North and the South; we will then move on to explain how he tends to prove the inefficacity of the government on this issue. Finally, we will endeavour to show how the author tries to find solutions for it.

Extraits

[...] Article Commentry: English North/South Divide, The Guardian “Northern Renaissance” 1 Just over a year ago the Prime Minister challenged the idea of a north-south divide. Some of his arguments were indisputable: the extraordinary prosperity to be found in parts of even the poorest regions; the pockets of poverty in the most prosperous regions. Where we disagreed was with his assertion that disparity within regions is at least as great as that between them” and his suggestion there should be more even-handed debate”. [...]

[...] Even if we can note that he insists more on Northern poverty than on the intrinsic divide, he shows firmly, but without polemic uses no exclamation marks for example- or anger the reality of the North. He chooses a didactic tone, but stamped with emotion to convince the reader that a gap does exist between the North and the South, and tries to demonstrate logically the problems of poverty in the North. The author thus presets a view of the economic situation in England at two different levels: seeing the regions as a whole, he admits that they may not be homogeneous wholes, but widening the debate, he exposes what he considers to be the reality of the deprivation in the North, and tends to prove it logically. [...]

[...] His aim seems to convince the British government that, without being complete solutions, the lessons of Pr Robson could be leads for future urban policy. b. A brighter future? Lastly, the author presents to the reader future prospects. And this future does not seem bright to him: he indeed explains that “redeveloping the North is as much in the interests of the South as the North” (l.44/45). Indeed, the author does not seem very confident in the future. Most certainly, he reminds other dates” (l.43) for urban campaigners; but those two meetings seem to be really weak in regard of the hugeness of the deprivation in the North according to the narrator. [...]

[...] City-regions would be far more meaningful that the current idiosyncratic boundaries. Last November's urban white paper failed to produce the renaissance that Lord Rogers's taskforce called for. Yet urban campaigners can focus on two other dates: an urban summit planned for 2002 and a state of the cities report in 2005. Redeveloping the north is as much in the interests of the south as the north. Without regeneration, northern migration will continue- as will housing demand on southern green spaces. [...]

[...] The solutions proposed by the journalist Regarding the economic problems of Northern England, the author tries to propose two main solutions to it, and looks upon the future prospects. a. Hints for a Northern renewal Firstly, the author, after having considered both the reality of the destitution in the North and the inability of the British government to reduce it, proposes two solutions. On the one hand, the “investment in more high-quality jobs” (l.24), that is to say the setting up for example, of high-technological factories, enterprises or other employment springs that could offer future prospects for the young graduates, and that will allow them to stay in the North and not to flee to the South in search of a decent job: according to him, this would be a way to stop this harmful “migration” (l.46). [...]