The Wardman Wire

Policy Exchange have called one wrong and are proposing (to give a - very - bald summary) that the North should be closed down and that we should all go and live with Inspector Morse in Oxford or in Polly Toynbee’s capacious attic in London somewhere:

“The key recommendations from the report are to increase the size of London by allowing landowners the right to convert industrial land into residential land in areas of above average employment; expand Oxford and Cambridge dramatically”

I admit I can see a certain sense in the “19th Century Expansion” model, bearing in mind that the area where I live was described back in the 1960s as being “like Birmingham before the Industrial Revolution” - so I’m not going to be as contemptuous as the rest. I’m more tempted to think that the Notting Hill Set are worried about Oiks in Oxford. The Conservatives response summarises the report more or less thus: Bonkers.

However, the assertion about Northern and Western decline is probably 25 years too late, anyway (Leeds, Manchester, Cardiff anyone?); some of the resurgence is even based on real businesses as well as moving public subsidies out of London (I’m not even going near the Barnett Formula in this post).

In Wales though, to take just one example, public sector legal advice business is booming (also here):

…we have already been informed that this blog is being monitored hourly by a large Cardiff legal firm on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government.

I already welcomed all Legal Eagles, so I’m happy to welcome a large Cardiff Legal Firm who have been visiting here as well.

My attitude is close to that of Libby Purves, writing in the Independent some time ago (pre-Internet) about how men feel under threat:

So women are a threat to men?

How gratifying.

So we are watched by the Welsh Assembly Government out of taxpayers funds. Hurrah ! Wonderful ! More traffic ! More adverts ! We’re going Forward Not Back.

If we accept (at least today) the assertion that we’re going forwards with the educational standards, too, it might even be “Forwards not Backwards”. If you find all this tedious then Ordovicius is staying above the scrummage with Politics as Usual .

Bearing in mind that this site has adverts paid by the number of page impressions on the blog, that means that the Wardman Wire is now officially … er … supported by the Welsh Assembly Government.

I believe that Miss Wagstaff remains unsupported since she doesn’t run adverts.

And I make no comment on whether the famous Wonderbra “squeeze” is best termed “support” or “PR for an unsophisticated audience”. It’s like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - all about further up and further in.