AIBU to wonder how a government can be based in Manchester?

The Prime Minister is not moving to Manchester. A department is.

Your last sentence isn't really correct, many towns and cities elsewhere in the country are just as well set up in terms of those things. Just saying.

No, I agree, but it's widely accepted that there are greater opportunities in the South, especially for decent jobs, hence why so many graduates never return to their home towns in the regions and end up working in London/SE instead. Also generally better amenities, better public transport options, etc.

This is going to set a precedent and will be amazing

England was actually ruled by the House of Lancaster between 1399 and 1461 with the city of Lancaster being the base of operations of the House of Lancaster, although the country was still administered from Westminster. The "Duchy of Lancaster" title is still held by the King.

Both Lancaster and York were important around that time, hence the Wars of the Roses between the houses of Lancaster and York.

I'd say there's plenty of people living in the south (not London), who live in deprived areas, struggle to find work and also have the added issue of massive housing costs. It's not as clear cut as North = poor, south = rich

😂😂😂

Watter? What's tha need watter for? Lick an' a promise wi' a hanky's allus been good enough for me...

Don't forget our mode of transportation is still horse and cart

We still keep coal in the bath in Manchester and draw all our water from a well when we need to use that tin bath on the backyard wall. In winter we are a hardy lot because we have to dig a path through the snow to trek to the outside lavvy. And of course we use the Manchester Evening news for bog roll. Oh and we chopped down all the trees to make clogs.

Apols I made it up but one can dream. I hope so. Larry might be finally! I rule this place.

@EasternStandard

A kindly housekeeper who already knows Larry. They’ll live the high life in No 10 accomm.

That's good to hear. Poor Larry! He must get so fed up with all these changing faces.

Wait til you hear Richard III had the idea of governing from York a few centuries earlier (such a shame Bosworth happened). London doesn’t have to be the seat of government

I actually think Larry the cat would be better placed to be Prime Minister. And he's going to be abandoned.

A kindly housekeeper who already knows Larry. They’ll live the high life in No 10 accomm.

I think if his intention is to grow other cities rather than hamper London then it’s better.

It could happen, hopefully London will be largely untouched by this but other places grow more.

@BotterMon

But but but who will look after Larry the cat?

This. I'm concerned

Yup! Nailed it!

It'd blow their minds to think that I'm sat here in my accountancy office, in a run down deprived ex seaside town, and that half of my clients (in client numbers and revenue) are based in London/SE who I've never met in person, but work with entirely remotely by internet, many of whom have been clients for 15-20 years, in diverse businesses such as internet service providers, a couple of dance teachers/ dance schools, financial advisers, car repair workshop, and numerous IT consultants, a couple of doctors, a couple of online retailers etc.

Shock horror that such deprived places actually have professional people working there, and even more shocking that they're providing services to people living in London/SE.

It’s more central than London.

@Badbadbunny Please don’t point out those facts to them. You’ll spoil their view that they’re all working 20 times harder than us to prop up us oiks, while we sit on our backsides watching the tumbleweeds blow in our hick northern towns where nothing ever happens.

Absolutely @Badbadbunny
Also @lifetheuniverse how do you feel about taxes supporting areas of deprivation in the south? There are plenty of those (mainly because as per @Badbadbunny’s post the money isn’t actually earned in the south at all).

OK, then let all the people living in the regions take their "business" to firms with offices in the regions, i.e. solicitors, pension firms, insurers, investment firms, banks, supermarkets, etc.

It's all well and good saying London is the economic centre, but a lot of that is because the reporting is based on head offices, rather than location of the staff/customers.

If random banks, legal firms, insurance/pension firms, moved their head office address to places like Hartlepool or Blackpool, then suddenly the "statistics" of tax revenue etc would suddenly shift to those places.

London is only so successful (on paper) because of the centralisation of everything from the regions to London over the past few decades.

The profits of a supermarket in Morecambe should really be declared as "profits/tax" in Lancashire, not shown as London just because that's where the supermarket head office is based. Likewise with the "value" of work done by a Sky engineer working in Bradford - should be shown as tax/revenue of Yorkshire rather than London where the Sky head office is based. The economic picture of the UK would be VERY different if it was based on staff/worker location rather than head office location.

Any evidence for this? Any at all? From his speech or anywhere else?

He wants to tax the crap out of Southern England and London to pay for the North to claim more benefits and does not want to look the biggest tax payers in this country in the eye every day - bloody coward.

Lets go for devolution and the South can set its own tax rates, keep all its own taxes and not subsidise the rest of the free loading country - can not see the North surviving long!

More like Mar-a-Lago!