The average resident of Oxford or Cambridge probably doesn’t fancy themselves as having much in common with Peter Hitchens, the great Jeremiah of British reaction. But this week he is their prophet nonetheless.
If you missed it, the Government has used the cover of the Levelling Up White Paper to quietly walk away from the ‘Ox-Cam Arc’, a project to link up and develop two of this country’s foremost centres of innovation. It was anticipated to add 3% to the UK’s GDP.
Unfortunately, it involved building houses. In the south, where they’re needed. So, of course, Tory MPs worried about the threat of Liberal Democrat (or at council level, Green Party) challenges have seen it off.
It is a curious and unhappy feature of British politics that the waxing fortunes of two nominally progressive parties should have such profoundly regressive consequences. But then both are, in truth, parties of the comfortably off; voters can now have ‘pulling up the ladder’ in any colour they like.
Nonetheless, it is extraordinary that a government with an 80-seat majority, attained just two years ago, seems incapable of finding a vested interested it won’t retreat from.
“If Oxford and Cambridge refuse to expand, then there is surely a strong case that they should receive less by way of state investment”
Were ministers serious about growth, this would have consequences. If Oxford and Cambridge refuse to expand, then there is surely a strong case that they should receive less by way of state investment. If the UK’s current innovation centres aren’t prepared to keep pace, then we need new ones.
