Excruciata Reees-Mog explains the need for levelling up funds in wealthy rural areas following the allocation of £19 million in Rishi Sunak’s constituency.
Hello my lovelies. I see in the news that a lot of people are getting agitated at the news that £19 million of the £2.1 billion Levelling Up programme is to be spent in Richmond. Rishi Sunak’s Yorkshire constituency. Personally I’m amused that anyone should find anything strange. It has always been the practice that, if they could, senior politicians would use any available money to benefit their constituency, and thereby enhance their chances of re-election. Really, if anyone finds this strange they need to attend a course in real-politik.
There is also the pragmatic justification.
As the people who wear clothes knitted out of pet hair will remind us, poverty is relative. If you’ve never had much, you don’t need much to make a difference. A run down part of Manchester that has never had a splendid square with fountains and sculptures would not miss out on not having one. A rural town that has these, albeit in a state of disrepair, would benefit from levelling up investment to fund improvements. Such a feature in a rundown part of Manchester would get vandalised and end up with shopping trollies in the fountain.
Some people think I and my friends are out of touch with reality. We are out of touch with your reality, which really isn’t that great. I don’t know anything about eating pizzas out of the box on a sofa, swilling it down with lager while watching Celebrity Island. That’s my loss.
It doesn’t take much to make a big impact in a poor area. Just give them street dustbins and buses to create a massive transformation. In a pleasant rural town a bit more needs to be spent to get the same proportion of uplift. This spend in a pleasant rural town or village will also benefit the few poor people who live in the street with the few council houses that have been tolerated. I know rural poverty exists. The hunt donates old horse blankets to them. By the looks of them they use the blankets to make clothes.
The enhancements, such as squares and fountains will need people to look after them, so they are creating jobs. This is how trickle down economis works. My brother Jakey explained it to me. How he employs accountans to try and hide his money,. how he supports bank staff on remote islands by putting his money there and how he supports tradesmen by letting them work on his mansion.
