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Comment by alextingle | Hacker News Reader

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But… you have discrepancies like the town of Middlesbrough , a small North Yorkshire town with crime rates on par with large European cities and rampant poverty and drug abuse with no clear way out because no one seems willing to invest in the once infant Hercules.

I hear about the North turning into a kind of rust belt as the population concentrates around London. I'm not sure how you solve that in a finance centered economy with no local industry - small towns are struggling across the developed world for similar reasons.

> I'm not sure how you solve that in a finance centered economy with no local industry

You change it to be a not-finance-centered economy.

If you find a good strategy for Reindustrialization especially in developed countries that have gotten used to high wage white collar work please share it around. Are there any good countries to look at for this?

OP is not charge of the world economy but this just seems defeatist.

Maybe a little cynical, but genuinely if any country has got some good strategies for building industry back up after a decline I think we should be stealing their notes. Right now arguably China seems like the only one to me? And I'd definitely favor trying their massive state investment, but I'm not sure if the UK can do that one.

> Right now arguably China seems like the only one to me?

They didn't build it up on their own. They saw opportunity in western businesses who wanted lower wages and less strict environmental laws, and lured them in. The western businesses then moved all their manufacturing to China who then spied on these factories to out-compete the western businesses with "home grown" products they copied.

China rebuilt industry with heavy-handed state control and no concern for human rights. Impressive results, but not exactly a model.

Nobody with money (i.e. in finance) thinks this is a good idea, so there's no funding available.

It’s kind of the opposite. The North is underfunded and often ignored by central government, but it’s also cheap.

There have been an influx of Londoners who have discovered that they can actually afford a house in the North and enroll their kids in decent schools and maintain a good standard of living, especially those who are able to move while maintaining a London salary.

Interesting how Westminster has taken the "don't get mad online though" approach given the challenges you highlight.

Also second hand from British friends but the current leadership seems really weird to me. Went back on their election pledges, tacking this way and that for something to do to raise poll numbers.

It doesn't fit together as a strategy to me and I don't see it fixing the economy, but I guess they can talk about it as a success?

The British political class has been collapsing for decades. The population just flip-flops between completely awful unpalatable options, Starmer is just reheated third way Blairism. Brits aren't this stupid and they want optimistic view of future not go on the war path or austerity.

They will slowly cycle out this historical group of parties resulting in painful economic results and poor social cohesion nationally.

Middlesbrough's problems are not the reason people in Dudley, or Stoke on Trent vote for fascists.

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