When I picture the state of the British economy outside London, it’s my sister I think of first. Born a year before me in the post-industrial town of Crewe in England’s north-west, at school there was little to separate us. Both of us did well in our GCSEs, at least compared with many in our cohort, getting decent, if hardly outstanding grades. At 18, I secured my ticket out and moved to the nearest big city for university; my sister stayed at home.
Nearly 20 years later, this choice we made as naive teenagers – whether to leave or remain – still seems to hang over us, making our differences appear an ever-widening chasm. After graduating I moved to a string of big cities before ending up in London, apparently never looking back. She moved little more than a few miles down the road.
