When the “king of the north” called London “the world’s greatest capital city” this week, it didn’t reassure those who fear that Andy Burnham represents that old national grievance, the north-south divide. The right warned southerners that he was coming to tax their extravagant properties until the pips squeaked.
The idea that London is reviled as a swelling boil or a vampire sucking life from the provinces long pre-dates William Cobbett. Go north of Watford, go east or south-west, and populists can always raise a hiss against the capital. Envy and loathing come in many political shapes: for the right, London is the citadel of left-leaning elitism and also the multicultural crime-ridden swamp of Trump-Vance fabrication. Who doesn’t resent the gilded greed of City bankers – takers, not makers. And Burnham’s popularity is built on northernness.
