It is virtually impossible to listen to a British politician of any persuasion for long before the phrase “levelling up” receives yet another airing. The only problem is that almost everyone has different ideas as to what this ostensibly admirable leitmotif means, let alone entails. The only, intensely uncomfortable, consensus is that no quick fixes are capable of correcting the UK’s glaring regional economic inequalities.
It explains why, in 2020, more than 80 English MPs of all stripes signed a petition lobbying the Premier League for transparency over its then blocking of Newcastle United’s proposed takeover by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment fund.
