THE GREAT DIVIDE

A story in today's Independent outlines how the health and wealth gap between the North and South has never been wider. Anyone surprised?
When the vast majority of the money of this country is London-focussed, don't be too surprised when people up here die up to 15 years before their counterparts down south.
On Saturday I was in Halifax for a "Northern Towns Against The Cuts" TUC demonstration which felt as though the 1980's had never gone away.
Halifax itself, awash with Poundland-type premises and empty shops, is a town which never did well even in the good years. Now, like many other pplaces in the North, it's facing meltdown.
Yorkshire currently has a 20 per cent rate of empty retail premises in its towns and cities - the worst in the country.In places like Hebden Bridge, almost entirely dependent on the service sector, the effect will be catastrophic.