Author Archives: Graeme Henderson

The Independent View: Clegg is right to worry about the North

By Graeme Henderson | Thu 21st February 2013 - 3:27 pm

The North once again compared fairly unfavourably to the south in yesterday’s unemployment figures. It’s safe to assume it will do so again in next month’s figures, and the month after that. While political commentators note the UK’s slide towards a triple dip, most people outside London don’t need clinical economic definitions to tell them that money is tight.

But let’s be clear, this disparity is not a consequence of idleness, nor has it happened by chance. Public policy and investment decisions have made it all but inevitable. London has vast infrastructure spending exemplified by Crossrail, a Government proactively …

Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged economy | 9 Comments

Opinion: Heseltine report puts the State back on the hook for helping lead economic recovery

By Graeme Henderson | Fri 2nd November 2012 - 11:52 am

The lack of a joined-up growth strategy has been this Government’s Achilles heel. This week’s report from the Heseltine Review finally provides one. Some on the Tory backbenches will urge David Cameron and George Osborne to ignore many of the recommendations, and the swathes of evidence standing behind them, in favour of abdicating responsibility for the economic recovery to the private sector. Jacob Rees-Mogg predictably caricatures the findings as favouring a 1960s approach to regional development – his preferred course being deregulation. The Heseltine Review embodies …