2 and 20: London is rich. The rest of the UK is poor.
The UK has 215,700 millionaires, 516 centi-millionaires and 45 billionaires. But outside of London, life looks very different. Citizens of the United Kingdom now have less disposable income than the poorest 5 US states. Life expectancy in parts of Blackpool is lower than in Rwanda. And if you remove London and the Southeast, the country’s GDP per capita drops by 14%.
How did Britain go from the greatest empire on earth to a divided, hollowed-out nation?
In the 1980s, Thatcher’s policies crushed manufacturing towns, gutted industry, and turned London into a financial superpower while the rest of the country collapsed. Housing in London became unaffordable for ordinary people, with the Right to Buy policy wiping out social housing and foreign billionaires buying up the city. At the same time, government spending on transport, infrastructure and R&D overwhelmingly favored London, starving the rest of the country of investment.
The United Kingdom is now a country where London eats Michelin star meals while the rest of Britain scraps for leftovers. Until prosperity is spread beyond the capital, Britain’s decline will only deepen.
This is The Divided Kingdom.
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