practically insurgent

Ok, so it's barking to suggest that people in Liverpool, Sunderland and Bradford should just, y'kno, move South if they want jobs and a good standard of living.

But think about it really, which is more disgusting, the Tories giving voice to the utter sham that we all know regeneration to be and coming up with obnoxious 'solutions' or the fingers-in-their-ears complacency of the various Labourites pretending it's all going swimmingly?

Labour MP Peter Kilfoyle described the report as "utter nonsense".

"It doesn't ring true economically, socially or politically," added the Liverpool Walton MP.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: "We totally disagree with the conclusions of this report.

"No government has done more to turn around decades of neglect, and since 1997 cities like Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle have benefited from thousands of new jobs, lower crime rates and better living standards thanks to our sustained commitment to regeneration, and investment in public services. "

The fundamental truth is that their is no hope of tackling poverty in de-industrialised areas with economic policy biased toward London-centred finance capital, that only finds its way up North through the kind of cosmetic regeneration that afflicts Manchester. Sure we get nice new shops and a load of flats that the people you're supposed to help can't buy, but the impact on poverty is fuck all (check some of the stats in the piece I wrote for Black Flag earlier in the year).

With no prospect of any serious strategy to combat poverty and inequality in the near future (ie. any significant change in economic policy whatsoever), whose comments are really the most damaging for the North?