Stuck. Too many Britons are stuck in neighbourhoods they find unlovely and depressing, jobs that are going nowhere and lives with too little sense of purpose. To escape, or at least to have some prospect of improvement, would be wonderful. Part of the mood of despondency that has settled over the country is that the already slim chances of improvement – as the Labour government’s dark messages of gloom refract and magnify – now seem negligible. The smart strategists who win elections have badly misjudged the national mood: they are much less smart advisers to government.

Public transport beyond London is in decay, forcing immobility on the poorest. The lack of social housing, expense of private sector rents and high property prices operate as padlocks on movement and ambition. There may be work, but the growth in real wages for the last 15 years has been negligible. Schools, especially in distressed areas, have their backs against the wall. With “hard choices” ahead, to be stuck seems an irreversible condition.

Last week, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) published its first regional regeneration index and online regional dashboard comprehensively monitoring regional disparities in wealth, health and wellbeing since 2019, when Boris Johnson launched his campaign to level up the country. It is confirmation of debilitating deterioration. London’s living standards are inevitably recorded as the highest: but over the last five years the gap between it, the north-west, the north-east and the Midlands has close to doubled or worse; for example the gap between London and Yorkshire and the Humber has trebled.

The trends in living standards are mirrored by productivity growth – increasing in London but stagnating, even........

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