Levelling up Britain: Boris Johnson has a big idea, but no plan

LIKE ANY good journalist, Boris Johnson is a master of the snappy phrase. “Get Brexit done” won him the general election in December 2019. But the slogan that is supposed to define his premiership is “levelling up”. Those two words express a complex set of economic and political ideas and grievances. Much of Britain is lagging behind London and south-east England; often it feels looked down on by the smug metropolitan liberals who run the country from there. Levelling up means bringing everyone up to speed.Even at the best of times, Mr Johnson struggles to give substance to a slogan, and these are not the best of times. The government’s poor response to the covid-19 pandemic has dented the prime minister’s popularity and crowded out other matters. But regional inequality is a burning issue, for two reasons.