Wow, not seen this before. The UK (excluding London) is shockingly poor. Big problems with a mono-polar economy, even across a multinational union. h/t @john_tomaney on LinkedIn
@mimosacymru @john_tomaney This chart is not one of @jburnmurdoch's best works. Omits Paris which would look very similar to UK. Also fails to mention that both US and Germany constitutionally designed to have a weak centre 🙄. Most European countries have over-mighty capitals.
@philjvtaylor @mimosacymru @john_tomaney @jburnmurdoch All of that could be true without seriously challenging the premise. For a West-European country, the UK actually had relatively many regions qualifying for ESIFs under the EU Cohesion policy before Brexit. Which indicates that regional inquality was high in the UK.
@Arvidscheuer @mimosacymru @john_tomaney @jburnmurdoch When challenged by me, amongst others, he came up with a chart that included France, Italy and Spain. By all means compare the UK with tiny European countries but it looks like the other 4 big ones mostly. Who knew?
@philjvtaylor @mimosacymru @john_tomaney @jburnmurdoch All right, point well made. France is eerily similar there. It is strange that it was left out. That said, the combo of an over-developed capital and a poorer rest-of is especially typical of smaller countries in the eastern half of Europe.