Central to Boris Johnson’s political sense of self is the notion that he is a “Brexity Hezza”: “Brexity” because he led the charge for the UK’s exit from the European Union; and “Hezza” because, like Michael Heseltine, his political passion is regenerating parts of the country that have suffered years of post-industrial decline — the policy known as “levelling-up”, even if precise definitions of it are hard to come by. As a political project, levelling up has been a grand success already (its optimistic rhetoric tied to the promise of regulatory freedoms post-Brexit gave Johnson a majority that stretches from Hitchin to Hartlepool), but making it into a durable set of policies may be a more difficult mission than getting ex-mining towns to vote Conservative.

Source: The Times June 02, 2021 15:56 UTC