Tory 'levelling up agenda' just a slogan without substance - Yorkshire Post Letters

HAS Conservative chairman Oliver Dowden inadvertently underlined the hollowness and hypocrisy behind ‘‘levelling up’’ with the opening of the party’s Yorkshire outpost (The Yorkshire Post, March 13)?

‘‘Levelling up’’ has prompted a lot of scepticism and head-scratching since its initial use as a slogan during the 2019 General Election by Conservatives.

Now they call ‘‘levelling up’’ an “agenda” – but with little else to suggest substance or willingness to commit or divert public funds to make meaningful change.

Anyone who with good reason had expectations ‘‘levelling up’’ might mean resources being transferred from the South to Yorkshire and elsewhere – at least guaranteeing the completion of important projects already underway such as HS2 East, as a minimum – is told to lower them.

Instead, Ministers now often try – and fail – to fill the void by slapping ‘‘levelling up’’ on almost anything. This new office is “levelling up… in action”, says Mr Dowden. That’s weak, says I.

Mr Dowden might be a senior party official, but realistically you might have expected party leader Boris Johnson to preside over the opening.

And given, too, the usual willingness of Mr Johnson to excuse himself from London and parliamentary scrutiny to gurn into a camera in another part of the country. It’s “levelling up… in action” – in Yorkshire, after all!

But it didn’t even merit Yorkshire MP and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak. He’s not normally photo op shy, either.

It’s almost as if the Conservatives realise the importance of this new office was over-sold almost 18 months ago and – in the absence of any real ‘‘levelling up’’ since or on the horizon – it’s going to be a white elephant and embarrassing millstone around the party’s neck.

From: Chris Lancaster, Woodlesford.

I READ with interest the article about future transport policy in Leeds.

More cycle lanes? What Leeds needs in my opinion is a proper integrated transport system. I’m all for getting cars off the roads, but cycle lanes?

In the past, supertrams and trolleybuses to ease congestion have been talked about and nothing has happened.

I won’t even talk about the overpriced overcrowded rail system.

The West Yorkshire Mayor needs to do more.

Leeds deserves better.