# Reality Check: Burnham's bid to bridge the North-South divide Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/best-of-the-spectator-45373/reality-check-burnham-s-bid-to-bridge-the-north-south-divide Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/best-of-the-spectator-45373/reality-check-burnham-s-bid-to-bridge-the-north-south-divide.md Podcast: [Best of the Spectator](https://stenobird.com/podcast/best-of-the-spectator-45373) Published: 2026-07-07T00:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/best-of-the-spectator/episodes/reality-check-burnhams-bid-to-bridge-the-north-south-divide Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68358fb5e1abc4be6b0308eb/e/6a4b04aeecd12391432171e2/media.mp3?tk=eyJ0ayI6ImRlZmF1bHQiLCJhZHMiOnRydWUsInNwb25zIjp0cnVlLCJzdGF0dXMiOiJwdWJsaWMifQ==&sig=5Io7rJDDE5q7fOOOfQffdw0escaPNIUJ2XQoqhyRbjA Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/best-of-the-spectator-45373/episodes/reality-check-burnham-s-bid-to-bridge-the-north-south-divide Duration seconds: 2569 ## Resource Andy Burnham has laid out his plans to 'level up the North'. Something we have heard with almost every Prime Minister pledge to do – but with very little clarity over how this will be achieved and what success looks like. It's true there is a clear divide when it comes to economic outcomes between London and the North. Michael Simmons takes a look at the data and discusses a left-wing levelling up agenda with Ed Shackle Head of Qualitative Research at Public First and Neil O'Brien, Conservative MP and former minister for Levelling up. This episode is brought to you by Artemis Fund Managers, for more information on our fund range please click here https://www.artemisfunds.com/ . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/best-of-the-spectator-45373/episodes/reality-check-burnham-s-bid-to-bridge-the-north-south-divide/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/best-of-the-spectator-45373/reality-check-burnham-s-bid-to-bridge-the-north-south-divide.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.