What ails Britain’s left-behind places?

Eight years ago Britain shook. Confounding many opinion polls—and against the advice of every major political party—a majority of people voted to leave the European Union. Political havoc ensued. The Conservative Party quickly lost two prime ministers, rebounded under Boris Johnson, then collapsed again. The party will probably be crushed in the general election on July 4th.

Britain’s political geography had shifted. Some of the most fervent support for Brexit, and then for Mr Johnson’s Conservative Party, was found in areas dubbed “left behind”. Sir Paul Collier, a British economist, picks up this theme to look at the growing gap between successful places and laggard ones, in Britain and elsewhere. His book starts in Sheffield, a once-thriving English city that has been ailing since the 1980s. Sir Paul grew up there but moved away (he is now a professor of economics at Oxford University). He is, therefore, part of a trend that troubles him: the exodus of talented people from poor areas.