Britain | Legacy thinking

The inheritance awaiting Britain’s next government

A tour of the country—and of the past 14 years of Conservative rule

A broken umbrella with the Union Jack on it.
Illustration: Carl Godfrey
|RICHMOND, GLASGOW AND BASILDON

Almost a millennium ago, Alan Rufus, a Breton warlord, helped his kinsman William the Conqueror squish a Saxon rebellion, pillaging and slaughtering across northern England. Today the view from his ruined castle in Richmond is serene, sheep gambolling beside the River Swale as it meanders through North Yorkshire. Richmond is “a lovely, historic, thriving market town”, effuses Colin Grant, a champion of local regeneration projects, as he shows off its 18th-century theatre.

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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “The inheritance”

From the July 6th 2024 edition

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