Pakistan gets UK aid and supports Taliban - how is that British soft power? JOHN LONGWORTH

THERE has been a good deal of talk and a considerable amount of posturing in respect of the Government's much vaunted ‘levelling up' agenda, however, rather like George Osborne's 2011 "march of the makers" concept - a supposed rebalancing towards the regions and manufacturing - the ‘levelling up' has been so far noticeably short on practical policies and entirely absent of meaningful action.