Levelling Up paper bizarrely padded out with list of largest cities since 7000 BC

The Levelling Up paper dropped yesterday, setting out the Conservative's plan for Britain.

The 332-page document promised to close the gap between the rich and the poor in the UK by 2030 and set out 12 missions with aims and plans to do so - meaning improving services such as education, broadband and transport, creating regional mayors and cutting crime. All good stuff.

But if you'd expect this plan to be fully fleshed out in the novel-length white paper you might be surprised to learn that some of the document is dedicated to some stranger things, like a list of the largest cities in the world since 7000 BC.

Yes, really. A whole page of the document provides this timeline meaning if anyone studied history in Gove's department - levelling up - at least their degree didn't go to waste.

Of course, this didn't go unnoticed by people on social media who poked fun at the government for making a random history lesson:

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Speaking to Sky News' Kay Burley ahead of the drop of the 332-page document, levelling up secretary Michael Gove waxed lyrical about the 12 step plan that will make the world amazing by 2030, apparently; said that people in the North and the Midlands have been "overlooked and undervalued for years by politicians"and that the government's blueprint will bring prosperity "to all parts" of the UK.

However, Labour were not as impressed with it and Lisa Nandy told Burley that the plan was "a series of rehashed announcements, some of which are so old they were actually originally made by Gordon Brown when he was Labour prime minister in 2008."

Still, who knew New York was the largest city in 1925, and now it is Tokyo?

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