decentralisation

I fear smoke and mirrors in terms of the rhetoric about stoking up the economic development of the north and at best some more cash just for its cities. The author of this article has a similar view – she begins by telling us:

It has been almost nine months since George Osborne started talking regularly about the “northern powerhouse”, his vision for a prosperous new north of England, which will contribute to the nation’s coffers rather than draining them. I remember being quite scornful of it at the time and still think it sounds like a genre of music popular in the working men’s clubs of Lancashire on karaoke night.

On Wednesday the chancellor – and the MP for Tatton in Cheshire – devoted a good portion of his final budget of this parliament to promising stuff to fill the land of milk and honey that is his northern paradise, sorry, powerhouse. His fixation led some to ask whether the real winner of this budget was the “north”, wherever that may be (certainly not Cumbria, as I will explain below).