WHEN Chancellor George Osborne mooted his Northern Powerhouse idea last year I echoed the thoughts of the majority of business people across the North and welcomed it.
For too long the North has been the runt of the economic litter, losing out to the South in terms of government spending, foreign investment and transport projects.
But I warned at the time that the ’Northern Powerhouse’, complete with its plan for an HS3 rail project to speed up links across the East-West corridor linking Newcastle with Liverpool, needed to be more than just a good idea.
Little more than a few months ago I asked the question: when will it happen?
I said last summer: “By floating the idea, the Chancellor now knows this isn’t going to go away. As an MP in a Northern constituency in Cheshire, he will clearly understands the benefits of such a project.
“His big challenge now is to find the money for it and, if his party can win the next election, set a timetable that doesn’t put the completion of the project beyond the retirement date of most people working today.”
I have to say that even in my most cynical moments I didn’t expect the Government to pull the plug on the project within weeks of their shock election win.
Last week it was announced that there would be a “pause” for the electrification of the Midland Mainline and the TransPennine route between Leeds and Manchester.
They can spin it all they like and blame the inefficiencies and ineffectiveness of Network Rail, but Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin’s announcement was a humiliating climbdown.
The Government know that. And given their thirst for positive PR, I would expect the Chancellor to attempt to seize the initiative back over his Northern Powerhouse concept when he announces his post election Budget next week.
Modern politicians think and speak in headlines, and the spin machine will be on full throttle as the Tories look to try to reclaim the high ground on boosting the economic success of the North of England.
The Northern Powerhouse was a great idea which put Labour on the back foot (and may have helped provide the coup de grace to the political career of former Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls as he was unceremoniously turfed out of his Leeds constituency) but all it has been so far is empty words.
The Government must follow that up with real fleshed out plans backed with investment.
You could compare the economy in the North to a bone-shaking rattler of a train that trundles across the Pennines. Before its faltering automatic doors spring shut the Chancellor has one chance to jump aboard and sort it out.
Let’s see what happens.
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SO farewell then Melvyn Levi.
The larger than life businessman died suddenly last month at the age of 71 after suffering a heart attack.
His straight talking approach made sure he had his share of critics, but things were never quiet when Melvyn was around.
He was one of the very few people to bring a successful court action against former Leeds United chairman Ken Bates.
Bates was ordered to pay £50,000 in damages in 2009 after Mr Levi made a successful claim for defamation at the High Court in London for comments Bates wrote about him in the club programme.
And that wasn’t the end of things between these two controversial characters. In March this year Mr Bates was ordered by a court to pay £6,000 in damages to Melvyn Levi’s wife Carole.
The son of noted Leeds solicitor Jack Levi, Melvyn Levi was part of the so-called Yorkshire Consortium that spent 10 months running Leeds United after rescuing it from near collapse, before selling the club to a Swiss-based group with Ken Bates as its UK representative in 2005.
That 10 months was not studded with success – on or off the pitch.
I was working at the Yorkshire Post at the time and had been invited to a match which included a tour of Elland Road before the game.
As we walked down the tunnel towards the touchline I remember seeing Melvyn Levi on the pitch having just done a TV interview.
Someone had told him I worked for the Yorkshire Post and he had a bee in his bonnet about something that one of the sports reporters had written about Leeds United.
Despite my protestations of innocence, he proceeded to give me a dressing down for the slight that he felt had been made against his club.
I took the rollocking in good spirits and it clearly made Melvyn feel better.
In a world where there are fewer and fewer characters, there is now one less.
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IF you see me wandering about today please don’t buy me a drink.
The last couple of days have been hectic and alcohol-fuelled, beginning with an enjoyable lunch with Paul Whitwam and Mark Whitaker of insolvency firm BWC at Sous le Nez in Leeds.
I ended that day with a great meal at Franco’s at Thorpe Park listening to stories about stars including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Spike Milligan served by Franco when he ran a restaurant in Knightsbridge in the 1970s.
And then yesterday I was at The Foundry for lunch followed by a fantastic wine tasting by Phil Martin Abell of the Luis Alegre winemaker from Rioja, Spain.
If I could remember more of the detail about the wines we sampled, then that might help.
But I do recall I did enjoy drinking them
A samosa and chips bought on the way home did nothing for my cultured palate however.
Have a great weekend.