Jayne Dowle: Patronising words on North reveal a cultural chasm

Here is a man, and a young man of just turned 31 at that. He is the actual minister for the Northern Powerhouse, and he comes out with this kind of statement: “This Government is recognising the potential that the North has to drive our economy.”

The “potential”. Thanks very much for that. Talk about patronising. No wonder Barry Sheerman is fuming. I know the minister is young, but has he never actually read any history books?

I could recommend a few to him, starting with the causes and effects of the Industrial Revolution and finishing up with a biography of Margaret Thatcher. Then he might come to an understanding of the contribution “the North” has already made to the power and glory of this nation. That it was measured in the blood, sweat, tears and poverty endured by the millions who worked in the textile mills, the mines, the steelworks and the iron forges. I fear this might have escaped him.

He is probably in London most of the week, but does Mr Wharton not look out of the train window, or stand on the station and see all the industry still going on, if and when he does venture North?

In Yorkshire alone, does he not see the bustling platforms in Leeds and York where people are employed in financial services and law firms, universities and hospitals? Does he not know that Sheffield has a reputation for creating some of the finest precision steels in the world or that Doncaster is a major logistics UK hub?

Does he, in fact, see the North as a problem and not a solution? As Barry Sheerman so memorably pointed out in the debate, we’re not some Third World country in need of a leg-up. We actually contribute to the national economy already. “We are the people that still make things in this country. We make the wealth of this country and many of the people in this part of the world – London, the South – live parasitically on our efforts,” he declared.

And I bet that there is many a politician who looks at the benefit claimants of the North and thinks that the very opposite is true. This is problem with this Government’s attitude to the “North”. Too many ministers simply fail to understand what makes us tick. Parliamentary exchanges such as this highlight what many of us have known for years: they don’t think like us down there.

For the record, I’m not just talking about politicians. It’s a whole cultural difference between the North of England and London and the South East. You only have to compare a few episodes of Coronation Street and EastEnders to see what I mean; materialistic, paranoid, obsessed with the latest cars and gadgets, worried about what other people think all the time, and desperate to do down friends and neighbours. Why do you think I had enough of living in London after 14 years, and came back home?

Seriously though, too many people down there think that the world revolves around money. Throw enough cash at a problem and it will sort itself out. Never mind about the finer detail, or the feelings and emotions of those who might be involved in any process, just write a cheque and it will be okay.

We see this, for example, with the way that HS2 was introduced to Yorkshire. To many people living on its proposed route, the very notion of a high-speed rail link came as a complete and utter surprise.

The then coalition Government 
responded with reassurances about 
how fast trains to London will revolutionise local economies and thought: “Job done, people will buy it.” We’re not that naive.

There is also this persistent insistence from those in the South that they know best. What gives somebody sitting in Westminster the right to tell us up here how to run our lives? Mr Wharton’s support for more power to the regions is laudable, but there is no point paying lip service to the notion with fine words alone.

There has to be conviction behind them. We’re big on conviction in the North. We might not always say a lot, 
but when we do, we mean it. Southerners – and I know I am generalising here – vacillate and hesitate, wring their hands and stall. If we’d left it to London 200 years ago, the Industrial Revolution would still be on the starting blocks.

From where I’m sitting in Barnsley, the whole Northern Powerhouse thing is being skewed by the Government attempting to foist a set of somewhat bogus Southern values upon us. Yes, we do need investment in the North. We need proper, targeted support to make what is left of our traditional industries competitive with the rest of the world.

Surely even wet-behind-the-ears Mr Wharton can’t ignore the beleaguered Redcar steelworks right on his constituency doorstep? What we
don’t need, though, is patronising and patting on the head by a bunch of parasites.