Tom Richmond: Clegg can end the North's capital punishment

Furthermore, Philip Hammond – the Transport Secretary – has accepted that short-term investment, on Whitehall's part, is crucial if the country is to derive long-term economic gains.

By spending an additional 800m to include Sheffield and Leeds in the re-drawn plans, the economy could be 25bn better off. It's a no-brainer.

However, a word of caution is required. It will still be two decades, at the earliest, before the first high-speed trains are operational, and the needs of the regional economy are more immediate.

That is why David Cameron and George Osborne need to put in place a series of region-friendly policies – a further extension of the Hammond doctrine – that help areas like Yorkshire to prosper while the high-speed scheme is going through the tortuous planning phase. A promise of quicker rail travel in 20 years hence will not help those businesses struggling in the current climate.

They also need to take immediate action to end the absurd situation that could see Yorkshire councils lose vital tourism funding – at the expense of London.

I know Boris Johnson, the London Mayor, is desperate to be re-elected in 2012, just weeks before the 2012 Olympics, but the capital, surely, does not need any more money to promote itself to the world? Look at all the free publicity it is getting.

Yet what does Cameron intend to do?

Having first wrongly abolished the tier of regional ministers set up by Labour, Cameron and co have still not appointed the city ministers they promised would replace them.

Although the delays will prompt observers to question the coalition's commitment to the regions, Cameron's plan is anyway a non-starter. Middle-ranking ministers were responsible for specific cities under the Thatcher and Major governments. They made no difference whatsoever.

"Just one visit a year to keep the natives happy and a picture in the paper," was how one such minister described his responsibilities to me.

That is why I believe Cameron should make one Cabinet-level colleague responsible for scrutinising every economic policy to check that it will help to narrow the North-South divide, and end the uneven distribution of public funds in London's favour.

It's a task for one person. Step forward Nick Clegg, Cameron's deputy and MP for Sheffield Hallam. With a position on most Cabinet committees, and a constituency in a city that has already been hit by the coalition's cuts, he's uniquely qualified to ensure that Yorkshire and the North are not sidelined in the policy-making process – whether it be job creation schemes or tourism.

And he wouldn't need another tier of government, plus the accompanying bureaucracy, to achieve this aim.

I'VE no sympathy with Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary who has been forced to deny that he "leaked" a letter that he sent to the Prime Minister about the impact of budget cuts on the Armed Forces.

Why? If Fox did not want the contents of such a highly sensitive letter being published, he should have written it by hand and personally handed it over to David Cameron.

If the contents were subsequently published, Fox could have demonstrated that the leak came from inside 10 Downing Street – and not from his department which, according to Chancellor George Osborne, was left in a "chaotic and disorganised" state by Labour.

SOME free advice for Ed Miliband, the Doncaster North MP and new Labour leader – dispense with the services of Neil Kinnock, one of his party's former leaders, as soon as possible.

Kinnock, better known as the "Welsh windbag", somehow became one of the public faces of Miliband's successful campaign. Yet, from the public's point of view, he will forever be associated with electoral failure in 1992.

Kinnock, and his extended family, have also milked the Westminster and EU gravy trains for every penny available, and taxpayers know this. Miliband should take note.

I DON'T think Sir Alex Ferguson, the legendary Manchester United manager, is too impressed with Ed Miliband. When Miliband met the football messiah for a photo-call, one of the first things that he blurted out was his allegiance to Leeds United – Manchester United's longstanding rivals. It was a tactical error, especially as Miliband has previously admitted that he's a lapsed supporter of the Elland Road outfit whose long- standing financial troubles encapsulate Labour's economic recklessness when it spent beyond its means for so long, and with such ruinous consequences.

NOW we know why the old Labour warhorse Dennis Skinner decided to seek re-election in Bolsover at the age of 78, and when he's not in the best of health. According to former Labour backbencher Chris Mullin's compelling diaries, the "Beast of Bolsover" did not want his North Derbyshire seat being subjected to one of deputy party leader Harriet Harman's all-women shortlists.

HAVING admonished BBC Five Live last week for its insensitive and inaccurate reference to the "late Sir Peter O'Sullevan", it would be churlish not to acknowledge John Inverdale and Clare Balding's brilliant broadcasting at golf's Ryder Cup. Both met the high standards that were set, with such distinction, by Sir Peter.

The question is whether Inverdale and Balding, arguably the country's

two finest sports broadcasters, will have appropriate roles during the

2012 Olympics, or will the BBC deploy former sports stars who cannot portray the drama that was witnessed, and described so brilliantly, at Celtic Manor?