Yorkshire must unite over crisis response – The Yorkshire Post says

Welcome optimism about the demand for new offices in Leeds contrasts sharply, for example, with growing pessimism about tourism and the rural economy.

Yet, while it is paramount that public health protocols on social distancing guidelines are strictly observed on those construction sites where work is taking place, the priority now is planning for the lockdown’s lifting.

There should be greater representation of the English regions on the Cobra emergency committee – at present it is restricted to the leaders of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Mayor of London.

The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – strangely sidelined in much of the national effort to date – should now have a task force in place to begin to co-ordinate the economic recovery. If not, why not?

And there will also need to be a Yorkshire-wide approach to ensure that this county makes the most of the talent, and resources, at its disposal to ensure that the region’s myriad industries can adapt.

Given the difficulties that many firms are enduring as they try to access the various schemes that Chancellor Rishi Sunak has – in fairness – put in place to prevent an even greater economic calamity, there will need to be a clear unity of purpose to ensure that no sector or area is left behind in the months to come.

But it is also an opportunity – a chance to show the Government what this county is capable of achieving when it pulls together, lobbies collectively for funds and builds on the example being set by Dan Jarvis and his team in Sheffield City Region and West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s new recovery board.

Now is the time to leave legacy issues at the door and focus solely on the future health – and prosperity – of this county.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

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Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor