If Manchester’s ultra-mayor Andy Burnham really is King of the North — as Labour’s bobble-hatted folklorists believe — then Steve Rotheram, metro mayor of Liverpool, is his regent and champion. These two old Scouser pals have a lot in common: …
Why the North needs its Angel
Just as Brooklyn is to Manhattan and Pest is to Buda, the town of Gateshead has long been in the shadow of its grander neighbour across the water. Dr Samuel Johnson, who visited in the eighteenth century, thought the town …
The curse of Northern stereotypes
Here are some snapshots of modern Britain, taken by a well-known broadcaster, playwright and social commentator. The railways are dying; car traffic is thriving. To the drivers, who interact with their fellow human beings mainly by injuring and killing them, …
Geordie Shore is bourgeois now
“And girl it looks so pretty to me, like it always did; Oh like the Spanish City to me, when we were kids”, purred Mark Knopfler on the Dire Straits track “Tunnel of Love”. “So rock away, rock away; Cullercoats …