To plug the north-south gap, the only way is Manchester | Simon Jenkins

Bolstering the north's biggest city would help provincial England to challenge London's privilege and dominance

The north is coming. If Scotland departs the union, it will be the north, not Wales, that is next for a crisis of regional identity. How will it deal with the blood-sucking maw that has replaced Cobbett's Great Wen as metaphor for booming London?

Next week Martin Wainwright, former northern editor of the Guardian, takes to BBC radio to debunk the various "myths of the north". He...