Northern cities need more than 'powerhouse' rhetoric | Simon Jenkins

Half-hearted localism won't help. Big business, arts and the media must move out of the capital to rebalance the economy

Send the Guardian back north. That should be Labour's policy for provincial cities. Everything else is 1980s re-tread. What is needed is a real shift in the nation's cultural focus, out of London to points north and west. If the BBC can go to the quays of Salford, the Guardian can return to Manchester.

A start might be made next door in the Liverpool neighbourhood of Welsh St...