Why can't the North be more like the South?

Next Monday on Radio 4 the World Tonight at 10pm will feature a special programme on the North /South divide in the UK. It features a personal piece by the effusive Walter Menzies, the chief executive of the Mersey Basin Campaign. A scot by birth, wandering Walter interviews people around the city of Manchester, in Liverpool, in Salford Quays and up in Rossendale. He asks the question: Why can't the North be more like the South?

I was interviewed, I don't know what will make the cut and what won't, but it's a worthwhile endeavour. For the record I don't go in for this "It's grim down South" stuff. There's a lot to do in the North West, people I speak to every day tread a thin line between believing their own hype and wishing a bright new shiny future into existence. Trust in the entrepreneurs, the adventurists and the risk takers, I say.