Boris has to invest in the North big-time

If Boris means what he says about wanting unity in the United Kingdom he will have to be hugely generous in splashing Treasury funds all across the North and Midlands. The people who live in these areas need jobs, better housing, improved public transport, new industries and a proper future. They have been neglected for a decade and the difference between the wealthy, healthy, thriving towns and cities in the south is so marked that when you get off a train after a long journey north from London it hits you in the face. It can be like a different world where real poverty is there for all to see. Michael Heseltine when he was Conservative Environment Secretary in the Margaret Thatcher government in the 1980s invested so much in Liverpool that the regeneration he ordered transformed the city. It was a Labour-controlled city but the Heseltine impact was so profound that they awarded him the Freedom of the City in 2012 by which time he was Lord Heseltine. He fell in love with Liverpool and saved the city from falling into an abyss. Amazing achievement. Boris needs to do the same. He needs to fall in love with the North and the Midlands and spend spend spend. First because it's vital for these regions of the UK and second because Labour supporters for the first time in their lives voted for Boris instead of for Labour and its leader Jeremy Corbyn. They put their trust in Boris because they had no confidence in Corbyn's leadership. So Boris owes them. I hope he doesn't let them down. If he does he will be thrown out of Downing Street in five years' time.