Why do people oppose the Northern Powerhouse?

plenty of economists, the Labour party/Corbyn, many people do.

Quite a few people like Theresa May feel that it is too focused on Manchester. Leeds and Liverpool and will not substantially benefit places like Rotherham or Oldham.

Corbyn and co don't like it because of why Osbourne came up with the idea.. if these places start to associate becoming prosperous with having a Tory government then it weakens the Labour position. It also gives local politicians more power which is bad for the party if these people go in a direction he does not like.

Personally i think that agglomeration economics is the way to go in the global world and i live in West Yorkshire and am a Tory.. needless to say, it has my full support.

Quite a few people like Theresa May feel that it is too focused on Manchester. Leeds and Liverpool and will not substantially benefit places like Rotherham or Oldham.

Corbyn and co don't like it because of why Osbourne came up with the idea.. if these places start to associate becoming prosperous with having a Tory government then it weakens the Labour position. It also gives local politicians more power which is bad for the party if these people go in a direction he does not like.

Personally i think that agglomeration economics is the way to go in the global world and i live in West Yorkshire and am a Tory.. needless to say, it has my full support.

Osborne's Northern Powerhouse was simply giving labour councils and mayors more powers while at the same time reducing their funding so that people would blame Labour not Tories for any problems. Its exactly what the Tories do with the NHS in Wales. Allow Labour to run it but reduce funding for them to do so.

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The northern power house is basically "make manchester a bit bigger and make it quicker to get to leeds".

Manchester is only just in the north. There's a good three hours drive worth of north before you hit scotland which seems to be completly ignored by the northern powerhouse. The northeast, cumbria and large parts of lancashire are not going to benefit from it too much.

To be fair under the last government the north started at the Watford Gap. I'm just pleased the border got as far as me under Osbourne.

What's your opinion on devolved regions generally? How much power should a local authority have?

For the country at large i'd probably take power away from local authorities over anything policy related as opposed to tax and spend.

For London, the counties containing the core 8 and Hampshire i'd create county authorities where they don't already exist and devolve significant power over tax and spend. I'd be tempted to go as a far as replacing the block grant and business rates with the power to raise and lower corporation and income tax albeit i'd have to think about that some more to prevent people and businesses essentially registering as postboxes.

This surprises me a little as I had you down as a sceptic of overly centralised, powerful governments and would be in favour of giving local areas more control. Like a version of the US or German federal system.

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I'm highly skeptical of government when it comes to the economy however having seen what happened in Scotland i now have no doubt that we must be culturally as one. Allowing places or regions to be legally distinct creates cultural distinction, this weakens the union between us.

Power must be maintained at all costs.

It's worked in other places though. America is very patriotic for example despite federalism.

I'm not convinced that Scotland isn't the exception to the rule, as opposed to the rule itself.

I'm highly skeptical of government when it comes to the economy however having seen what happened in Scotland i now have no doubt that we must be culturally as one. Allowing places or regions to be legally distinct creates cultural distinction, this weakens the union between us.

Power must be maintained at all costs.