George Osborne is an upper class metropolitan in every respect: the way he talks, his education, his friends and family and his political orientation. But he is also a northern MP.

His constituency, around Wilmslow and Knutsford, is leafy and affluent but its residents do travel to work and shop in Manchester and Stockport. Unlike many other Tory MPs, Osborne does occasionally have to worry about the fate of manufacturing industry and sometimes even about the economy of the North West.

Lately, the north seems to have been on Osborne's mind. From the Treasury – its programme of spending cuts barely a third complete – are heard rumbling sounds about Big Transport and a northern urban renaissance.