THANK god for Sir John Hall.

As a Sunderland fan who can’t abide the Metrocentre that is a phrase I thought I would never write.

The miner’s-son-turned-Tory-cheerleader has made a career out of asking questions that nobody else considers, or dares to ask. On Friday morning, he managed to liven up a business event that was in danger of becoming a love-in.

Sir John was among the 100-plus guests at an Eaglescliffe factory waiting for George Osborne to drag himself away from Manchester and visit the ‘real’ north. The Chancellor kept us all waiting more than an hour, which considering his audience consisted of some of the busiest and best paid people in the region, ensured he wasted the precious time and money of some big hitters. So much for the age of belt-tightening and austerity.

With time to kill on the shop floor at Nifco where the event was being held, Sir John caught my attention by punching me on the shoulder and pointing to a sign hanging from the rafters of the firm’s cavernous car parts plant. “Do you see that?” he asked. I could hardly have missed the gigantic blue poster bearing the words ‘Long Term Economic Plan for the North East.’ It had been positioned to appear behind the Chancellor’s head in photographs and TV coverage so no one could miss his favourite catchphrase.

The Nifco visit was part of a series of stage-managed events skilfully teed up by the Treasury spin doctors to make it look like our region was abuzz with good news – all of it a direct result of Mr Osborne’ careful handling of the economy. For example, I understand that in the run up to the whistlestop tour they had been pestering Nissan to manufacture some good news that the Chancellor could claim as his own and support his other oft repeated phrase about our being part of a resurgent ‘northern powerhouse.’

Following a brief speech at Nifco – whose announcement of a £50m deal with Ford just happened to coincide with the visit – Mr Osborne hosted a quickfire question-and-answer session with the audience. Many of the delegates had been hand-picked by local Conservative activists so most of the questions were of the “Why are you so brilliant?” variety.

Sir John brought things back to reality by asking Mr Osborne to intervene and rescue the County Durham Economic Plan, recently savaged by the planning inspector, placing at risk thousands of proposed new jobs. The Metrocentre mogul is a shrewd operator. There was no way that the Chancellor was going to deny the region’s most high profile entrepreneur in front of an audience being wooed ahead of May’s General Election. Mr Osborne promised to host talks to discuss ways to save the scheme. Amid the bluster, shameless electioneering and time wasting, Sir John might have managed to make the whole visit worthwhile.

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