EDITORIAL COMMENT

IRRESPECTIVE of the verdict in September’s referendum on Scottish independence, there was always deep concern about the potential impact it could have on the North-East of England.

Scotland was guaranteed new powers whether it voted “yes” or “no” because the politicians’ promises, in that desperate scramble to avoid an unthinkable split in the United Kingdom, were bountiful.

The neighbouring North-East of England was at the biggest risk of being disadvantaged as a result.

Those fears have now come to the fore, with Scotland being given the power to cut air passenger duty (APD), and one of the region’s MPs declaring that the North-East had been “shafted”.

The threat to the North-East’s airports is clear but Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has set his party’s sights too low by calling on George Osborne to merely consider a “mechanism” to safeguard English airports. What exactly does that mean?

With a general election looming, there are jitters about upsetting the SNP but, having originally opposed devolving APD powers to Scotland, Labour surely has to be more forthright in demanding a fair deal for airports in the English regions.

Regional rates of air passenger duty, allowing future Chancellors to slash rates in the north in response to tax cuts made by the Holyrood Parliament, are the only way to avoid unfair competition and a serious economic blow to this part of England.

Here in the North-East, we have become used to fighting our corner against the blatant unfairness of a growing North-South divide.

We know all too well what it’s like to be shafted from the south.

Being also shafted from the north would be intolerable.