AN invitation has just landed to attend a regional editors' lunch with David Cameron.

Now that the Tory leader has got The Sun on his side, he obviously wants to see what he can do with the regional newspapers.

Local papers like The Northern Echo are, of course, far less likely to side with one political party over another.

Unlike the nationals, locals are normally passionately independent. In nearly 30 years in local papers, I've never been put under any pressure by my bosses to lean one way or the other politically.

The lunch meeting with Mr Cameron will be hosted by the Press Association in London on December 1.

The invitation says it will be "an opportunity for you to raise any areas of particular interest to the regional press".

I feel a discussion about free council newspapers competing for commercial advertising coming on.