Another example of London's greed & centralisation. And the sheer nerve of these people to then get their Queen of London - to pathetically claim this benefits the whole of Britain! What rubbish.

All those BBC & ITV News reporters should have "contrasted" the state of Manchester's Victoria Station ( where the water pours in and netting is strewn to catch falling glass) - with the £800 million spent on this single London station. The longest champagne bar in the world - indeed!

Quite agree with Mark but must also add this is the second £800 million refurb of a London station, the first was Waterloo earlier this year. £16 billion Crossrail just been approved again we are told it will benifit the whole country. How much more of this can we put up with.

What can we do to stop this London bias why aren't our councilors calling on the government to justify all this spend in London and not in other parts of the country (for the good of the whole country my ****) London have great transport links already an underground, subsidized busses, when are other parts of the country going to get their fare share ???
16 billion on cross rail + everything else going on down there Olympics etc Manchester are asking for 1 billion to extend a successful Metro Link system but we have to have congestion charging of £5 a day to get this, how much will Londoners have to pay in congestion for 16 billion £50 a day I don't think so ???? where is the logic ??? I am sick of the government putting the stops on all major projects in Manchester and passing everything in the South, the Airport Bypass has been left now for about 15 years now when is that going to happen ??? its time for our councilors to stand up for their town/region and do what we pay them to do..... instead of being yes men for the spoilt South.

Another load of money spent in the south east. When the tunnel first went to planning it was said the North West would benefit by having a high speed freight terminal built on Globe Lane Dukinfield. Good job nobody was holding their breath waiting for that to happen. Just another carrot to keep the peasants happy. TTFN

You can guarantee that the 16 billion will increase significantly by the time the project is finished, to join other southern farces such as the dome, wembley,2012 olympics. When will politicians start to distribute the funds in a fairer way?. Everybody knows that london is already beyond breaking point,now more money will be wasted for the so called benefit of the country. If we are to benefit in the north the government must approve a high speed rail link between here and london, but of course they wont.

Chipbutty again. Can people who care strongly about this somehow get together? £billions are shovelled every year into the same area. Each time followed by, 'the whole country will benifit' or 'London is the Capitol' or we have to compete with China or the US or wherever, and all argument dissapears. There is even an orginisation called 'London First' which includes government departments and the man who was behind the woefully underfunded Manchester olympic bid Sir Bob Scott. MPs and councillors are apparently quite happy with all this to continue. I repeat my original question, can we somehow get together and make a big stink about it?

Anything London there is always money.

If someone is willing to start a movement to ensure Manchester and the north west starts punching it's weight, then count me in. I am sick of reading about all the regeneration in London. It's the Dome the olympics then Wembely the cross rail network. I think it's time the M.E.N started a campaign to get answers on the billion's being spent in London while the whole north of England fights over crumbs. (MALP) Manchester Against London Prejudice!

LONDON FIRST? What an arrogant, selfish name to call your organisation? Says it all really, no shame have they?

But most annoying, is how the BBC & ITN NEWS never question all this investment into one corner of the country? Oh yeah - they're all based in London too!!

It's time we called for devolution of the north it's never done Scotland any harm.

!!! message for This Charming Manc !!! and everyone who cares. Our elected reps. are quite happy with the way that UK taxpayers money is doled out to London. How can we put on the pressure? I am happy to do what I can.
Yours determindly, Chipbutty.

Why doesn't the MEN do something to gauge how deep the poeple of Manchester feel about the bias towards London? We need to do something and make sure people hear we are not happy and things have to change. While we have rubbish transport links London gets billions and the longest champagne bar in Europe, thats nice to know as your face is in some blokes armpit on the overcrowded metro. We can't expand our light rail system but London can travel to europe by rail at the cost of over £5 billion! No there is no north south divide, honest!

I can well understand the anger of my fellow Mancunians concerning the north/south bias.

Our monarch appears to forget that the uk doesn't end north of the home counties.
However we must remember that as far as the so called english upper & middle classes are concrned
'class' is all.
And of course the mindset is that class means the south.

I remember when I was a child that we were encouaged to 'dump' our regional accents in an attempt to develope a national BBC style of speech.

What an horrendous thought.

Northern working class with accents, Ant and Dec,Chris Moyles,Sarah Cox,Peter Kay,Christopher Eccleston,Oasis,Pulp,Artic Monkeys,Wayne Rooney,Steven Gerrard,Wayne Hemmingway,Amir Khan,Ricky Hatton,Fred Flintoff,Darren Campbell,Chris Evans and Morrissey. They haven't done bad for themselves. It's time to stand up for working class northerners or we might as well all pack up and move to Croydon.