Page 3 - Great Northern Conference 2020: GAUA

Welcome
James Mitchinson
Editor, Yorkshire Newspapers
Two hundred and sixty six years ago The Yorkshire Post - then the Leeds Intelligencer - was founded on a publisher’s promise that had at its core, to use political parlance de rigueur, ‘levelling up.’
Just eight years after the Battle of Culloden - British Government against Jacobite rebels - and during the reign of King George II, these were the sentiments of visionary Griffith Wright the Elder who understood that a force for good, for the all-round betterment of the people it served, was necessary, here. The North of England needed a voice.
It is genuinely remarkable that The Yorkshire Post has prevailed for over a quarter of a millennium but ponder if you will for a moment precisely what it takes for a business to
be able to record the reigns of ten monarchs and 74 Prime Ministers whilst dedicatedly following the same North Star as that which guided it on day one. Yes, it takes extraordinary resilience and a clarity of purpose but for the founding oath to be as relevant now as it was before the Spinning Jenny was invented takes something else: an acceptance of the status quo.
But when I first envisaged the Great Northern Conference - and discovered friends around me who shared my desire to build something that would help give northerners a voice - we told the Establishment: up with this we will no longer put. And so it gives me enormous pleasure to welcome you to this, the second GNC, and one that builds on the foundations laid by our Power Up The North campaign.
For too long we in the North have allowed ourselves to
be pitted against one another. Our histories, cultures and identities weaponised against us by those who seek to divide and rule us. Cynically engineered ways of distracting the regions from the perpetual, systemic, institutional neglect that has led to parts of the North receiving comparisons
with collapsed Communist East Germany at the point of Reunification.
But last year Power Up The North changed everything. On behalf of our readers almost 40 news brands in the North of England, jointly led by The Yorkshire Post and Manchester Evening News, channelled the anger, frustration and desperation of the 15.3m people who live in the North. We demanded change. We called out the neglect and refused to be placated. More importantly, we shouted about the opportunity, potential, talent and ambition running through the veins of this place we call home.
Power Up The North was the regional media at its brilliant best; our own Culloden. On this occasion the Jacobites emerged victorious. Our battle for acknowledgement has been won. The fact that we have as guests today one of the founding fathers of the Northern Powerhouse in George Osborne and the Secretary of State for Transport the Rt Hon Grant Shapps reflects the import placed on the North by this Government and I believe this is just the beginning of a new era of prosperity in this part of the country.
The pandemic has placed the North’s economy under unprecedented pressure. However, our dynamic entrepreneurs are well-placed to lead the recovery because of their long-standing commitment to innovation. In return, they simply ask that Government provides them with an appropriate level of support so they can weather the storm and create jobs when the pandemic finally eases.
I do hope the day is enjoyable for you. More importantly; I hope it stimulates conversations, establishes connections that later become relationships and that good things to happen because you came here today.