Here be dragons: does moving power to the north work?

Andy Burnham’s recent promise to create a ‘No 10 North’ echoes BBC’s successful Out of London plan When the BBC first announced its intention to move a significant chunk of its operation to Salford in Greater Manchester – the “Out of London” plan, as the then director general Mark Thompson called it in 2004, with a faint “here be dragons” whiff – there were plenty in the organisation who were scornful that it could ever work. Senior staff would never leave the capital. Star talent wouldn’t…