south—east, and that has been borne out in a number of reports, including one at the time by the uk 27 commission that essentially said the economic divide in this country is now comparable to germanytural thing in this country that in order to kind of get this onto the agenda politically, you do have to shout a little louder in the north. that was one of the reasons that we got together, but i think it has worked. i think you can see that this is starting to be worn out by party manifestoes in this election. it is something that is rising up the agenda. importantly, in crewe, it is historically important from a transport point of view, and hs2 as well. you must talk to people about hs2 all the time. what is the feeling about it? i think it is a mixed picture. ithink feeling about it? i think it is a mixed picture. i think if you talk to business and political leaders in the north they will say it is absolutely essential because it will link to northern powerhouse rail, the plan to improve east—west link rail in the north and to increase capacity of the west coast main line. i think if you talk to people on the ground, it is more mixed. what people really feel in their bones is tha