I'm not sure there is any political mileage for GO "locally " but fair play to the man certainly upping Manchester's profile nationally and internationally. Not something he needed to do but has done.....
Never misses an opportunity to promote Manchester. ..
I never thought I would see the day !
Take note Graham Stringer and Graham Brady.
Bagso
Plenty of political mileage in it for GO. He is pressing the Northern Powerhouse as his pet project. With one eye on his credentials to be the next PM and to woo voters up North, it now needs to do well
Of course it all went sour in June when McLoughlin paused the Trans-Pennine electrification rail development and people, particularly Labour politicians from the North, started to refer to it as the Northern Powercut. The press got in on the ribbing too as did Jeremy Corbyn more recently.
An article in this month's Rail Magazine (unable to link it) alleges that GO eventually became fed up and
instructed DfT to unpause the electrification (which has caused Network Rail all sorts of problems) in order to give his plans credibility
So GO wants evidence that the Northern Powerhouse is starting to work and voila - investment at MAN and a new Chinese route. Here's a tweet from the MEN reporter at Xi's announcement at the Airport
Mr Xi is bigging up the 'Northern Powerhouse'. George will be pleased. Says Manchester and China relations will prosper.
https://twitter.com/TFitzgeraldMEN/s...rc=twsrc%5Etfw
So there is a lot riding on this for GO both nationally and locally.
I agree with you that it is good to see this type of promotion of MAN; one that as you say some local MPs etc have been entirely quiet about publicly in recent years. But it is obvious that there has been a lot going on behind the scenes involving the local councils, business and national Government to get things to this stage. Who would have thought the official announcement of a new air route at MAN would ever be made by a president?
And some good reaction from various business organisations to the new Beijing service.
Health Warning for Bagso - this includes Visit Britain who say the following
Sally Balcombe, chief executive, said: “Making it easier for people to get to Britain by building air route connectivity is crucial to driving tourism numbers, including from new growth markets such as China where key competitors such as France and Germany have much more seat capacity. The launch of this new route is all about increasing the number of international visitors to Manchester and also promoting it as a regional gateway to explore the north of England.
“Today’s launch, coming on top of the changes to visitor visas for Chinese tourists announced this week, is another step in further improving our competitive tourism offering as the destination of choice for the rapidly-growing Chinese market, the world’s largest outbound market, and to inspire more visitors to travel here and explore all our nations and regions.”
Business leaders react to Manchester securing a direct flight to Beijing - Manchester Evening News
And finally here's the MEN report about the special China Cluster to be set up at Airport City to provide exclusive space within the Enterprise Zone for Chinese companies wanting to set up in the UK
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co....-130m-10321318
More positive words about the Northern Powerhouse in this too