For a short while, northern devolution was something of a Brexit-style issue. It wasn’t polarising, like the ‘B-word’ is, but for a long while there has been nothing but talk, talk, and more talk.

Were you to stop someone on the streets of Barrow, or Carlisle, or Liverpool, and ask them what devolution would mean for them - are they likely to have an answer? We think not. That’s why news that ‘Northern Powerhouse’ minister Jake Berry is to hold top-level talks with Cumbrian authorities today (Monday February 3) has been met with... a bit of a shrug, really.

We don’t know whether the Government is planning a devolved assembly, like Holyrood, Senedd or Stormont, and we don’t really know what our own elected Cumbrian representatives are lobbying for either - we’re stuck with talks, and meetings, and vague press statements, and very little concrete information on which to form an opinion, or otherwise.

We also don’t know what the Government’s plans are for the northern constituencies that turned Conservative at the general election, Barrow included. Boris Johnson has previously suggested those former ‘red wall’ areas will be rewarded with investment, but Labour are now saying there’ll be a drain of funding to the Tories’ affluent southern homelands.

A little less conversation, a little more action, please.