AFTER another mainly gloomy year for manufacturing in the North-East, it makes a welcome change to report some good news today.

Nissan's decision to build the Micra C+C represents a £95m investment in the company's Sunderland plant and that means more jobs.

It is a testament to the excellence of the award-winning North-East workforce because it would have been so easy to produce the car in Japan instead.

It also sends an important signal that Nissan's commitment to this region is not quite as dependent on Britain joining the euro as has been mooted.

The Government has played its part with a grant of £3.26m to trigger the contract, which will also come as welcome news to the chain of regional suppliers who rely so heavily on Nissan.

It is clearly a significant announcement which will hopefully lead to further investment in Sunderland, underlining the urgency of the need to resolve the current wave of industrial unrest at the plant.

But important though it is, yesterday's news has to be kept in perspective in terms of the overall needs of the regional economy.

The North-East needs plenty more shots in the arm if it is to counter the more frequent doses of bad news on the manufacturing front.

Playing the dummy

THE Aussies claim it's all a laugh - but they're plotting to stop Jonny Wilkinson being named BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

The Sydney Morning Herald has launched a campaign urging readers to vote tactically to stop the great Wilko being crowned the nation's favourite sports star.

Naturally, The Northern Echo has launched its own counter campaign to beat the Aussies at their own dastardly game.

We don't really need to because our golden-booted world cup hero is guaranteed to walk it. But just to rub it in Down Under - the land of the world's second best rugby team - vote for Jonny today.