Cabinet meets in Durham not Downing Street
It's been the worst-kept secret in political circles for a couple of weeks now, but the secrecy is over.
Today the Cabinet is not meeting in Downing Street - it's meeting in Durham.
It involves most of the Government decamping to the region, with a blizzard of visits as well as the Cabinet meeting itself.
The North East is the latest to get the treatment.
Previous sessions have been held in various locations including Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and, earlier this month, Exeter.
The Government says it's a valid way of connecting with communities around the country.
The critics say it's a PR stunt ().
There'll certainly be no shortage of activity.
Alistair Darling is visiting Thorn in Spennymoor, Lord Mandelson is heading to Corus in Redcar, Jack Straw is in South Tyneside, Andy Burnham at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, Ed Balls in County Durham, Yvette Cooper in Hartlepool and Lord Adonis in Darlington.
And there are other visits too, not least by the PM.
There will be a series of announcements - how many of them will be genuinely new remains to be seen.
about the way these Cabinet visits are designed to garner votes in target seats rather than improve the running of government,
Whatever announcements ministers make though, many of the questions will be about the dominant issue - the economy.
The Cabinet arrives just days before Corus is due to mothball the blast furnace at Teesside Cast Products in Redcar, and begin the process of making 1,600 workers redundant.
And yesterday's unemployment figures confirmed another rise in the number of people claiming jobseekers allowance in both the North East and Cumbria.
Hopefully I'll get a chance to ask the Prime Minister about both issues later on.
I'm Richard Moss, the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s Political Editor for the North East and Cumbria. Welcome to my irreverent - but hopefully insightful - northern take on reporting politics for Look North and the Politics Show.
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