Families living in London and the South-east have pulled in their belts a notch, shopping less at Waitrose and more at Lidl. But in Sunderland and the North-east, there is real suffering. Emily Dugan reports

Super League Grand Finals have produced some predictable heroes from the cream of the sport's talent – but never one quite like Lee Smith. The emergency full-back was widely supposed to be Leeds' weakness in their uphill task against St Helens; instead, he turned out to be their great strength. Smith defended brilliantly, took over much of the play-making role left vacant by the injured Brent Webb, scored a try and even produced a crucial 40/20 kick. It was not so much a matter of voting for him for the Harry Sunderland Trophy as man of the match here as of giving it to him by popular acclaim. He also played his way on to the plane to Australia for the World Cup, because he is now a certainty to be in the England squad when it is named tomorrow.

Paul Williams entered the House of Commons in 1953 at the age of 30, winning a by-election for the Conservatives in Sunderland. It was the first time that the governing party had gained a seat in a by-election since 1924.

Forty students have been suspended at a £20 million city academy since it opened two weeks ago.

Tony Jeffries consigned the rancour and recrimination which followed Frankie Gavin's withdrawal to distant memory tonight by guaranteeing Great Britain at least two Olympic boxing medals for the first time in 36 years.

A manslaughter trial collapsed after a juror decided to investigate the case himself.

Nato needs the forces to respond to the new Russian challenge

Tory leader David Cameron today branded a report by a Conservative-leaning think tank which suggested people should abandon northern cities as "complete rubbish".

Some landlords are already demolishing buildings, as the financial pain of the Government's removal of business rate relief on empty commercial property hits home.

Struggling northern cities will never be able to regenerate and should be given up, a Tory think-tank with close links to David Cameron concludes today.

An urgent investigation should be carried out into the system for monitoring degree standards in the wake of The Independent's revelations that lecturers were being forced to turn a blind eye to cheating, the Conservatives' universities spokesman said yesterday.

The Tories claimed early today that they were on course to evict Gordon Brown from power after they won a steady series of local election victories across England.

The poet, playwright and novelist Simon Armitage looked relaxed as he waited to be introduced to a full house in Huddersfield Art Gallery; born in the town, the 44-year-old was tonight a local boy made good. Clearly, the youthful-looking Armitage of 2008 is an experienced performer. Here, he was in the best sense artful, experimental and yet at ease in his own skin in front of an audience of mainly literary professionals, who were confident of their own tastes and standards. Light entertainment was provided by a series of anecdotes relating to the writing of a recent translation of the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

I have an 8 week-old labradoodle puppy. He is full of mischief. I was wondering how long can I walk him for? Is there any other way of releasing his pent up energy? Thomas Hill, Sunderland