When he was President of the US, Ronald Reagan used to enjoy cracking jokes during TV addresses, mainly at the expense of the Soviet Union and his Democrat political opponents.

Some were even quite funny which is the exact opposite of anything the current White House incumbent can muster but we can live in hope.     

It was towards the end of the Cold War and Reagan was quick to pounce on any shortcomings within the Soviet system while opening meaningful dialogue with the last president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev.

One of Reagan’s most famous jokes was about a Russian ordering a new car and being told it would be delivered in 12 years time on a Thursday, to which he replied: ‘could it be the afternoon as the plumber is due in the morning’.

Reagan presided over the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union and in his final year in office he visited Moscow for a summit with Gorbachev.

Given the state of the two megalomaniac and dictatorial presidents currently in the Kremlin and White House, it is hard to see much benefit in the intervening decades, but we live in hope.

While Regan’s joke about the Soviet plumber was of its time and aimed at the domestic US audience, sometimes it can feel like that in this country when it comes to calling a tradesperson due to seemingly never-ending shortages.

President Ronald Reagan speaks at a banquet in St George's Hall, Windsor Castle, beside Princess Margaret (left) and Queen Elizabeth II (Image: PA/PA Wire)

But help may be at hand thanks to the self-styled ‘King of the North’ Andy Burnham in one of his latest wheezes to basically turn the whole of England into Greater Manchester.

Or King of the bit that’s actually pretty far south as he’s known in Scotland.

Burnham has announced plans to make changes he made to technical education in Manchester apply across........

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