Alex Massie

These, ranked from first to tenth, are the urban areas in Britain with the highest average weekly earnings in 2012: London, Reading, Crawley, Aldershot, Edinburgh, Cambridge, Milton Keynes, Aberdeen, Southend, Brighton. That's from the latest, fascinating, report (pdf here) published by the Centre for Cities. It can be summarised easily: if you want to make it, head to London or the south-east of England. Or to Scotland. London, as Jeremy Warner observed this morning, is still driving the British economy. Financial services remain vital both to economic recovery and the country's long-term future. Strengthening other sectors remains important; so does the City. But strengthening Britain's other cities is - or should - also be at the top of the agenda.

Anyone who questions any aspect of the way the NHS performs - whether in Scotland or England and Wales - soon becomes accustomed to being accused of harbouring some kind of ideological resentment towards the dear old thing. Ideological, of course, is a Bad Thing. It is supposed to indicate a preference for an evidence-free approach that places means above ends. This works both ways, however. If (some of) the NHS's critics are motivated by ideology many of its keenest defenders are no less moved by an ideological commitment to the service. Their ideological commitment, of course, is a Good Thing and not to be confused with the other kind of ideological commitment.

By god, you know matters have come to a wretched pass when you feel inclined to defend and protect the International Cricket Council. And yet, remarkably, such a moment is upon us. Like the old Roman republic, the ICC is threatened by a triumvirate. In this instance, Crassus is represented three times as India, England and Australia bid to carve up cricket's empire between themselves. Few people doubt change is needed. The ICC has been broken for ages. It is easy to conclude that it has outlived its usefulness. Nevertheless, that does not mean any proposed alternative is going to produce better outcomes for cricket. The proposals for reforming cricket's governance and, more pressingly, its finances are mooted in a 21 page paper that, usefully, has been leaked. You can read it here.

For a long time now, the case for the United Kingdom has been made in a tiresomely negative sense. That is, Unionists have spent more time pointing out the practical and procedural difficulties that are an unavoidable consequence of Scottish independence. This is fine as far as it goes. The problem is that, however justified these concerns may be, it does not go very far. After all, practical difficulties are the things politicians are elected to solve. Or at least ameliorate. The case for the Union needs to be about something bigger and better than that. Unionists don't simply need a plan, they need a story. So it was braw to read Chris Deerin making what he termed the moral case for the Union in the pages of the Scottish Daily Mail last week.

Last month's terrorist attacks in Volgograd were doubtless an attempt to warn foreigners off the Winter Olympics in Sochi next month. An attempt, too, to remind Vladimir Putin that his problems in the Caucasus - many of them at least partially made in Moscow - haven't gone away. For understandable reasons the bombs have caused plenty of folk to wonder about the security of athletes and visitors in Sochi. Those concerns are, plainly, real even if we may also, I think, expect the Russian state to erect several rings of steel around the Black Sea resort. The real concern, frankly, is that Russia was awarded the games in the first place. As I've written in today's Scotsman: The games should never have been sent to Russia in the first place.

Digital Detox is grand even when, as this New Year, it's partly unplanned. Back today from an extended break on the Isle of Jura which, like much of Britain, has been lashed by gales. Unlike most of Britain, however, this has meant a) no ferries running and b) not much in the way of internet access (thanks to said storms). There are worse places to be marooned even if, like George Orwell, we ran dangerously low on tobacco... Still, good to be back and all that. I trust you all had a splendid Christmas and an even finer New Year. Normal posting to resume forthwith. Meanwhile here, somewhat belatedly are the answers to this year's Christmas Quiz. I hope you had some fun with it. I know some people (or teams of people) got all the answers correct. 1.

In the bar of the Hotel Suisse, perched above the lake in Kandy (pictured), high up in Sri Lanka’s Hill Country, a driver touting for business smiles to reassure me that the British ‘left us many good things’. Trains, roads, the English language. And cricket, I remind him, ‘Oh yes, sir, cricket.’ I wonder what he says to French or Australian tourists. The Hotel Suisse was used as Louis Mountbatten’s South-East Asia Command headquarters in the second world war; these days it has something of the feel of an old-fashioned and slightly eccentric English prep school. If the Hill Country is not quite the last redoubt of Sri Lanka’s British past, it remains the district in which it is most palpable.

That time of year again, I guess. Here is this blog's fifth annual Christmas Quiz. I hope it has not been compiled in quite as absent-minded a fashion as last year's effort and thus contains fewer errors that might both make it harder and more nonsensical than needs be the case. Anyway, as always, it's just for fun and there are no prizes. Google might help you but only at the cost of your self-esteem. Answers will be published some time next week though you can ask for hints on Twitter where, highland internet access and time permitting, I'll do my best to help. 1. How are hostages plus steps the answer to everything? 2. Where were a new Prince, the chief author of a good book's vulgar version and a Munster hell-raiser accompanied by an American sour cherry? 3.