George Osborne says Derby, not Nottingham, leads the way
David Cameron brought the Cabinet out of London to Derby on his visit to the East Midlands
The political images couldn't have been more contrasting: there was David Cameron's Cabinet in the almost hermetically-sealed surroundings of Rolls Royce in Derby and the raw anger of protesters shouting down Labour leaders in Nottingham voting through big budget cuts.
The city's Labour Leader Jon Collins was surrounded by furious demonstrators outside Nottingham's Council House, as he attempted to pin the blame for the spending cuts on the Coalition.
The Cabinet meeting in Derby
The protesters, including students and public sector workers, appeared to want Nottingham to become a beacon of resistance to the government's deficit reduction agenda.
Police were called in to clear the council chamber's public gallery. Constant disruption from noisy demonstrators had made the authority's crucial budget meeting impossible to continue.
There was no such disruption in nearby Derby for the Cabinet's away-day. The only animated crowd awaiting David Cameron and his Cabinet were a handful of political reporters, including myself. No noise, no heckling, no placards... but a reworked political message from the Coalition.
The public had accepted the need for big spending cuts, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne assured me. The priority now was creating a culture of enterprise, jobs and economic recovery.
The Rolls Royce Technology Centre makes a stunning background for Cabinet ministers to play the export-drive card. There are ample photo-opportunity moments for Prime Ministers and their Chancellors to be seen with the aero engines that make Rolls Royce a world beater. Twelve thousand people, almost 10% of workers in this part of the East Midlands, rely on that continuing success.
Derby's productive/manufacturing economy is 31% - twice the national average. Ministers want the magic dust of Rolls Royce to be sprinkled on other less-affluent, struggling manufacturing areas of the country.
"Derby is a great example of what Britain's economy should be in the future," the Chancellor told me. "And a strong endorsement of the importance of manufacturing industry," he added:
"It shows that you don't have to have an economy that is all based on the City of London or the South East. We have to get this country making things again."
George Osborne at Rolls Royce in Derby
But the Chancellor couldn't resist an opportunity to settle a few political scores with the Labour leaders of Nottingham. They've irritated the Prime Minister by their high profile opposition to the big cuts in local government budgets and in protest, their refusal to publish the council's spending online, as requested by the Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles.
"Nottingham is quite frankly not telling the whole truth to its local population. It's a Labour council and they are not telling the local people what they are spending their money on," George Osborne told me.
Back outside a rowdy Nottingham Council House, the Labour leader Jon Collins struggled to get his message across.
"I didn't come into local politics to carry out these huge cuts."In effect, the Coalition has told us to cut £60m from our budget next year. That'll have a serious impact on many of the services we provide to some of the most vulnerable people in this city. Someone has to stand up for Nottingham. That's all we all trying to do," he said.
With the Chancellor's Budget later this month and important council elections in May, Coalition ministers will want the wider political debate to move on from the cuts to focus on economic revival.
Labour cities like Nottingham will have a very different political narrative for the country.
Hello. My name is John Hess. I'm the BBC's Political Editor for the East Midlands and this blog will offer my musings on the political scene from Westminster to closer to home. 
