Photos from Saturday's regional conference

Saturday saw the North East Lib Dem regional conference held in Gateshead Civic Centre and I was there with my camera to snap a few shots. On arrival I was greeted by Labour Councillor Peter Mole on the stairs leading to the civic suite. I was a bit surprised by his presence, thinking to myself, he couldn't possibly have defected to us as the Lib Dems are far too radical and progressive an organisation for people of the likes of Peter! And then I spotted a Labour gathering in a small room off one of the corridors. What relief we all felt!

Anyway, here are the photos.



My Gateshead Council colleague Frank Hindle retired as chairman of the region. He was thanked for his work by regional president, Suzanne Fletcher.



Panel discussion on community politics: Suzanne Fletcher (Stockton), Owen Temple (Durham North), Charles Jevon (Berwick), Ian Swales (Redcar), Penny Reid (Blyth) and Carol Woods (Durham City)



Gordon Birtwhistle MP who gave a good speech on the need to move away from the disaster of Labour's 13 years of sucking up to the financial services sector and get back to supporting manufacturing.



Parliamentary panel: Diana Maddock, Alan Beith, David Freeman (chairing), John Shipley and Gordon Birtwhistle.



Winner of the Alisdair Wardlaw award for local campaigning was Redcar. Ian Swales and his wife Pat collected the award.



Listening intently.