Happy birthday Focus - 30 years old

We had a bit of a party today. It is now 30 years since we first produced Focus in the Whickham area. It's the only regular newsletter produced by a political party in the area and it is widely respected by residents and universally despised by the Labour party. Hardly a Gateshead Council meeting goes by without a Labour councillor making a sneering comment about Focus. That suggests to me it is working well.

We had a cake to celebrate the 30 years of Focus. Eggs from our ducks were used to make it (we have a bit of a glut of them). And a crowd of us gathered in my front garden, between my land rover and my trailer, for the photos.





Here we are with Focuses old and new. I'm holding the first edition, dating back to 1985 when we were the SDP/Liberal Alliance. Cllr Sonya Hawkins, on the left, is holding the most recent edition which has just been delivered in Whickham (I still have a patch to do). Cllr Chris Ord is holding a copy of one of his ward Focuses from 1993, the year after he was first elected. He's looking a bit younger in the photo in that edition!