I filmed this on a day off from politics and farming. A day trip to York - the city is packed with history and is only an hour on the train from home. It is a regular host of Lib Dem spring conference. I'm not sure if York is hosting conference in the next couple of years but if it is, I will use the opportunity to visit more of the historical attractions.
The video was filmed at Clifford Tower, York Castle Museum and The Shambles.
I've been saying since January that rainfall is greatly reduced this year. Normally in January I am plodding around in mud up to my ankles but the start of the year was damp but not as wet as we would normally expect. Every month since then, rainfall has been minimal, and for many weeks at a time, non-existent. Some areas of the country are now facing drought restrictions but we all now need to start saving water. Do you need to clean the car so often? Do you need to bathe rather than shower (and when showering is it necessary to leave the water running the whole of the time you are in the shower)? Do you need to clean all your towels after a single use.
Water is a resource and should be treated as such. We must be sparing with its use. A few thoughts on this issue in the video above.
Liberal Democrats from the North East were out in force yesterday for Northern Pride parade through Newcastle. As usual, I was there with my camera.
Okay, so just back from my farm and I've discovered that Johnson is to resign. Alas, one of the Lib Dems' best recruiting sergeants is to exit the stage. So who could be in the running to replace him as Tory leader?
Gateshead is part of Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Authority. It is run by a joint committee consisting of councillors from the five constituent councils. Hardly renowned for gripping debates, the committee is unlikely to have a queue of people eagerly waiting to get into the meeting to listen intently to councillors discussing the great issues of the day. Until today, that is.
For today, I am informed, Labour put on a great show in which they manned the barricades and battled with themselves for the role of chair. Labour are the majority party so the role is theirs until such point as they lose their majority. Sunderland is the lead authority and would normally expect to hold the chair but this time, there was a challenge. Gary Haley from Gateshead threw his hat in the ring and went head to head with the new member for Sunderland. No one won. The score was 7 votes each. The vote was run again but as no one had changed their mind, the result was simply a reheat of the first one.
Could it be third time lucky? Yet again, the vote was rerun but no one was in the mood for changing. So it was another score draw. The committee broke up without a chair being appointed. An extra meeting has now been called to be held in a couple of weeks.
And if that fails to resolve the matter, presumably there will be a penalty shoot out.
I thought it was just Gateshead Labour group that were incompetent when it came to filling appointments - they were still making committee appointments 5 months after the annual council meeting last year. I have now discovered that this inability to sort an appointment extends much further in the Labour Party.
For the first time in 30 years I went to the Newcastle Hoppings last night. We got to Exhibition Park and a sudden and very heavy downpour nearly made the evening into a washout. Fortunately it lasted only 5 minutes. So, one burger, one packet of very overpriced pick and mix sweets and one ride later and we headed back home. You need to watch to the end of the video to find out which thrill ride we did!
I'm currently sitting in a briefing meeting for Gateshead Councillors with officers from Nexus and Go North East. I'm pleased to report that the 69 service has been saved. Nexus will step in to run it as a secured service. A grant from the government will pay for the service which is vital for many residents. The 69 is the main way for those without a car to get to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Saving it was a priority for the Lib Dem group. It should now remain in place until 2025.
It was the oven ready deal ready to go. All that was needed was a Johnson led Conservative victory at the 2019 general election. "Let's get Brexit done" was the winning slogan. And so it came to pass - the deal was pushed through Parliament and it appeared that the Conservatives could claim "Job done." Except that it is far from job done. It now looks like Johnson is after a fight with the EU. I suspect he wants to take on Europe because he needs to recreate the conditions of 2019 in which Europe-bashing was in part the reason for his election victory. Now he needs to rebuild support on the Tory right while hoping the broken promise of no borders in the Irish Sea is drowned out by the battle cries of an anti-EU campaign. Johnson must also be hoping that in this cacophony of noise, the people will forget that he is the author of the Northern Ireland Protocol, the agreement which is now being savaged by the Conservatives. Johnson got us into this mess. Now it's his job to get us out of it. Don't hold your breath.
So I decided, for a treat, to attend conference and stay in a hotel but Brighton hotel prices came as something of a surprise! I've got 3 months to get over the shock. Let's hope the rail strikes are all ended by then. I certainly won't be driving there!
Ross Hutchinson, the weatherman on Tyne Tees TV, was a visitor to Sunniside over the Jubilee weekend. He was there to plant a tree on the Whinnies Community Garden (see video above) and he took the opportunity to visit my Nearside allotment to see my goats and poultry. He's a keen supporter of animal welfare and keeps a number of animals himself. It was great to see him in Sunniside.
I was in Whickham yesterday with other volunteers from Planting Up Whickham to help plant up the flowerbeds on Front Street and Church Green. The group raises the money for the flowers and looks after the beds after the council stopped doing this about a decade ago. 2 hours of planting on a Sunday morning and the job was done.
I guess that Keir Starmer must be regretting that beer and curry in the office of Mary Foy, Labour MP for Durham City and former member of Gateshead Council. While not on the level of the Downing Street party factory, the fact it happened does not read well for Labour. Starmer has been forced to make a virtue out of necessity. If he is fined, there was no way he could remain at the top of Labour given his previous hardline position on Boris Johnson's party going activities. So he is making his offer to resign if fined a position of virtue. If he is then found not to have broken covid restrictions (and my guess is that he won't be fined), he can then portray himself as the good guy who offered to do the right thing before the police had reached a conclusion. All, of course, in contrast to Boris Johnson.
Meanwhile, time to spend a bit of time reading about the government's attempts to address the cost of living crisis. £15 billion and a uturn just to keep the Sue Gray report out of the headlines!
I was reliably informed on Friday at the count that the Conservatives are to target me personally in the local elections next year! "You are targeted" sounds as though it's come straight from a Terminator film! But far from being angry that I am to be the Tories' target, I welcome it! But let's put everything into perspective. By May next year I will have represented Whickham South and Sunniside for 36 years. I gained the seat from the Conservatives in 1987 and have taken over 50% of the vote in every election since then. The good people of the ward have chosen me to be their councillor 10 times. Apart from 1987, the Conservative have had a name on the ballot paper but no campaign. Last week, in the ward, the Conservatives were in 3rd place with 346 votes compared to our vote of 1770
Last week, the Conservatives failed to win their only target seat in Gateshead (Winlaton and High Spen). If their strategy is to use resources to fight one of their most unwinnable seats, and therefore using up valuable resources that could go to the better prospect of Winlaton and High Spen, then it is hardly surprising the Conservatives have failed to win a single seat in Gateshead in 30 years.
So let the battle commence!
Congratulations to my ward colleague Marilynn Ord who was re-elected last week to Gateshead Council in Whickham South and Sunniside ward. She took 60% of the vote and had a majority of 1075.
The details are:
On the way to the count this morning, I made my predictions for the Gateshead local elections. But how close were they?
Winlaton and High Spen ward continues to attract attention in the local elections in Gateshead. It seems the Conservatives are pouring in the resources. There have been two visits by cabinet members and I am informed that there have been visits by MPs recently.
From having been rather complacent a few weeks ago, Labour may now be awake to the danger of losing to the Conservatives in the ward. There was a group of Labour members working the ward today and thanks to the wonders of social media (in this case Liz Twist MP's Twitter feed) we now know who was there - 11 Councillors, 2 members, the candidate and the MP. But who is this I see? John Adams? The beleaguered member for Saltwell? Does this mean he is complacent about being re-elected again for Saltwell? Or are Labour giving up in Saltwell?
So, what is the final result to be? I remain to be convinced the Conservatives can pull off victory in the ward. It will be close however, but Labour members must surely be feeling it is a little too close for comfort, hence the reason for shipping in their councillors.
In previous years there were 2 wards in Gateshead in which the Green Party was thought to have an interest: Saltwell and Crawcrook and Greenside. This year we saw an interesting development in Saltwell. The Green Party candidate of the previous year, Rachel Mary Cabral, is standing again, but without a party description. Somehow, the nomination forms have been handed in without being fully completed. Anyone looking to vote for the Green Party will be disappointed though the Green Party vote is being squeezed heavily by the Lib Dems in Saltwell as the battle to beat Labour hots up.
So what went so wrong for the Greens? Well, I am reliably informed that the candidate went on holiday in late March, coinciding with the opening of nominations. My suspicion is that the form for the party description and logo were not completed before Rachel left the country. Without that form being signed by a party's designation nominating officer, a candidate cannot use the Party description and logo.
When challenged in April about the lack of a description, Rachel explained there was an "administrative error" though quite what that error is has not been explained.
Never mind Rachel, there is a silver lining in the cloud. The Greens got 185 votes in Saltwell last year and they will be looking for a new home. They could help swing the ward away from Labour by voting Lib Dem instead.
I was rather amused by the absurdity of Oliver Dowden's claims of an electoral pact between Lib Dems and Labour. The Tory Party chairman based his fantasy story on Labour standing more candidates in the North while the Lib Dems are standing more candidates in the South. Perhaps Mr Dowden should visit Gateshead where, incidentally, Labour, Conservatives and Lib Dems are each fielding full slates of candidates. The actual battle is between Labour and Lib Dems slugging it out in a number of wards with the Conservatives running a small sideshow in Winlaton and High Spen. Even in this one target ward, the Conservatives are more likely to be runners up rather than winners though this is, for them, a major advance on decades in the electoral wilderness in Gateshead.
But anyone looking for evidence of a non-existent Lib-Lab pact should visit Saltwell, Birtley, Pelaw and Heworth, High Fell and Dunston Hill and Whickham East wards in Gateshead. Labour are defending the first four against a Lib Dem onslaught. The 5th ward is a marginal Lib Dem held ward (but with one independent who is not defending his seat.) The ward has a recent Labour history and Labour would love to recover it. No one visiting those wards could possibly believe Dowden's story.
Still, it makes for an interesting distraction from an MP viewing porn, Partygate and the cost of living crisis.
Gateshead Labour Councillor Anne Wheeler is on a bit of a journey. She arrived on the council in 2010, winning back a seat from the Lib Dems in Pelaw and Heworth ward which we had held since taking it from Labour in 2000. Having served 2 terms Anne moved ward to Wardley and Leam Lane in 2018. Whether this was a voluntary switch of ward or imposed on her I do not know. Either way, it was for her a good move as Wardley and Leam Lane was one of the strongest Labour wards in the borough. Pelaw and Heworth on the other hand was moving back towards to Lib Dems. In 2016 we took one of the three seats by only 20 votes. Labour clung on by around 100 votes in the ward in 2018 but Anne was safe with a majority of 868 in the next door ward.
Alas, things don't look so comfortable for her now. She is no longer Labour candidate in the Labour fortress of Wardley and Leam Lane. Instead, she is back in Pelaw and Heworth facing a Lib Dem majority of 648 from 2021. The sitting Labour councillor has decided to retire and retirement for Anne is now looking likely as well. The ward is a top target for the Lib Dems and Labour's campaign has been rather minimal.
A ward to watch on Friday 6th May.
For the last couple of local elections, the Greens in Gateshead have fancied their chances in Crawcrook and Greenside ward. Labour's majority over the Greens last year was 321, bringing the ward into the realm of the marginal. The Greens last year were disappointed by the result but it was their best chance of winning a seat on Gateshead Council. Since then a change of candidate has probably not helped their cause. Though it seems the Greens are continuing to do battle in the ward, I suspect they blew their chances last year. Expect a Labour hold next week though don't expect the majority to be comfortable.
.jpg)
It's that time of year - Labour leaflets pop through local letterboxes. There must be an election! Labour's candidate for Whickham South and Sunniside (who lives in Blaydon) has been issued with a map of where to go and the success of this can be shown by the fact I walked past him last week in Sunniside. His election leaflet, which he was delivering at the time, seems almost to have come from a parallel universe. Anyone reading it would be forgiven for thinking Labour do not run the council! According to the Labour leaflet, Lib Dems are responsible for the cost of living crisis!
The leaflet then claims that "There are no outdoor play areas for children in Sunniside." This may be a bit of a surprise to the Whinnies Community Garden where volunteers provide an outdoor play area! There is also Sunniside Park, Marley Hill Park, Frosterley Walk field and Kingsway community orchard. How about Kindred's Wood and Lotties Wood? All outdoor spaces and accessible. What Sunniside lacks (which the leaflet does not refer to) is play equipment, other than what is available at the Whinnies and at Marley Hill. But the Labour-run council withdrew the funding some years ago for play equipment for Sunniside.
The leaflet then claims that we should "not see other areas of the council benefit at the cost of families in Whickham and Sunniside." Are Labour admitting they are using my constituents as a cash cow for other areas of Gateshead.
I just want to remind Labour that they run the council, and have done so for nearly 50 years! Labour are ultimately responsible.
Anyway, good luck with your campaign Mr Hall. I will see you at the count.
.jpg)
Consultants have been drafted in by Labour-run Gateshead Council to tell them how to listen to the people! A "Resident Influence Strategy" will be "designed" by TPAS, a "not-for-profit" organisation which will work with council tenants, leaseholders and employees. It would be interesting to know how much this exercise in explaining democracy to the Council has cost local council tax payers. And it will be interesting to know just how far the Labour party is prepared to act on what the people say. If for example residents said, "Stop spending our cash on consultants," would Labour listen?
The high flying political career of Newcastle City Council's leader Nick Forbes could be about to come crashing down. With local elections looming in May, Labour selections are taking place and Nick seems to have run into a sticky problem - his ward branch in Arthur's Hill have opted for a different candidate. According to local sources, Cllr Forbes was beaten by a "landslide". It turns out that 4 people at the branch meeting voted for Nick and 13 voted for the other candidate, Abdul Samad. Hardly a landslide and you have to have some sympathy for Cllr Forbes, given that his career has been put in doubt by the actions of a tiny number of Labour activists who turned up on a cold evening for a meeting. Nevertheless, that's the Labour rule book in operation though there is talk of official complaints and challenges to the results.
Speaking as someone in politics who prefers to go when I want to, I wish Nick well. Maybe he will be parachuted into another ward in Newcastle or perhaps given a seat in the House of Lords! (He's a big mate of Sir Keir.) And if he wants time to contemplate his future, he can pop over to my smallholding and help me muck out the goats and chickens. You never know, it could give him ideas on how to sort out the Labour Party!
Last year we donated two goats - Sooty and Sweep - to Birkheads Wild Community Interest Company (CIC) which works with children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The goats are brother and sister and were born two years ago. I hand raised them as their mum rejected them. I first encountered Birkheads Wild at a school fair in 2019. I had 2 other goats there (and a stall selling homemade jam) and the CIC were there as well. I got on chatting to Fiona, who runs the organisation, and I was invited to see their facilities.
Sooty and Sweep are now TV stars! They were featured on BBC Look North and Tyne Tees TV news last week. Journalists had picked up on the CIC's appeal for Christmas trees to feed to the goats. Camera teams went in and got some fab footage of Sooty and Sweep chomping their way through trees that would otherwise have ended up in the waste system.
I need to pay them a visit. I'll take my autograph book in the hope of getting some hoof prints!
You can see the BBC news story on this link.
I decided not to stay up all night to await the result of the Shropshire North by-election but I waited until 1.30am to get an indication of how the count was going before heading to bed. That's when the Lib Dem prediction of a comfortable gain came through. Presumably, our people had finished crunching the numbers and were able to project the result. By then, a result much closer to home had come through: a council by-election in Hexham East in Northumberland saw a Lib Dem gain from the Conservatives. So off to bed I went and awoke this morning to news of a Lib Dem majority of over 5000.
My usual preference for 24 hour news coverage is Sky News over the BBC but the former was rather disappointing this morning. Much of their focus was on giving Labour lots of airtime while one of their shadow cabinet members waffled on for ages avoiding questions about why Labour failed to capitalise on their 2nd place in 2019. Meanwhile the BBC had a much more interesting angle - the danger to the Conservatives of a revived Lib Dems.
Those of us who were politically active in the 1980s and 1990s will remember the big swings in by-elections to the Lib Dems. A long running revival of the Lib Dems (and the predecessor Liberals and SDP) was underway which eventually led to the electoral breakthrough in 1997 and government in 2010. Obviously this did not last and we went back to a position similar to the Liberals in the early 1970s.
I've been in politics for so long that I've learnt not to get overly excited about an individual result. But are the BBC right to suggest there is a Lib Dem revival underway? Include the local elections from earlier this year, the Chesham by-election in the summer and local by-election results and there is more than a hint of a national Lib Dem revival.
Here in Gateshead in May this year, the higher than usual Conservative vote saved Labour's bacon in a number of wards. We had some near misses which would have been Lib Dem gains if the Conservative vote had not been so vibrant. Well, that vibrancy has now gone. And that means Labour council seats in Gateshead are up for grabs.
Interesting times ahead.
Gateshead Council's Labour leader, Martin Gannon, had an interesting Facebook post recently (see above). For once it wasn't a post that attacked me but rather it was a barbed assault on MPs who accept free gifts, such as trips to sports events, dinners, tickets to the Brit Awards and so on. In a 6 month period, MPs had clocked up a range of gifts with a total value of £197,000. Martin wrote, "The words noses, pigs and trough spring to mind."
Let's just hope Martin himself couldn't have the same words applied to him. Well, it was easy enough to check on Gateshead Council's website. There all gifts received in connection with a member's role as a councillor must be declared. I decided to take a look.
So how many free gifts has Martin enjoyed since he became leader in 2016? 5? 10?, 20?
No! The answer is 49.
A bottle of champagne, flowers, trips to the races, tickets to the theatre and lots and lots of dinners (including some abroad)!
I added up the total value. It came to £3235.
If you would like to read all about Martin's gifts, click on the following link. Just be warned that it is a very long list and you may want to turn your nose up at it! But don't pig out on it!
http://democracy.gateshead.gov.uk/mgListGifts.aspx?UID=160&DR=24%2f07%2f2019-03%2f08%2f2020
Full Council in Gateshead last week and, as usual, Labour were blaming the Lib Dems for everything that was bad. Labour's approach is to blame others and regard history as starting in 2010. Labour deputy leader Catherine Donovan blamed the Lib Dems for the bedroom tax, claiming that it was invented by the Lib Dems in the coalition government. What she forgot to mention was that the bedroom tax was invented by the last Labour government who introduced it for private sector tenants. The Coalition, rightly or wrongly, extended Labour's creation to cover social housing as well. And before 2010, I never heard a peep out of Catherine and her "socialist comrades" about the Labour bedroom tax. Labour's selective memory is in full flow.
11 billion - that's the number of wet wipes used and thrown away in the UK in the past year, according to BBC News. They are one of the main causes of blocked sewers. 90% of wet wipes contain plastic. In other words, they are single-use plastic products and we use an unbelievable number of them. But do we really need to use them in our homes? I'm old enough to remember using a wet rag. Literally, it was an old bit of fabric dipped in water and applied to the tasks that are now done by wet wipes. Instead of throwing them in the bin or down the loo, we put them into the washing and used them again. Is it really too much to ask people to go back to doing that instead of using environmentally damaging wet wipes?
I was in Whickham this morning to help volunteers plant up the flowerbeds on Church Green. My coat is still soaked through from the experience but all the beds were planted. There should be a colourful display next year.
Before Richard passed away, he said he wanted to see his new great nephew Brodie. So the family came up from Wales and on 21st October, Richard got his wish and was able to hold the baby. This is the video I filmed on the day. Two days later Richard passed away.
The latest edition of our email newsletter eFocus for the NE11 and NE16 area has just been published. Key issues covered include:
Only one more edition to go for the Low Fell Lib Dem Focus Team to reach 100! NO. 99 was published recently and includes:
Recently, Sunniside History Society held its first in-person meeting since March 202. It was great to be back together after so long apart. This is the video I filmed at the meeting and includes my chairman's remarks.
The appalling murder of Sir David Amess MP has again put the safety of elected representatives into the headlines. In my 34 years as a councillor, I have experienced one person coming into my surgery and intimidating me by pointing out he was considerably bigger than me; one incident of paint being thrown over my front room window; a brick being thrown through my car windscreen and more recently, threatening abuse from a bunch of conspiracy theorists (Gateshead Council took legal action against one of them and I was twice a witness in court).
None of this comes close to what happened to Sir David but none of it will stop me from seeing my constituents. There have been suggestions that more barriers need to be put up between the people and their elected representatives. In some circumstances, there may have to be barriers, but we need to remain as open as possible. I live in the community I represent. People stop and talk to me every day. Many know where I live and if they don't, finding my address would be easy even if all references to it were removed from the internet. It is not physically possible to isolate ourselves and frankly, I would not want to. One of the activities I enjoy most as a councillor is speaking to people. If we lose that, we lose democracy. And the terrorists would therefore have won.
If any evidence is needed that our way of life needs drastic change, look no further than the current state of affairs with energy supplies in the UK. Not only have we made our country dependent on foreign fuel supplies, the sources include some of the worst regimes on the planet, such as Russia and Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, we continue to burn fossil fuels at an alarming rate. Meanwhile, even though we have an abundance of renewable energy sources, we have not yet tapped their full potential and we have failed to build the energy storage systems which can be used to soak up the surplus renewables. Meanwhile we are becoming increasingly reliant on imported electricity, produced in the Single Market. That significantly weakens our negotiating position with the EU. They can simply flip a switch to turn off the UK's power. Meanwhile, we are heavily dependent on imported natural gas so an international shock to demand, supply and price hits us hard back in the UK.
Our dependency on foreign food and energy supplies is a national security risk. We have to aim to be far more self-sufficient. And that will probably mean changing our lifestyles, as I know from personal experience.
Lord Frost seems to be everything Brexiteers hate - a jet-setting unelected bureaucrat who gave Britain a rotten Brexit deal which abandoned British sovereignty in part of the UK, while attacking MPs who had the audacity of exercising Parliamentary sovereignty. Now, he wants to junk a significant part of the Brexit deal, the Northern Ireland Protocol. He helped write it. The Conservative government implemented it, despite Johnson's promises there would never be a border between GB and Northern Ireland. Lord Frost tells us that the rules which he wrote are being followed too vigorously by the EU. If there is no new deal, Lord Frost tells us, he will rip up the Protocol.
It seems that Lord Frost wants to mark his own homework and for the first time ever, he is giving his work a score of nought out of ten.
Our stockpiles also stretch to fuel for the house. A friend has been supplying us with firewood - enough to get us through to May 2022. It has cost us half a lamb, a fair exchange in the world of self-sufficiency.
Meanwhile, our solar panels continue to provide electricity to the house and surplus energy goes onto our battery. The drawback is that the panels and battery only work when the grid works. A power cut would stop the electricity supply in its tracks. Fortunately, we have another back up plan. We don't need much electricity on our smallholding, but what we do use is generated from an off-grid solar panel and battery
Our food supplies are also secure. We have 4 freezers full of food we have grown and we still have a potato crop to bring in from our smallholding. We also have a couple of hundred jars of preserves in our garage.
When I was candidate in Blaydon in the 2017 general election, Labour attacked me for growing my own food and being self-sufficient. Labour suggested that someone who was living the "good life" was not a "serious" contender. It seems that Labour were content with people being reliant on complex and long supply chains and anyone who wanted to be more sustainable was to be derided. I don't know if the individual who attacked me on behalf of the Labour party has had his smug grin wiped off his face by recent supply issues but I make him an offer - come and join us in the world of self-sufficiency and sustainable living. And discover just how seriously we need to act now to save the planet.
There was a time when the Labour vote in Sunderland was weighed rather than counted. Those days are now gone. In recent local elections Labour's losing streak has seen a whole strong of seats lost to a variety of opponents. Labour's decades of one party rule is being replaced by multiple parties. Quite how long Labour's majority there will last is an interesting debating point.
One seat that Labour have managed to retain in recent elections is Hetton. They also held on in a by-election yesterday though with only a slender majority of 27, down from 704 in May. The Lib Dems went from 6th place on with 63 votes to 2nd place. With such a slender skin-of-their-teeth majority, Labour will now find that another ward is vulnerable after decades of taking it for granted.
So well done Sunderland Lib Dems and good luck in the battle for Hetton in May next year.
One final thought - Labour are spinning that their conference this week was a success. That didn't help them in Hetton.
My friend and colleague, Cllr Peter Craig, has been awarded the British Empire Medal for services to the community. He was presented with his medal recently. I was there to take the photos and video.
On Wednesday next week at 7pm, David Goldwater will be talking about the latest discoveries at Vindolanda. All welcome.
Kathy's funeral was yesterday and I attended the service at St Joseph's RC Church, Birtley. A good crowd was there and I was pleased to see the mayor attending as well.
I went to Whickham this morning to deliver my latest Whickham South and Sunniside Focus. Unlike the past two weeks, today we had sunny weather, bringing people out into their front gardens. This always slows me down as I end up stopping to talk to residents. So, the issues raised today by people with me included some recent casework, the latest news from my smallholding, where's my wheelbarrow and libertarian policies. Quite a selection!
400 focuses meanwhile were delivered.
Well done Friends of Chase Park and all involved in putting on the dog show at Whickham Chase Park on 21st August 2021. There was a great turnout despite the rain! And lots of prizes were won.
Politics is sometimes bizarre. Labour's Martin Gannon has called on me to resign today because I did not predict the Covid pandemic in 2018. Yes, you read that right! But if Martin knew what was coming, why didn’t he say anything?
Labour Deputy Leader Catherine Donovan seems to have started the ball rolling by referring to a post “from about two years ago” at the full council in July. Catherine is someone on the Labour side of the council chamber who I like as a person but whose politics are far different from my own. She suggested I had written that a pandemic “would never happen”. I searched my blog posts from the 2nd half of 2019 and found nothing that reflected this.
So after a number of emails that were pinged between us, I eventually got a reply as to when the post in question was written. Not “about two years ago”, but rather, it was nearly 3 and a half years ago. So, not on the eve of the covid pandemic but April 2018, nearly two years before the covid pandemic reached our shores.
And yes, it was a post about pandemics, or rather, about planning for them. The matter was discussed at a committee meeting in Gateshead and my point at the time was that this was a waste of money. My thinking was influenced by the fact it was 100 years since we had had a pandemic and we had in the previous decade lived through scares about ebola, MERS and swine flu, which though serious as outbreaks, were nowhere near being pandemics. So, I reasoned, why spend resources on something that looked very unlikely to happen at the time.
Okay, so as far as predictions go, I got it wrong. But no one in 2018 was predicting a pandemic unless they happen to be endowed with magical powers in 2021 to see everything through the benefit of hindsight. It seems the Gateshead Labour party has developed such powers! A quick look at their raging comments on Facebook and you would be under the impression that Labour had cracked the challenge of time travel. The trouble is, I didn’t hear anyone in the Labour party (or indeed anyone else on the planet) predict in 2018 that within two years we would have a pandemic on the scale of 1918-20.
I’d rather be in a position of making predictions that don’t come about than being wise only after the event.
I joined other volunteers from Planting Up Whickham on Sunday to help plant up the flowerbeds. Here are a few of the photos I took.
Oppositions are normally expected to win seats they are defending comfortably. What went wrong with Labour in Batley and Spen? A 7% drop in their share of the vote compared to the general election (and Labour's share was down 12.7% compared to the 2017 general election). A majority slashed by 90%, down to 323. In a sign of Labour desperation, Labour were spinning this as a great result. In reality, it is a demonstration that Labour are in serious trouble.
When Starmer became Labour leader, my assumption was that he would be a voice of reason who could pull together a shattered Labour party after the lunacy of the Corbyn years. I was wrong. His leadership may not be questioned in the immediate future but his hold on it may be under threat once the Batley and Spen dust has settled. Starmer may well survive a future challenge but his party under his leadership is failing in its principle task - to be the opposition to the government.
Gateshead Council were planning to remove barriers that had been installed in various town centres throughout the borough. It was dependent on the government's announcing of the end of covid restrictions. As this is delayed, implementing the plans are on hold. We now await the government's next announcement about ending restrictions on 19th July.
In May, my brother Andrew lost his short battle against cancer. Yesterday was his funeral at Mountsett Crematorium near Dipton, Durham. We were restricted in the number of mourners able to attend but we ensured he had a great send off. RIP Andrew.
Such unadulterated coverage in the press of political opponents has rather wound Martin up. He has suggested instead that the newspaper be renamed "The Lib Dem Voice-piece"! Surprisingly, Martin has not been so dismissive about the occasional anti-Lib Dem stories fed by Gateshead Labour members to the Newcastle Chronicle, owned by the Trinity Mirror, publisher of the Daily Mirror. Nor indeed has he raised any concerns that I am aware of about the Daily Mirror being such a pro-Labour publication.
Nor did Martin, as far as I am aware, publicly raise any worries back in the Blair years (when he was a superfan of Blairism) about The Sun backing Labour. One rule for Labour, a different one for other parties.
I have heard on the grapevine however that Labour are to launch their own newspaper. Rumour has it that it will be called The Daily Hypocrite!
In other years, it would have gone unnoticed: a political party offering lifts to people to get to the polling station. But this year it was a definite must-not-do because . Alas, Labour in Saltwell in Gateshead decided to ignore the restrictions on car sharing and giving lifts. As the above leaflet shows, Labour were offering lifts to voters to polling stations. We helpfully drew the attention of the Labour leader of Gateshead Council, Martin Gannon, to the offer in the leaflet.
Cllr Gannon replied, "Regarding the attached leaflet can I assure everyone that all Labour Party election staff are aware of the regulations and will ensure complete compliance."
It rather begs the question therefore, why was the offer of lifts included in the leaflet if the people producing it were "aware" that lifts shouldn't be offered.
Or was this simply a case of Labour putting the need to get votes before people's health?
The result was:
Lib Dem 1730
Labour 1167
Conservative 312
Green 186
