Newcastle Labour meltdown as comrades go independent

Newcastle Labour group have not been having a good time of it recently. Having seen the resignation of their leader a few weeks ago, the authority has now experienced the resignation of 6 Labour councillors who will now sit as independents. To add to the confusion, there is already an independent group on the council called the Newcastle Independents. If you think that is confusing, there are 5 other independents. Whatever the varieties of independent, the bloody nose for Labour comes with the loss of their majority on the council. Labour now have 39 councillors with 39 on the opposition benches (including 22 Lib Dems). While a change in political control is not expected (in the short run), this is all dreadfully embarrassing for Labour in the regional capital. Alas, across the River Tyne here in Gateshead, we have, so far, only experienced one defection from Labour to the independents since the general election. Only 5 more to go for Gateshead to catch up.

RIP Norman McCord

 

I am saddened to report the death of Professor Norman McCord. Norman was one of the North East's foremost historians and 40 years ago he was one of my lecturers when I studied history at Newcastle University. He was also something of a mentor to me when I was carrying out the research for my PhD. After I graduated, we kept in touch and for many years. Norman, myself and other historians would meet up once a month to have a meal. It was known as eat-the-world as we attempted to eat food from every nationality that had restaurants in Tyneside and in Sunderland. We stopped doing this about 15 years ago as some members of our group were getting more and more infirm, Norman being one of them.

Norman was one of the leading people carrying out ariel photography in the North East. He discovered the Washingwell Roman fort near Whickham in 1970 while flying from Sunderland airport to Corbridge to photograph the area where the A69 was due to be built. Norman spotted the crop marks left behind by the fort at Washingwell and immediately realised they were caused by a Roman fortress which must have predated Hadrian's Wall by decades.

In 2022 I did some filming on the site of the fort to work out lines-of-sight with Gateshead and realised that Washingwell must have been part of a chain of frontier forts. I took my videos to Norman's house in Cullercoats in November 2022 and that was the last time I saw him in person. I spoke to him by phone in June last year to invite him to my wedding but sadly he was too infirm and house bound to be able to attend.

I ultimately have Norman to thank for my choice of subject for my PhD. He told me that the University had all the papers of Walter Runciman, a cabinet minister in 1908-16 and in the 1930s. They were waiting for someone to research them and produce a biography. That task fell to me!

I wish I had been able to see Norman again to talk about some historical theories I have, but it was not to be. 

RIP Professor Norman McCord

The dark arts of Green Party propaganda

 

Bridges ward was the Green Party's only target seat in Gateshead. In the local elections in May they abandoned their previous target (Crawcrook and Greenside) to pour their resources into Bridges. They didn't win (Labour held on in what is normally a stronghold for them) but the Greens narrowed the gap. So when a vacancy occurred in the ward in the summer, the Greens were rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of a winnable by-election.

To cut a long story short, they turned up at the count looking confident, believing they would emerge from the count as the victors. Instead, the glee turned to glum as the Lib Dem vote soared from 4th to 2nd place. Instead of coming 1st, the Greens dropped to 3rd place and their actual vote and share of the vote slumped (as did Labour's.)

Move on a few weeks and the shell-shocked Greens have managed to get out a leaflet which explained somehow that the by-election was some kind of triumph for them. And they did this by removing all references to the Lib Dems. Note the graph above. The leaflet claimed the Greens "gained" votes (they lost half the votes they got in May). And it implies they are in 2nd place in the by-election (they were 3rd by a slender 2 votes!)

So, just to ensure you have the results for ALL the parties that contested the by-election, here are the FULL results with no parties edited out.

Spiders in Saltwell

 

The next Focus on Saltwell is currently being delivered in the ward so I volunteered for 2 patches this morning. It didn't take too long as most streets are terraces with small front gardens. I delivered 450 in about an hour and a half.

As Halloween is almost upon us, some households have gone to great lengths to decorate their homes. This house, my favourite, has a spider theme!

Gateshead's worst historian

Our local newspaper, The Chronicle, interviewed Gateshead Council Labour Leader Martin Gannon at the Whickham North by-election count last night. Nothing unusual in that. Perhaps he needed to be distracted from the table where the Labour vote was being counted. Labour weren't doing well. Indeed, their vote was melting away. 

Martin said to the Chronicle:

"It is obviously disappointing not to win. I would make the point that 20 years ago that was a Labour seat and I still think it is a seat Labour should win."

The figure of 20 years however is just plain wrong. The last time Labour won in Whickham North was 1991. That's 33 years ago Martin, not the 20 years you claimed. In 1992, (that's 32 years ago Martin in case you can't find your calculator), the Lib Dems won the ward for the first time when Chris Ord took the seat from Labour.

Perhaps Martin, you should ask yourself why Whickham North has never returned to Labour. An answer to that, sometime in the next 20 years, would be interesting!

The inevitable Lib Dem barchart

 

Here's the result of the Whickham North by-election as graphs. The more interesting one is below;

I can't finish this post without a reference to the Greens! In the Bridges by-election last month they turned up at the count confident they had won. When they came third (dropping from their previous 2nd position) they left looking like "deflated whoopie cushions" (according to my blog!). Apparently, they aren't happy with my description of them! Last night the Greens turned up at the Whickham North count though I'm not sure whether they brought with them any hope that their sinking vote share could be turned around. In the end they suffered the humiliation of coming behind the Conservatives! Meanwhile, I had greens for breakfast this morning!

The Whickham North and Swalwell result

 

Winner of the Whickham North and Swalwell by-election, Susan Craig, pictured above with Cllrs Chris Ord, me, Peter Craig and Ron Beadle and Andy Coleman, chair of Gateshead Lib Dems, told the press last night after the count that the result shows that the only was to beat Labour in Gateshead is by voting Lib Dem.

In what was once Labour's top target in the whole of the North East of England, Labour's vote effectively halved in the by-election yesterday. The full result was:

Liberal Democrats            902 (65%)

Labour                              285 (20%)

Conservative                    137  (10%)

Green                                  72  (5%)

I'm pleased to report that the Lib Dem vote not only stood up but the share increased by 8%. Given the Lib Dem share was already well over 50%, an increase in the by-election yesterday was very welcome. The Lib Dems were the only party smiling when the count was over!

Bring together the result of the Bridges by-election last month with the Whickham North result yesterday and the picture is clear - the Lib Dems are mounting a serious challenge to Labour in Gateshead. No other party is a serious contender in this race.

Result in from Whickham North and Swalwell by-election

 

Declaration of the result of the Whickham North and Swalwell by-election, Gateshead this evening. A comfortable hold for the Lib Dems with about two thirds of the votes cast. It was another bad night for Labour and the Greens.

It's polling day!

 

Today is polling day (24th October) in the Whickham North and Swalwell by-election. Yesterday I was helping in Whickham to deliver the next leaflet but, alas, I am tied up today until this evening on meetings. The ward has an interesting history. Once a Labour stronghold, it went Lib Dem in 1992. Labour made it their top target in the region in 2011 and were just 21 votes behind. Since then, it has moved more firmly into the Lib Dem camp.

Polls close at 10pm today. We should have a result by midnight.

Stripping the beds

 

Volunteers from Planting Up Whickham yesterday stripped clear all the flowerbeds on Church Green, despite the weather being against us. My job was to supply lots of empty animal feed sacks and then take away all the sacks, by then filled with garden waste, to my farm. It took two journeys to transport everything. The waste will remain in the sacks to let it rot down and convert into compost. Find out more in the video above.