Could Hitler have won?

 

Could Hitler have won? - that's the title of my next talk to Sunniside History Society. I will be looking at various wartime events and explain how a different outcome to them may or may not have influenced the course of the Second World War. I will be keeping the shocker to the end of the talk when I explain how Hitler could have won control of Europe and then the world.

Away day

 

The term "away day" suggests a meeting well away from home. Gateshead Lib Dems had an away day on Sunday but for me it was not far away. Indeed, it was a three minute walk to get there from my house. Our thanks to Sunniside Club for being the venue. Good and thorough discussions held on the recent local elections and on campaigning over the year ahead.

Back on the campaign trail

 

It feels as though election campaigning is never going to end in Gateshead. We have a by-election in High Fell caused by the resignation of a Reform Councillor after only 11 days in the job. Polling day is on 9th July. Lots to do and my Saturday morning was taken up trudging the streets of High Fell delivering the next leaflet for the Lib Dems. We have 18 patches in the ward. Most were done by lunchtime. The remaining bundles were taken away by those who will be delivering through the week.

High Fell by-election leaflet watch 3: the proof is in the reading

 

Reform's High Fell by-election leaflet fell into my hands over the weekend. Take a look. Anyone spot the error? The text ends abruptly. Always get someone else to proof read drafts of leaflets. Had Reform done so, they would have spotted half their leaflet is missing! (A bit like ex-Councillor Cavanagh.)

High Fell by-election leaflet watch (2)

In the last few weeks, since the by-election was called in High Fell in Gateshead, residents of the ward must be feeling that they have received more leaflets than in the previous 25 years! And not only have the Conservatives produced a leaflet, out pops a second one.

Conservative candidate Mr Flux reports in this latest edition that he is still cleaning road signs. But what is of more interest is his attempt to be the rainbow warrior of Gateshead. Yet again, Mr Flux has used another party's colour on his leaflet. Last time Labour and the Greens found their colours all over the first Conservative leaflet. Now, it is the turn of the Lib Dems to find Mr Flux is exhibiting their colours. But, amazingly, there is a splash of Tory blue as well. Wonders never cease!

Conference booked

 
Lib Dem Conference this September will be back in Brighton on 19th to 22nd September. In addition, on Friday 18th there will be a training conference. I have signed up for both. All I have to do now is book a hotel.

Moving on from Whickham South and Sunniside

My recent prediction that Lindsay Atkinson would be the Reform candidate for the High Fell by-election in Gateshead turned out to be spot on. Mr Atkinson stood in my ward in the local elections last month. He came fifth, about 600 votes behind Jonathan Mohammed, my ward colleague. Jonathan was elected as the 3rd councillor in Whickham South and Sunniside. (Marilynn Ord was first and I was second.) So for Mr Atkinson, May's result was a disappointment. Nevertheless, the resignation of a Reform councillor in High Fell (after a whopping 11 days in the job) opened up the opportunity to fight again for a seat on the council. Were Mr Atkinson to be elected, let's hope his attendance will be a bit better than that of another High Fell Reform Councillor Sidney Laws who, according to Gateshead Council's website, has yet to attend a meeting. Indeed, the council doesn't even have a photo of this person.

High Fell by-election leaflet watch 1: give us a sign!

 

A rare sight indeed! The Conservatives barely exist in Gateshead but unexpected electoral contests can produce some surprising outcomes. High Fell ward is host to a completely unnecessary council by-election. The cause of this return to the polls is a Reform councillor who managed 11 days in the post before chucking in the towel. The Conservatives have chosen a candidate. Good luck (he'll need it) to Barry Flux who, I understand, was until recently a Conservative councillor in Northumberland. Relocation to Gateshead meant he had to wave goodbye to the county council.

The Conservatives managed to field 14 candidates for the 66 vacancies on Gateshead Council in May. The normal pattern of campaigning in Gateshead for the Conservatives is to field candidates who would have no campaign literature. Paperless, rather than paper, candidate. So you have to credit Mr Flux for his current campaign. Yes, we have one of those rarest of items - a Conservative leaflet. The page one header is a shade of red. Is this an attempt to appeal to Labour voters in this former Labour stronghold (Labour lost all 3 of the seats in High Fell in May, having previously held the ward for 52 years?

On the back page, Mr Flux has switched to green for his headline. Is this perhaps an attempt to appeal to Green voters? What is missing from the leaflet is any Conservative blue! Indeed, the word "Conservative" appears only twice in the leaflet, and one of those mentions is the small print!

Nevertheless, Mr Flux has brought forward a new campaign idea. He has promised to call round to clean street signs. Armed with washing up and warm water, Mr Flux will respond to calls from residents concerned their street sign needs a wash and blow dry. As far as campaign techniques go, it's original but I can't see it catching on! It's likely to be thrown out, along with the rest of the bath water!

Chase Park fair photos

 A few photos from Saturday's fair at Chase Park, Whickham. I took along Dandelion and one of the baby goats. They raised £58.20 for the park.

Church Green video

 I filmed this on Sunday at the Plant Up Whickham event to strip the flowerbeds ready for replanting.

Doing my bit at Whickham Church Green

 

On Sunday I had an early start. I was up before 6am as we had a team of sheep shearers arriving at our farm at 6.30am to shear our sheep. We were finished by 9am at which point I headed to Church Green in Whickham to help strip out the flowerbeds and remove the garden waste. When I arrived, I found most of the stripping had been done. So I loaded up my pickup with sacks of garden waste and took them to the farm where they will be made into compost. The beds themselves will be planted up by volunteers shortly.

Have a goat day tomorrow!

 

It's the Chase Park fair in Whickham tomorrow. We will have some of our goats there tohelp raise funds for the park. So pop in and have a goat day. 12pm to 4pm.

Pride inside instead

 

One of Reform's first decisions on taking control of Gateshead Council was to ban the flying of the Pride flag. This was expected. Reform council groups are known for the robotic way they take their instructions from their party HQ. Most other ruling Reform groups banned the flag. We weren't however, going to accept this lying down. If we can't have the flag flying outside the Civic Centre, we would have it inside instead. To be more precise, we flew the flag in the council chamber after the council meeting yesterday. All three opposition parties - Lib Dems, Labour and Greens - took part in the flag waving. No one from Reform joined us!

Replacing a one party state with another

Gateshead now has a Reform administration. With 38 out of 66 seats, they are sitting on a majority of 10 in the council chamber. That may change on 9th July when a by-election is held in High Fell following the resignation of Reform Councillor Danielle Cavanagh. She managed 11 days as a councillor before throwing in the towel and sparking a by-election costing anywhere between £16K and £25K. At last week's annual council meeting, 7 Reform councillors were away in Turkey at a wedding. That brought Reform's majority down to a perilous 2. Knowing so many of their own side were away sunning themselves or writing resignation letters, Reform wanted the opposition to abstain in the vote for the leader and deputy leader of the council. An inducement was offered - the mayoralty and a number of committee chairs. This was rejected by the opposition. As Lib Dem Leader of the Opposition Ron Beadle said at the annual meeting, what was on offer was a sordid deal aimed at saving the prospective Reform leadership from falling over the edge of a cliff.

In the end, despite Reform absences, the Reform leader and deputy leader election saw both elected with a majority of 2. An interesting skin-of-their-teeth scenario. It could have been so different. Reform could have agreed as a point of principle that there should be a fair share out of the committee chairs. Instead, they took everything for themselves once they knew their leader was elected. They claimed that the people of Gateshead had voted to give them full power and all the chairs. They had, however, taken only 37% of the vote. The combined opposition won 63%.

This reminded me of the days of Labour rule in Gateshead. It appears that a one party state has been replaced by another.

Lib Dems take leadership of Newcastle

The Lib Dems in Newcastle have reached agreement with the Green Party to run the council as a minority administration. Lib Dem Leader Colin Ferguson was sworn in as the new Council Leader yesterday. The Greens will serve as a "co-operative opposition", thereby ensuring all cabinet members are Lib Dems.

No single party was close to a majority in Newcastle after the local elections on 7th May. The Lib Dems emerged as the largest group on 25, only one ahead of both Greens and Reform. Labour, having run the council for the past 15 years, were almost totally wiped out, returning only 2 councillors. Meanwhile, Newcastle's tenure as a council that included Conservative representation lasted only two years. Their one councillor was swept away.

With such an enormous spread of councillors from a variety of parties, cooperation was inevitable. The Lib Dems and Greens have managed to pull it off. Well done to them but let's see how things progress over the coming year.