Filming for the royal connection to Gateshead

 

I journeyed to London on Sunday for a couple of days of history related activities. I'm working on a history talk about John Nash, the Georgian and Regency architect who designed Buckingham Palace, Regent Street and a long list of other buildings. One of his biggest projects outside London was the building of Ravensworth Castle in Gateshead. Nash designed the Marble Arch which was installed as the entrance to Buckingham Palace but which was later moved to Hyde Park.

I had tried to film Marble Arch last year on a visit to London but when I got there, it was covered in tarpaulins. On Monday I was able to film it in all its glory apart from a few heras frames. Some of the footage will feature in my talk. 

I was also able to go to the National Liberal Club for a Lib Dem History Group meeting about the Liberal/Lib Dem involvement in both European referendum campaigns. 

Sadly, the visit to London was only two days long. Duty called back home.

Visiting Dunston fair

 

My attendance at local fairs normally entails the bringing of a goat. I'm regularly asked to take a goat, or other animal, to local fairs. On Saturday last week, I wasn't asked by the organiser of the Dunston fair (Labour Councillor for Dunston and Teams Brenda Clelland) to bring any of my 4 legged friends so I brought a two legged one instead, in the form of Cllr Peter Maughan! Good time had by all. Thanks for the ice cream Peter!

In at the deep end

 Last week I went to the Gateshead Lib Dem pool night at the Lock and Quay pub on the Gateshead Quays, next to the Swing Bridge. I have not played pool for over 30 years and this was reflected in my one miserable attempt to win a game (I came second, out of 2!) Still, it was quite a fun night out. It showed that being in the Lib Dems was not all about meetings, delivering Focuses and knocking on doors. Nevertheless, it did feel as though I had been dropped into the deep end (that's enough puns on the word 'pool', thank you.)

Well done Beamish

 

I'm delighted to learn that Beamish Museum have been named Art Fund Museum of the Year 2025. The award brings with it a useful £120,000. Beamish, only a short distance from where I live, preserves the history of the North East and has recently added more to the 1950s and Georgian areas of the Museum. Well done to everyone who made the award possible.

I filmed the video above on my last visit to Beamish. I'm due to visit again soon.

"Has anyone ever told you you're a giggling imbecile?"

 

Meet James Walker-Gurley, newly elected Councillor for Reform in Nottinghamshire and cabinet member for economic development and asset management. Now watch the above video, courtesy of Political Custard. This has to be one of the most stand-out car crash interviews in recent history. He giggled through most of a media interview, cluelessly admitted he could not answer some questions about his portfolio and then read a prepared script (presumably written by officers) and stumbled on some of the big words.

Should we feel sorry for him for being dropped by his colleagues into a role for which he is clearly out of his depth? Or do we just assume Reform had no one better to appoint.

I am however reminded of the line from Lady White Adder in the second series of the BBC's Blackadder. "Has anyone ever told you you're a giggling imbecile?" she said to Lord Percy. The same question could be asked of Cllr Walker-Giggle!

Guest chicks at the Whinnies Wanderers

 

Whinnies Wanderers are a group of parents and pre-school children based at the Whinnies Community Garden in Sunniside. Earlier this week, they invited me to bring some of our recently hatched chicks for the children to see. The good news is that they want me back next week. I will be bringing a goat instead!

Bridges action day

 

Gateshead Lib Dems held an action day in Bridges ward today. Once a Labour stronghold, last year they clung on by only 65 votes over us in a by-election in the ward. Our aim today was to deliver the latest Focus - and other than a handful of streets, we achieved what we set out to do, thanks to 15 members turning up to help. Lunch at the Tesco Cafe afterwards!

Labour councillor missing in action

 

This is the latest video from Lib Dem Leader of the Opposition in Gateshead, Cllr Ron Beadle, talking about the Labour councillor elected in September last year and who, due to his health, has not attended any meetings. Labour have voted to let him avoid attending any meetings until May next year, rather than hold a by-election.

What's going on in Newcastle?

Until recently, Labour had a commanding majority on Newcastle City Council. Now, they are a minority administration which, this week, lost a key vote on plans for the city in the years ahead. Though they have lost some seats in recent local elections, the biggest wrecking ball applied to Labour's majority has actually come from within Labour itself.

Over the river in Gateshead, we are rather used to a bipolar political system in the council chamber. Labour and the Lib Dems hold all the seats other than one councillor who was elected as Labour but went independent in September last year. No other parties are represented on the council. Indeed, the last time there was a Conservative on Gateshead Council was back in 1996. His seat went Lib Dem in that year.

Back over the Tyne to Newcastle and there is a kaleidoscope of parties on the council including Labour, Lib Dems (the official opposition), one Conservative, Greens, Newcastle Independents and the East End and Associates Independent Party. This latter group is made up of the former Labour Leader Nick Kemp and six former Labour councillors. It is all something of a mess as Labour tries to run the authority without a majority while their former comrades are taking shots at them.

There are all-out local elections next year in the city under new boundaries which are probably not favourable to Labour. Whether or not the Labour administration can survive the next 11 months without collapsing is the big unanswered question.

Saltwell sandwiches

 

We had a Lib Dem action day in Saltwell ward on Sunday. The aim was to get most of the ward delivered with the latest Focus newsletter (achieved). And the other aim, of course, was to eat lots of sandwiches! (Achieved.)

Canvassing in Whickham

 

Last week we headed out as a group to canvass my ward of Whickham South and Sunniside in Gateshead. We chose the area that used to be the most Conservative area of the ward. We found only one person voting Conservative locally. No one was voting for Reform in the local elections though we identified some who will vote Reform at the next general election though I suspect the don't knows and won't says contained some Reform voters.

Labour got a pasting from voters. Those few Labour voters we identified all fell into the "soft" Labour category. We have worked this patch hard over the years which probably explains why the Lib Dem vote was considerable for the forthcoming local elections.

So, a good morning's work.

Flying the flag

 

I was passing through Gateshead Civic Centre today and was pleased to see Gateshead flying the flag for our country, for our friend Ukraine, and for diversity. Let's hope no one stops us from continuing to fly the flag.

This is why fair votes are needed

There was a by-election in Severn ward of Stroud Council recently. Congratulations to the winning Green candidate who took the seat from Labour - they collapsed from first to fourth place. That is not the only interesting feature of this by-election. The winning Green got just over a quarter of the votes cast. In recent elections, many winning candidates got in with a miniscule share of the vote. In Severn ward, compared to some elections, the Green did respectably well with just over a quarter of the votes. In other results I've seen, the winning candidate scraped in with only a fifth of the vote, meaning that four out of five voters did not vote for the winner.

Given the rise of multi-party politics in Britain, the first past the post system is generating results that are wildly out of kilter with the electorate's wishes. And the system also wipes out parties with significant vote shares while giving other parties absurdly large majorities based on a share of the vote which a few years ago would have seen that same party defeated heavily.

We need fair votes now more than ever before.

Planting Up Whickham returns to Church Green

 

I joined up with Planting Up Whickham volunteers to help sort the flowerbeds on Church Green in Whickham last Sunday. My job - as usual - was to take away all the stripped out plants to my farm where they were put into compost bins. Sadly I wasn't able to join in the planting of the summer flowers today as I was in Saltwell instead. Hopefully the volunteers have created some great displays in the heart of the village.

Cllr Peter Craig was also on hand to help out.