Whinnies summer fair

 

The Whinnies Community Garden in Sunniside held their summer fair today. Lots of people there. Sadly, I didn't win anything on the raffle. Here's my video anyway.

Not going up in flames

I booked my hotel for Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth a few days ago. And then came the news that there had been a fire at the Bournemouth International Conference Centre. Had I just been hit by bad timing? Was the conference about to be cancelled? Did I need to try to stop my hotel payment?

The early indications from the bods who run conference was that any questions about whether conference was going ahead could not be answered. And then along came the news today that the fire occurred outside the building, rather than inside where the massive cost of a cup of tea and a sandwich was normally enough to cause smoke to be given off by me anyway.

So thankfully, it looks like conference will go ahead. I have 6 weeks left to read the papers.

The buffet is on!

I was at Sunniside Social Club last night to chair a meeting of the Sunniside History Society executive. Most of the business was about the AGM (which will be held in September) and about next year's speakers. Reports were agreed though one more is still to be written. The financial report showed we almost broke even. Almost but not quite. We had a deficit of £3.50. Last year we had a surplus of £0.50. Fortunately we run a tight ship and we have over £3,000 in the bank! The news that a donation has been offered to cover the cost of the Christmas buffet was greeted with general acclaim!

So far for next year we have 5 of the 12 speakers' slots filled. I will be doing two and my chosen subjects are "Flood" (about major floods over the millennia and how they impacted human society) and "Could Hitler have won?" Quite eclectic!

A night off from campaigning

Last night, instead of delivering Focus newsletters, Gateshead Lib Dems met up in the Tynesider bar/restaurant to eat, drink and be merry. Good to see some of our new candidates there as well. A great night had by all.

Another goat at the Whinnies Wanderers

 

Another week and another visit to the Whinnies Wanderers Parent and Toddler group in Sunniside where I take along a goat to be petted by the children. Yesterday it was the turn of Dandelion to make an appearance. I will be back again next Wednesday.

A surprise appearance by the Chancellor

 

I was rather surprised by a photo that popped up on my Facebook feed recently. The Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves was pictured with the North East Mayor Kim McGuinness and Newcastle MP Catherine McKinnell walking along a street in South Jesmond where a council by-election to Newcastle Council is currently being held.

The surprise is not that the Mayor and the MP are out campaigning in Newcastle. They are after all local elected representatives. The surprise is that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been shipped in to give a helping hand to a Labour candidate in a council by-election. So Labour now need cabinet members to shore up their local vote!

Labour are in an appalling mess in Newcastle. They have inflicted splits, walkouts and implosions on their own group. As a result they have now lost overall control of the Council and operate as a minority administration.

Whether or not the appearance of Rachel Reeves on the streets of South Jesmond will assist Labour's by-election campaign is the big unknown. There was a poll out today from Sky News that showed she has the lowest approval rating of any leading Labour member. We wait to see if bringing in the most unpopular Labour cabinet member to help shore up a Labour campaign to a council where Labour have self-detonated is a winning strategy.

We will know on 14th August.

Another weekend, another action day

 

Yesterday it was the turn of Pelaw, Heworth and Bill Quay to host a Lib Dem action day in Gateshead. 16 members turned up including some who have recently been approved as candidates and will be standing for the first time in the local elections next year. The aim of the day was to deliver the latest Focus. Most were done by lunchtime. Thanks to chairman Matt for providing lunch.

Ewe, you and your - the chaotic launch of the Corbyn Party

 

The Corbyn Party was launched last week. I say "Corbyn Party" because no one has actually given the new "party" a name. "It's Your Party" Corbyn told the media as he relived the old days of being a party leader. It could so easily accidentally be called the "You Party" or the "Ewe Party", hence the inclusion above of a photo of my sheep waiting to be sheared in May.

The absence of a name and the lack of any binding principles simply added to the impression that the "launch" was chaotic and thrown together at the last minute. Corbyn's claim of hundreds of thousands joining the Ewe Party turns out to be people applying via the Ewe Party website to received their newsletter. 

Think back to 2015-19 when many Labour MPs spent their time trying to kick Corbyn out of the Labour leadership. Labour had a surge in membership. Don't get me wrong: members, supporters and volunteers are essential to the future of any political party. However I had too many conversation with Labour members in Gateshead to be convinced that this surge of new members, brought in by Corbyn, were largely of no use to Labour whatsoever. 

The vast majority of this army of Corbynites were nothing more than leftwing moaners whose time was spent attacking Blair (who had given up the leadership a decade earlier) and Labour, not the Tories. This army of armchair class warriors weren't out delivering Labour leaflets or knocking on doors. They were at home on their ipads and laptops blaming everything wrong on Blair.

So the Ewe Party would be an ideal home for such people. They can follow the Corbyn Cult without any fear they will be thrown out of their party. And, of course, they can help Reform to win seats at the general election due in 2029 under this ludicrous first-past-the-post vosting system.

Where do Labour councillors stand on Corbyn's new party?

 

So, Jeremy Corbyn has announced, sort of, that he may be launching a new leftwing party. As a spectator of the Labour Party, I watched Labour in 2017 sing "Oh Jeremy Corbyn" and get carried away by the Leader's presence at Glastonbury. Oh what a wonderful time Labour members were having as they deluded themselves that Corbyn would lead them to victory and a socialist utopia, unencumbered by reality, would be created. And then in 2019, Labour imploded. The rest, as they say, is history.

This has set me thinking about where Labour members in Gateshead stand about the current state of Labour and the possibility of a new leftwing party appearing on the political landscape. Maybe some Labour members will conclude that a beneficiary of a Corbyn party would be Reform. Best not to give it any support as, by supporting Corbyn, they could be helping Farage to win seats. Others may want to relive 2017, confident that they could ride a tidal wave of socialism into power. They would have a warm feeling of socialist purity in their stomachs, a happy time to be had, whatever the consequences politically, just as was the case a few years ago.

I dispute the suggestion that a Corbyn party would only benefit Reform. In Gateshead the battle for the council is between Lib Dems and Labour and both sides tend, though not exclusively, to represent safe seats. Not many change hands. If Labour's vote were split, the hurdle to winning Labour-held seats would be lowered. The main beneficiary of that in Gateshead would be the Lib Dems.

But, would any Labour councillor be tempted to throw in their lot with the Corbyn Party? That's the big unknown. Nevertheless, in the video above, filmed in 2018 at a Gateshead cabinet meeting, you can hear the then deputy leader of the council, Cllr Catherine Donovan, ranting away about the wonders of Corbyn. There was an exchange with me in which I point out how deluded the Corbynites were. Events proved me right and Catherine wrong.

The question now is, are any of the Labour councillors in Gateshead ready to jump ship and rejoin Corbyn? Pragmatism or principles? I suspect pragmatism will prevail but I also expect quite a few Labour retirements next year.

Taking the kids to the toddler group

 

I was invited to bring along our most recent goat kids to the Whinnies Wanderers, the parent and toddler group based in the Whinnies Community Garden in Sunniside, in my council ward. They went down a treat. I've been invited to come back next week. By then we may have more goat kids. Florence, our boss nanny, is very pregnant and I expect her to give birth on Friday.

New attraction at Beamish Museum

 

On Friday last week, we took a day off to go to Beamish Museum, only a ten minute drive from our house. A new attraction was opened last year though only on weekends - the 1950s hill farm. Now it is open all year round so it was our first opportunity to see it.

Sent to Bridges

 

On Saturday I underestimated the number of people expected to turn up for the Gateshead Lib Dem action day in Ryton. I only printed 500 survey forms but fortunately, on the same print run on Friday, I also printed 1000 Focuses for Bridges ward, all about the flyover which is due to be demolished later this year. So, Councillors Ian Patterson (pictured above) and Ron Beadle, having turned up to deliver Ryton, instead took the Bridges Focuses and headed back to central Gateshead to start delivering a day early. There are lots more Focuses in the pipeline waiting to be printed and delivered.

Ryton action day

 

On Saturday 12th July, Gateshead Lib Dems held another action day, this time in Ryton. There was a positive response on the doorsteps. And it was also an opportunity to get a few more photos around the ward for Focus newsletters.

At midday we piled into Fed and Watered for lunch. Excellent food.

Friends of Sunniside meeting

 

On Thursday Friends of Sunnisde held their regular meeting. As the ward councillors, Jonathan Mohammed, Marilynn Ord and, I attend to give advice and support. This time we took along with us our neighbourhood officer Sam Laing from the Civic Centre so he could give further advice to the group. 

We are running a fair for local voluntary organisations on 6th September at Sunniside Club and I'm currently contacting groups to see if they will attend. I'm pleased that Friends of Sunniside will be there.

Well done Planting Up Sunniside

 

Well done Planting Up Sunniside. Their volunteers have been at work maintaining the planters at the Kingsway/Sunniside Road junction in Sunniside. Great work and a great display of flowers.

Printing without a hitch

 

I was in the Lib Dem office this morning to print surveys for four of our key wards to deliver over the coming days. Two of the wards are not (yet) held by us but as we look to expand our beachheads in Gateshead, we need to take on Labour and beat them. The two other wards are split between Lib Dems and Labour. We are looking for a clean sweep in the all out elections in those wards next year. I am pleased to announce that the printing went without a hitch, something of a strange experience for me!

Reform turn up in time for the end of the meeting

 

It was Gateshead Lib Dem group meeting last night. It was held on-line (our usual practice for group meetings). We discussed motions for the next full council. Deadline is later this month. 

Whenever Lib Dems in Gateshead meet, we inevitably discuss the next local elections, due in May next year. Candidate selection is going well, Focuses continue to be written, action days planned. All this was reported to the group.

Meanwhile, it was also reported to the group that in neighbouring Co Durham, currently with a Reform majority, a committee meeting was held which was attended by the opposition parties. By the time the Reform councillors turned up, the committee had got through all the business on the agenda. Reform can certainly teach us all how not to run a council!

Remembering 7/7

It doesn't feel like 20 years since the 7/7 London bombings but it is now 2 decades since the worst terrorist incident on UK soil. Much of what happened still feels fresh in my mind. 

20 years ago I was working for the Lib Dems in our then HQ, Cowley Street, as a policy officer. The policy areas for which I was responsible included local government. On 6th July, the Local Government Association annual conference opened in Harrogate and I was invited to attend and speak at the Lib Dem group meeting in the afternoon of 7th July. My plan was to get the train from London Kings Cross at around 9am on the 7th and then attend the group meeting. Once the meeting was over I would head north again to go home in Gateshead.

And then things changed. The LGA Lib Dem group office asked me to attend another meeting at the conference, this time on 6th July. At first I was reluctant to attend, largely due to having no office budget for overnight accommodation. This problem was overcome when the Lib Dem LGA group agreed to cover the accommodation costs. So I headed north on the afternoon of 6th, attended the meeting in the evening and had a restful night.

On 7th, while in the main conference, rumours about an incident began to circulate. There was a talk of a power outage on the Tube. We were warned that people due to arrive in the morning from London would be delayed.

It was at the group meeting at lunchtime that people started to talk openly of a terrorist attack and before the meeting ended, it had been confirmed that there had been a bomb attach in London. News was scant so we believed it was only one bomb. It was not long before news of 3 other bomb attacks arrived.

Had I not gone up to the LGA conference on 6th, I would have been in the thick of it when the bombs went off on 7th. I wouldn't have been near any of the bombs as I would have travelled to Kings Cross on the Victoria Line which was untouched by the bombers. But it still would have been uncomfortably close. I would have emerged from Kings Cross tube station just after the bombs had gone off on the Underground.

We should not forget that 52 people died at the hands of terrorists and 770 were injured. They were remembered today at the Commemoration for the 20th Anniversary of the London Bombing. RIP.

Goats and toddlers don't mix!

 

I was asked recently by the Whinnies Wanderers, a toddler group based at the Whinnies Community Garden in Sunniside, to bring along one of our goats to their gathering on Thursday last week. I took Nettle and we settled down in the corner of the garden. Shortly afterwards I realised that the choice of a fully grown goat was not so good. Though some children were happy to stand next to Nettle and pet her, many of them kept their distance. It was hardly surprising looking back on it. Nettle is twice the height of some of the children! Next time I will take goat babies rather than goat adults.

Flash in the pan or a sign of things to come?

There was a by-election in Benfieldshire ward of Durham County Council yesterday. Reform were defending the seat, having taken it from Labour in the May local elections. Back then, Labour had scored a near-death performance in what had, until 4 years ago, been one of their safest councils in the country. Labour were downsized from over 50 members to a miserable 4. The cause of the by-election was a self-inflicted wound for Reform: their candidate was disqualified from standing as he works for the council. It seems that no one in Reform had bothered to check. Vetting candidates was clearly not a priority. The subsequent election of the Reform candidate meant an inevitable by-election.

The result was:

• Lib Dem 824
• Labour 800
• Reform 747
• Independent 459
• Conservative 76
• Green 40

So what can we make of this? Reform's fall from 1st to 3rd place stands out but so does Labour's failure to capitalise on Reform's local difficulties.  That benefit has gone to the Lib Dems who shot up from a distant 3rd place to top the poll and seize the seat. Reform's poor performance may be due to local voters having sampled Reform in power and deciding they didn't like it. Afterall, there have been no outstandingly good performances by any Reform controlled council since May. They have nothing positive to show for their 2 months being in charge. People who voted for them may well be feeling disappointed with Reform.

But is this a flash in the pan or a sign of things to come? Was this by-election a one off (or a two off given Reform lost a seat to the Tories in Newark last night) or has the Reform tide started to turn? We can't answer that question for sure now but over the coming months we will get a better view of how things are going.

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.