The Monday Morning Blog: Metro mayors - the only show in town

Some years ago, the idea that a Conservative Government would be leading the battle to deliver some degree of regional elected government would be regarded as laughable. Now, they are out in the lead on this issue. Okay, the structures proposed for super-cities may not be the model we love but metro mayors are the only show in town. It would be absurd for the North East to resist devolution because we don't like the model while other areas of the country go ahead. It seems that if we want to be left behind, refusing to go to the only show in town would yet again leave our region stuck going nowhere fast.

In the North East, minus Cleveland which sadly has decided to go its own way, we already have a combined authority, an undemocratic body made up of the 7 council leaders. In addition there are 2 police and crime commissioners, a variety of health bodies, 3 fire authorities, the Local Enterprise Partnership and a list of other unelected bodies. There seems to be no logical reason for letting these bodies continue separately and unaccountably, each in its own silo, at a time when they need to be joined up and working towards an agreed plan to build while ending the waste of duplication.

The metro mayor model has lots of imperfections but it is a great deal better than the status quo. It will be the only opportunity we have for some time to come to get powers transferred to the region and get decision-making joined up. Rejecting it because it does not include every full stop, comma and punctuation mark of hundreds of pages of Lib Dem policy on this issue will mean throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Liberal Democrats in the North East need to consider how we move forward on this issue. Yes, we can put forward proposals that are different or that aim to improve what the government puts forward, but ministers are clearly committed to the model.

Lib Dems need to be at the forefront of the call for devolution. It is a principle that is at the core of Liberal Democracy. We need to be canny with our arguments but we need to be realistic. It's time to campaign for devolution in the North East (again) and to talk to the government about the model they have on offer. Without the devolution settlement on offer, our region will continue to be fragmented and in the ineffectual hands of Labour council bosses - the same bosses prone to political tantrums and rows which have held the region back.

Planting Up Whickham

On Sunday last week, the volunteers of Planting Up Whickham, of which I am one, set to work on preparing the flower beds on Church Green for a new set of bedding plants. I brought 9 sacks of manure, kindly donated by my livestock, to dig into the beds. All the old flowers were removed. Today, the volunteers returned to plant the flowers. Sadly, I wasn't able to take part. A friend of mine was staying for the weekend (he is a Labour councillors from London!) so we agreed to spend this weekend visiting places of interest (Chesters Roman Fort and Beamish Museum). I therefore don't know how they got on. Tomorrow I need to be in the village so I will be able to have a look at their work.

Startled bunnies and the art of falling off chairs

There was a headline in the Newcastle Journal recently announcing that Labour MP Ian Lavery was planning a leadership bid. When I read it, I nearly fell off my seat laughing. Quite what Labour members see in this ranting leftwinger is beyond me. I once had to sit through a "speech" he gave to a National Association of Councillors meeting about nuclear power. He admitted to knowing little about the subject, a claim he proceeded to demonstrate admirably. I found his speech to be embarrassingly poor and his demand that more coal should be burnt to help save the environment provided me with another falling-off-the-seat-laughing moment.

The day after announcing his leadership bid, Mr Lavery announced his withdrawal from the race. His platform was to have been one of leftwing "socialism". Instead, he announced his backing for Andy Burnham. Listening to conversations amongst the "socialist" brothers and sisters in Gateshead, there seems to be a hope that Burnham will swing the Labour party to the left as the way of storming to power in 2020. Not winning in 2015 because Labour wasn't leftwing enough is a common theme among the "socialist" comrades. All those lessons of the 80s and 90s have been forgotten.

Claiming to be "socialist" is one thing. The record of a person can often tell a different story. Labour's hysteria about the "privatisation" of the NHS rather overlooks the fact that Burnham himself was one of the key Labour figures, as Health Secretary under Gordon Brown, who "privatised" NHS services.

Burnham has always looked to me like a startled bunny caught in the headlights of an approaching juggernaut. If the assumptions that he is heading for victory come to fruition, it could be that Burnham ends up afterwards as roadkill, torn apart by his own party which ideologically wants to swing to the left but which needs to occupy the centre ground to win an election.

Gateshead's new mayor

Last week, Labour in Gateshead had clearly spent some time sharpening their barrel scraping utensils but on the appointment of the mayor, they've taken a good decision. Alex Geddes is a pleasant bloke, probably too nice for the Gateshead Labour Party. So good luck Alex for the year ahead. Invites to you will be on their way to local events once I've organised them!

My early BBC interview about the early Tim Farron

I had to deal with the livestock early this morning, thanks to the BBC and Tim Farron! The goats, ducks, quails and chickens were fed at 6am so I could be in the Bigg Market in Newcastle at 8am for an interview about Tim Farron's university years. Tim was an undergraduate when I was at Newcastle University researching my PhD. In terms of Parliamentary campaigning, Tim was first bloodied in Hexham where I was the Lib Dem candidate in the 1992 general election. Along with other members of the Lib Dem Society at the university, he was dragged out to deliver leaflets through doors in the wilds of Northumberland.

The interview was not about politics. It was about Tim the person. That meant I was free to refer to his pink dungarees and Lenin style cap. His fashion sense was something of a car crash! As a group we regularly met up in the Rupali restaurant in the Bigg Market (hence the location for the interview). It was famous for it curry hell challenge though I can't recall vegetarian Tim taking up it up.

The interview will be broadcast on Sunday on the North East edition of the BBC politics programme. I am yet to decide which of the candidates will get my vote. I know both the candidates and will take a decision after I have seen them perform at the hustings and read what they have to say.

May Fayre Video

I've started catching up with video editing tasks. I filmed this one last week at the Whickham May Fayre in Chase Park. The hen and chicks at the end are mine!

Whickham eFocus 96

Just published this evening is the next edition of our eFocus newsletter for the Whickham area. This edition looks at the local election results and events happening over the next few days. You can view it on this link.

Gateshead Lib Dem members' newsletter

As we now have email addresses for over 80% of our members in Gateshead, we have launched an email newsletter in addition to our printed edition. The first edition can be viewed on this link. We have 22 new members in Gateshead since polling day - one of the unexpected consequences of our general election defeat. We are redoubling our efforts to ensure we keep in touch with them.

When dirty tricks backfire

Early on polling day on 7th May, the above spoof election poster appeared on Sunniside Road, only a few metres from my house. David spotted it at about 6am when he was heading over the road to feed the livestock. I spotted another just up the road. We then got reports of a small number at the fire station in Swalwell and some on Ryton.



The above photo of the ones on the premises of Swalwell Fire Station was taken in the afternoon. We were rather surprised that the staff at the fire station - some of whom featured in a last minute Labour leaflet in uniform with Labour candidates on the same premises - had not removed the posters, given this was a public facility and the staff are public servants. A phone call to the chief fire officer saw the posters removed shortly afterwards. Presumably the staff were just rather unobservant on that day and failed to notice the front of their building plastered with posters.

I am curious to know whether these same illegal posters went up in other constituencies. They were professionally printed on corex and will therefore not be cheap.

Quite what the culprits sought to achieve by spending money like this and disrupting their own sleep to drive in their volvos and people carriers to various locations in Blaydon constituency is beyond me. It appears that they must be driven by a hatred of us that took them beyond sensible, logical behaviour into the world of absurd pettiness. Being beastly to the Lib Dems may be a big turn on to poisoned dwarfs and those with gigantic egos but no personality, but it achieved nothing for them other than unnecessarily sleep loss and wasted money.

The irony is that most people who saw the posters simply glanced at them and thought they were promoting the Lib Dems. They didn't stop to read what was on them. We know that because people told us they were pleased to see our posters up!

The posters in Sunniside were removed on the advice of the police who are looking in to the matter. I have one of them at my house and I'm quite happy for the owner to collect it from me. Just get in touch and make the necessary arrangements.

A great day at the May Fayre

The May Fayre at Whickham's Chase Park went ahead yesterday and was a great success. I had a table selling eggs and preserves in the bottom corner of the park and as I was out in the open, my hopes for a rain-free event were fulfilled! Lots of people spoke to me about my re-election and my self-sufficiency project. There was particular interest in my goat Pinkie who is recovering from an emergency caesarean on Wednesday evening. News has got around about her operation.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from the event:

Setting up the May Fayre in Whickham

I've been in Whickham's Chase Park this morning to help set up the May Fayre tomorrow. I was late as I am also nursing a very ill goat. Pinkie, my Golden Guernsey, had to have am emergency caesarean on Wednesday evening and she is still not out of the danger zone. Sadly, we lost both the kids.



The fayre opens at midday tomorrow. There will be live music, entertainment, participation events, stands for community organisations and stalls selling a range of goods.



Everyone is welcome.

Swap your home

I've been contacted by the BBC to ask me to promote a programme called Home Away From Home and encourage people to put themselves forward to be on it. So if you have an interesting home and want to stay in someone else's house while appearing on tv, you can find details below.

Dear Jonathan,

I hope you don’t mind me contacting you, but I’m working on the new series of BBC One’s Home Away From Home and thought you might be able to help, as we are particularly interested in featuring any self-sufficiency and eco-living enthusiasts on our programme!

The series sees couples (be it partners, friends or family members) from across the UK swap homes with one another over the course of three days. It’s a chance to have a new experience and discover local cuisine, sight-seeing that goes beyond the guide book, and an authentic place to stay. It might be that people are considering a home swap for the first time or have swapped many times before. It’s very much a warm-hearted series and celebrates the beauty of our homes and localities in the UK.  

Here is a link to the website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04ks591

And also the Be on a Show page: http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/beonashow/home_away_from_home

I was wondering whether you might be able to help circulate our details whether that’s via social media, an editorial piece on your blog etc, in the hope that we might find some lovely would-be home swappers for our series?

  

Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Emma

Emma Linstead

Assistant Producer, Home Away From Home

1199 majority - thank you

I'm back in! My constituents in Whickham South and Sunniside kindly returned me to Gateshead Council with just over 50% of the vote and a majority of 1199. And whilst I would rather have my teeth pulled out without anaesthetic than rerun the general election outcome, the local election results in the wards were were defending in Gateshead were, relatively speaking, shining examples of hope. We were defending 3 seats and held all of them with increased majorities. We were also within 23 votes of taking Dunston Hill and Whickham East from Labour.

The votes in my ward (last year's in brackets) were:

Liberal Democrats 2399 (1511)

Labour 1200 (619)

Conservative 531 (214)

UKIP 503 (430)

Green 109 (-)

TUSC 41 (50)

If memory serves me correctly, this is the largest vote I've ever got in my ward (and I've been councillor here for 28 years). Labour Deputy Leader of Gateshead Council, Martin Gannon, announced during the election campaign that Labour were expecting to win my seat. I replied that I would be wiping the smug grin from his face by holding my seat. Martin, please be ready for your public face cleaning exercise. I'll bring appropriate cleaning materials to our next meeting!

To "be" or not to "bee"

These are the freepost leaflets from the Blaydon candidates: 2 from me, 2 from Labour's Dave Anderson, an unaddressed leaflet from the Conservatives' Alison Griffiths and an addressed leaflet from UKIP. There was nothing from the Greens. The leaflet from UKIP meant that I got to see what their candidate Mark Bell looks like. He has attended none of the hustings and produced no other leaflets. His freepost arrived last week. Last year he was the UKIP candidate in my ward but produced no leaflets and did not come to the account. At least now we know he exists!

I have to plead guilty to a typo in my 2nd freepost. I am described as a "bekeeper" rather than a "beekeeper". None of us spotted the mistake until it landed on our doorsteps! I also spotted a mistake in the Labour leaflet. It claimed it was Labour policy to increase NHS spending by £8 billion. Oh no it isn't!

Anyway, I have an early start in the morning and I doubt I'll be writing any posts tomorrow. So, I'll take this opportunity to wish my opponents well. It's been quite a calm campaign for the Blaydon seat. It's likely the declaration will pass the world by without causing any ripples, a rather unfortunate characteristic of our not-fit-for-purpose voting system in which so many seats have a foregone result.

Approaching the end of the delivery treadmill

Light at the end of the tunnel. The piles of leaflets are now almost gone though I am about to go to the office to print another batch to replenish the diminished stock of literature. Yesterday I was delivering both in Dunston Hill and Whickham East (see above photo) and in Whickham North. Though my shoes were worn out over the weekend, I found an old pair in the wardrobe. The soles were split but they were robust enough to get a few days of pounding.



We are pressing the tactical vote message very strongly in Dunston Hill and Whickham East. Labour clung on by 78 votes last year and we need only one in 10 of those who voted Conservative, UKIP and Green to switch to us to defeat Labour in the ward. The unanswered question is what way those who will turn out because of the general election vote in the locals. They haven't voted since 2010. We have canvassed this group and the results are good but, unlike the eggs that are currently hatching in one of my incubators, I'm not counting any political chickens until the  ballot boxes have hatched.

Whickham eFocus 95

The latest edition of my email newsletter to residents has just been published and can be read on this link.

Delivering Marley Hill and Byermoor.

I'm glad I delivered Marley Hill and Byermoor yesterday with my final Focus in my ward. Pleasant weather all round. Not so this morning.



Anyway, here's a look at the front page of my Focus. It's simply just a reminder that the Lib Dems are the only party in the ward active all year round. And lots of people vote for us just because of that.

Heading for cuts

I have a mature hawthorn hedge around one of the pieces of land I rent. Thick branches and very hard thorns are its defining characteristics. On Friday I discovered some of our hens were getting through a gap in the hedge we be blocked it up with some wire netting and bamboo canes. Alas, as I was pressing most of my body weight on the cane to get it into the ground, it shattered and I went head first into the hedge. The resulting cut above my eyes has been something of a talking point when I meet people. Sadly, the genuine explanation is somewhat less interesting than the suggestions made by some as to how I came by the injury!

My shoes have met their end

All this canvassing and delivering has worn out my shoes. Sadly they are beyond repair. It will mean a trip to the shops to get replacements. At least they were worn out in a good cause (I appreciate that statement will not be shared by the Labour trolls who follow me!) The weekend left us a bit ahead of schedule. Other than one polling district, all our letters and leaflets to polling station voters in key wards are now out. The plan was to complete them by the end of today with any mop up operation taking place tomorrow.



This is what I delivered yesterday afternoon. I also delivered a few streets in Dunston that got left off the list on Saturday. Next stop Polling Day!

Sadly, I missed the mass Labour canvass in Dunston Hill and Whickham East on Saturday morning by about 5 minutes. We were having a street surgery which I left at 10.55am. Labour, including Leader of the Council Mick Henry, walked past a few minutes later. It's interesting to note they needed to pull in everyone to help out in a ward they are defending.

Sore feet

I've got to the point of the campaign where my feet are starting to hurt from pacing about Blaydon constituency canvassing and delivering. Last night we were in the office until 10pm printing focus leaflets which we delivered across my ward today. We have a few patches left to do tomorrow but most of my ward has been done.



I delivered 5 patches this afternoon and evening. That's 2 of the patches above on the seat of my land rover. The focuses were delivered with letters. I've already had some positive responses.

Counting my chickens

One of my hens went missing three weeks ago. She reappeared today, accompanied by three chicks! So whilst I am not in the habit of counting my chickens before they have hatched - especially in the world of politics - at least with my poultry I can count the chickens after they have hatched!

St George at Marley Hill

We had a belated St George's Day celebration on Saturday at the Marley Hill Community Pub. Okay, it wasn't anything spectacular. We just had a few flags up, but it was a bit of fun for ordinary people to reclaim a flag too often hijacked by a tiny minority on the Right. The flag after all belongs to the whole nation.

How soft is Labour's vote?

In Blaydon constituency we have been canvassing people who last voted in 2010. When we started this exercise a few months ago, we found that the Lib Dems in this group were still likely to vote for us in the local elections but less likely to do so in the Parliamentary vote. This was expected. We have known here for decades that lots of people vote for us in the locals but are less likely to do so in general elections. The proof of that is that our local election vote always out performs our general vote. In the past couple of weeks however, we have picked up on some developing trends. Firstly, the proportion of people saying they are voting Lib Dem locally and nationally has increased. Secondly, the Labour vote has not firmed up. Instead, it is softening. A modest proportion of it is voting Lib Dem in the locals and reluctantly for Labour in the general. Some Labour general election vote is now starting to show up in the UKIP column.

I suspect some of those wavering between UKIP and Labour will revert back to Labour by the time polling day arrives (the group I am discussin includes no postal voters). The health warning about this canvass is that it is of people who have not voted for 5 years and therefore are disengaged from politics or rank local politics of lesser importance (or a combination of the 2).

Lots of old certainties have gone. Interesting times ahead.

Rowlands Gill public meeting

The 2nd and final public hustings meeting of the general election campaign in Blaydon took place at the Methodist Church Hall on Strathmore Road, Rowlands Gill, on Friday last week. There were two significant differences between this event and the hustings held in Birtley the week before. Firstly, the Green candidate Paul McNally attended. He was absent from the one at Birtley. Secondly, there was a much bigger audience and it was predominantly members of the public rather than Labour councillors. The UKIP candidate was yet again absent. So far there has been neither sight nor sound of him at all in the campaign.



There were no surprises and all the candidates gave a creditable performance. Conservative Alison Griffiths again suggested she was the "better looking" candidate. Labour's Dave Anderson wanted all zero hours contracts banned, a move that will no doubt solve the problem of having to go to work by making people redundant. The Green's Paul McNally offered to spend gargantuan sums of money on everything. And I got in my line about being born just after the first broadcast of Dr Who!

Taking the Green biscuit

We held our monthly street surgery at Whickham on Saturday in the morning. Afterwards I visited the St Mary's Church coffee morning (lots of people clutching completed postal votes and telling me they had voted for me!) and then went to Dunston for some canvassing (yet again lots of people interested in my self-sufficient good life.)

Then back to Whickham for lunch at Wetherspoons. We knew the Greens were going to have a street stall there (I don't just have sources in the Labour Party!) so we went out of our way to visit them. They were looking rather lonely. Had they done their homework, they would have realised that Saturday afternoons on St Mary's Green are not the busiest of times. They were a friendly enough bunch and had a number of leaflets offering to spend gargantuan sums of money on just about anything going. They even asked me how my goats are. In terms of lifestyle, I can of course out green any Green candidate who cares to stand against me. I did however persuade them to part with a chocolate biscuit though such generosity would not convert me to their economically unsustainable cause. If people are voting on environmental issues in Blaydon constituency they may wish to consider the following: I led numerous campaigns against opencast mining here, the Greens were nowhere to be seen; Lib Dems led the battle against landfill in the constituency, the Greens were nowhere to be seen; I'm directly involved with running environmental projects in the Whickham area and yes, you guessed it, the Greens were nowhere to be seen.



Lunch then followed in the Harry Clasper, the former Whickham Council Offices, now a Wetherspoons pub. Burger and chips. Not very self-sufficient admittedly.

Stairway to victory

I delivered some letters on Fellside Park last week. Much of the estate is in my council ward and I was greeted by thumbs ups and waves through windows from voters. In the blistering heat of the day however, getting around the estate was a challenge. It is built on a steep slope. The best way to get around was to use the long flight of steps at the end of Sunnidale. Good exercise, bad for the state of my shoes which are now rather worn out!

Campaign injuries

My hands have not fared well with letter boxes in recent weeks. I have had numerous knuckles repeatedly bloodied as letter boxes chew up my fingers whilst putting leaflets through. I look forward to the day when we either have everyone's email addresses or a robot can deliver leaflets for us!

Not all injuries in the photo were campaign caused. The scar on my thumb was the result of chopping firewood.

Fuel for the campaign

We don't normally have chocolate in our house. After all, it's not something we can grow! But a couple of weeks ago, we let ourselves go and bought a pile of chocolate biscuits. This is fuel for the campaign. Sadly, it's all gone now. No more until our next sweet ration coupons come through!

2 weeks today and it's all over

Hooray! Just 2 weeks to go and its all over bar the counting and shouting. Here in Gateshead the postal votes arrived today so we did a local election knock up this evening of supporters, soft Cons, soft Labour and Ukippers. Those who had indicated some kind of UKIP leaning in the past were quite interesting. They now seem to be plumping for us locally and UKIP nationally. Just as interesting was the soft Labour vote. Some of it has gone to UKIP in the Parliamentary election. Some of it has come to us locally. Some of it has firmed up for Labour, though is smaller amounts that I would have expected.

Tomorrow is the second and last hustings meeting of the Blaydon campaign. It will be held in Rowlands Gill. It will be interesting to see if the UKIP and Green candidates turn up. They were absent from the hustings in Birtley last month.

Two weeks from now we should be in the Blaydon count. And as soon as that's over, we go straight into the local election count. It will be a long night.

More deliveries

With the postal votes arriving this week, we've been out delivering letters and leaflets to those whose voting papers are now dropping through letter boxes. For the past 4 days, I've built up quite a sun tan in Ryton, Whickham, Sunniside and Dunston. In the picture above are letters and Focuses for my constituents in Whickham South and Sunniside.

Apart from one patch on Fellside Park which I am about to do now, the job is done.

Not quite snouts in a trough

A bit of light relief from the election campaign. Politicians are viewed by some as having snouts in troughs. Pinkie, one of my goats, yesterday demonstrated this with a bucket. She was of course stealing the other goats' food. Or so she thought. Sadly for her, the bucket was empty.

Labour throws in towel in Low Fell

There was an interesting article in the Newcastle Chronicle today about the battles taking place in the local elections in Gateshead. Martin Gannon, deputy leader of Gateshead Council, and the Rainbow Warrior of Lost Labour Causes, admits that Labour are unlikely to win Low Fell, a ward the Lib Dems are defending in the May local elections.

Low Fell used to be Conservative but was an area that Labour felt belonged to them by right. The Conservatives lost the seat they were defending in poll tax year to Labour - 1990. The following year, the Tories lost to the Lib Dems. In 1992, the Tories held on. In the next local election, in 1994, Labour lost to the Lib Dems and we have won ever since. The Conservatives have more or less given up but Labour still think they are in with a chance. Martin Gannon is rolled out every year to give the same prediction - Labour will win. And just as consistently, Labour have lost.

So Martin's admission this year differs from his usual mouth-opening-for-insertion-of-foot routine. "It's a significantly difficult seat for us to win," Martin told the Chronicle.

For good measure however, he has predicted Labour will win my seat in Whickham South and Sunniside. Labour have never held it before, and in my 28 years as councillor, they have never once put up a serious candidate with a serious campaign. Last year Labour were 900 behind us and were in danger of dropping to 3rd place. This year, Labour have had to rely on delivery companies to get their literature through doors. They have done zilch in the ward since the last elections. I'm not complacent and we are fighting my ward hard, but Martin's brash, arrogant claim that Labour somehow have my ward in the bag is, to say the least, wishful thinking.

If he is right, the smug, Blairite grin that so readily adorns Martin's face will continue to remain in place. If however Martin is wrong, we are already considering which cleaning utensils to apply to wipe his smug mug clean. So stay tuned for the next, thrilling adventure of Gateshead Goes to the Polls, or rather, come back on 8th May and I'll tell you the result in Whickham South and Sunniside!

Catching the sun in Ryton

Off to Ryton in the west of Blaydon constituency for a bit of campaigning and letter delivery this morning. A beautifully sunny day. I'm feeling a bit frazzled as a result. Cllr John McClurey was with me and he brought Coco, his labrador. At least he was able to have a drink of water from a bowl.



The humans had to wait until they were back home!

When mass email campaigns go wrong!

Like most other Parliamentary candidates, I've been receiving lots of emails sent out as part of mass email campaigns, most of them from the 38 Degrees Mass Email Factory. People just have to go onto the campaign website, click on the message and put in their own details in the appropriate places. But sometimes it goes wrong. I've had 2 messages so far which read:

My name’s [YOUR NAME].

"I’m a member of 38 Degrees and together with other 38 Degrees members in [YOUR CONSTITUENCY], we’d like to invite you to meet us for half an hour at [TIME, DATE AND LOCATION]. We want to deliver you a huge petition calling on you to Save Our NHS if you're elected.

"As well as receiving the petition, there’ll be the opportunity to talk to local residents and take a photo with the local press.

"Will you confirm if you will attend the petition delivery at [TIME, DATE AND LOCATION]?"

I've emailed back to [YOUR NAME] in the hope they will be able to provide me with the appropriate [TIME, DATE AND LOCATION].

I await a reply.

Update

This was the unhelpful reply I received to my email pointing out that the original information contained no information about venue, timing etc and requesting information about the event:

Dear Jonathan,

Thank you for pointing this out to me, but I am sure mine is not the only correspondence you have received on this matter?

Kindest Regards

Birtley Hustings Meeting

Last Thursday evening brought us the first hustings meeting of the Blaydon campaign. Held at the St Joseph's Catholic Club in Birtley, it is something of a tradition, having been held at every election since 1992. All 5 candidates were invited but the Greens and UKIP didn't turn up. So it was me, David Anderson (Labour) and Ali Griffiths (Conservative). It was the first time I had met her. She did claim to have a local connection - a "family connections with the area" - though she did not explain what it is. A quick internet search and all I could find was that her brother went to university in Newcastle some decades ago!



All 3 candidates performed creditably. The questions were very much as expected.



I think I won the prize for the best sun tan. Ali won the prize for the most catty remark (she was the "better looking" of the candidates). Dave won the prize for the most absurd claim (graduates won't take jobs paying over £21,000 to avoid paying back their tuition fees!)

The size of the audience was disappointing. About 20 there, 6 of whom were Labour councillors, one was the Mayoress of Gateshead and one was a Labour candidate. They were ready with their questions and I was ready with my answers.

Shifting the mountain of paper

#

The colour tabloid that was delivered to us earlier last week was no use to anyone sitting on my living room floor. So one of the big jobs of the past few days has been to get it through people's doors.



The copies for my ward where put into their delivery patches in my house. I had to move them all in my land rover to get them to our campaign HQ (John McClurey's house)



They were delivered today. Other wards began delivery earlier. It has cleared the decks for the next delivery, an ordinary Focus and a letter.



In fact, we are a bit ahead of schedule. Meanwhile, the envelopes for the letter delivery are now all stuffed.



It took one evening in John's house to get the job done though some wards were done in other people's homes. My ward will be delivered tomorrow (Sunday) though, again, some wards have already finished delivering their letters.

Meanwhile, some of our deliverers in Whickham South and Whickham North wards bumped into the people delivering the Labour leaflets today. And yes, they were from a commercial delivery company. I hear on the grapevine that there has been a bit of a search going on in the Labour party to find people to deliver Dunston Hill and Whickham East ward. But there are complaints about the lack of action from a couple of socialist sisters, neither of whom, I am told, have impressed their "comrades" since joining Labour.

Next leaflet arrives

Our next election leaflet arrived from the printer today. It is an 8 page full colour Focus. Delivering it is certainly going to build up the biceps! Some areas have already started to put it through doors. Most will be delivered over the next three days.

On the doormat

Waiting for me on my doormat this morning was my Blaydon freepost leaflet, kindly delivered by the Royal Mail, along with the rest of our post - a copy of Radio Times and a holiday brochure. A holiday now would be lovely. Sadly it will have to wait until after 7th May. Indeed, after May as, regardless of the outcome, we have lots to do to keep our "good life" going. Pinkie our goat is due to give birth in late May and we are starting the process of incubating eggs. And there are crops to plant. No rest for the self-sufficient.

Freepost delivered to Royal Mail

The political anoraks who read this blog will know what an election freepost is. For the real people who aren't avid politicos, it is the leaflet from a candidate that the Royal Mail delivers to each voter in the constituency during the general election campaign. Mine was printed and put into storage last week so that it could be delivered to Royal Mail today. Frank Hindle's leaflet for Gateshead constituency was delivered with mine so it was all too much for my land rover. We therefore had to hire a van to move them to Sunderland this morning.



John McClurey, Frank and I were tasked with the job of getting the freepost to the Royal Mail.



Storage was in Felling so that was our first port of call after picking up the van.



Then off to Sunderland for the hand over.



I got to keep the pallets on which the leaflets were delivered to us. Useful building material on the allotment.

Meanwhile, the freepost leaflets should be arriving through doors this week.

eFocus on Birtley, Lamesley, Kibblesworth and Eighton Banks April 2015

We have lots of email addresses of residents in the Birtley and Lamesley wards of Gateshead as a result of our campaigning. Plenty to make it worthwhile doing an eFocus for the 2 wards. So here is our first edition.

I'm currently writing the next edition of eFocus for the Whickham area. This one will be the 95th we have done since we launched eFocus in Whickham in 2004.

Delivering in Marley Hill

I got the last of the current batch of letters and Focuses delivered today in Marley Hill, the next village up from Sunniside where I live. There I encountered Poppy the hen, wandering around in her garden. She was hatched in my incubator last year and was raised by one of my brooding hens. She went to her new home a couple of weeks ago to be company for another hen (and a rabbit). The children there named her Poppy but the next day she hopped over the fence and wandered off. This sparked a number of Facebook messages to the entire village asking for people to look out for her. I picked up the messages while sitting in a scrutiny committee meeting with the environment agency! Fortunately, Poppy, as I expected, returned to her new home after a couple of hours where her wings were promptly clipped. She looked very much at home today when I delivered a letter and Focus to her new owners.

On the campaign trail in Dunston Hill and Whickham East

Our Dunston Hill and Whickham East team were out on the doorsteps of the Lakes Estate today. This will come as no secret to the Labour candidate who was able to watch Cllr Peter Maughan and Kevin McClurey from the comfort of his car. Sadly I wasn't there for the canvass as I was tied up on other activities. I haven't checked the canvass yet so I've no idea what the figures are though it is fair to say the Lakes Estate is a good area for us. The canvass is done using an iphone which automatically uploads all the information to our Connect database. It's a bit of an advance on the election campaign that saw me elected for the first time in 1987. We would spend a weekend chopping up electoral registers and pasting them onto canvass cards, then drawing lots of lines across the pages. Every night after canvassing we would eagerly add up all the figures and add them to the running total. The technology is somewhat more sophisticated now. The tedious scissors and paste jobs have gone. Now it's all high tech.

And along came yet another letter and Focus for delivery

I delivered some of these letters and Focuses in my village this morning. Most houses got one of a variety of letters. Meanwhile, I can report on the rare appearance of a Conservative survey though, as with Labour, they have had to resort to paying for their literature to be delivered. It arrived through my door a few days ago. It seems as though delivery companies are doing well out of both the Conservatives and Labour in the 3 Whickham wards. I can understand the Conservatives resorting to paid delivery. This is after all a weak area for them. Labour on the other hand hold this constituency and have done so for 80 years. It is interesting therefore that their organisation is so depleted that they have to privatise their leaflet delivery.

My Blaydon campaign trail video for March

A slide show about my campaign in Blaydon constituency in March. The music is the track I use for my self-sufficiency broadcasts.

Visiting the Global newsroom

I was invited today to visit the Global Newsroom on the Team Valley to have a look around and learn about the company that produces Heart FM, Classic FM, LBC and Smooth Radio. Quite a fun time. I had a few questions about how they put their programmes together, based on my somewhat more limited experience of the technology. The tour started at 8.30am but it was worth getting out of bed early to feed the livestock at 7am. A few photos:

Happy birthday Cllr McClurey

A short break from campaigning last night. My ward colleague, Cllr John McClurey, turned 60 yesterday and he had a party for family, friends and politicos at Deanos Restaurant in Whickham.



John and Councillors Sonya Hawkins and Susan Craig.



My selfie with Sonya.
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Good time had by all but then we had to be back on campaigning. I got home at 10.30pm and was straight back on the laptop. I had a big election publication to finish

Green target in Gateshead?

I am reliably informed that the Greens in Gateshead are rather hopeful about their prospects in Saltwell ward in the local elections on 7th May. This is a strongly Labour area and a first glance would suggest the Greens have no chance of winning. Then consider the changing demographics and a suggestion that they could pick up some of the growing student vote there and the prospects change, though in my humble opinion not by a great deal. The Green ratings go from not-a-chance to very unlikely.

To stand a chance of winning, the Greens will need to have put in a sustained campaign in the ward over a long enough period to convert enough people to Greenery to overtake Labour. I don't have enough info from any of my sources to get a reliable picture of Green campaigning in Saltwell but if the Greens were being realistic (not a term that sits comfortably with that party), they should be looking to get a noticeable improvement in their vote this May in the hope they can build on it next year. They will also have to hope the small Green bubble doesn't burst nationally and their national leadership avoids any more brain fades. Don't hold your breath!

Hen pecked

I popped down to Church Green this morning to collect the large bag of weeds pulled from the flower beds last night. I managed to drag it into the land rover and took it off to the allotment to feed the hens. They had a major feast. And it saved the council having to dispose of the weeds.

Winning by taking the biscuit

Sunniside History Society meeting tonight. I've been a member for years and have missed only a handful of the monthly meetings in that time. With the election campaign into day 8 or 9 or whatever it is, I can now announce I am a winner.......of the History Society's monthly raffle, or rather of one of the 14 prizes. A rather nice box of biscuits. No doubt I'll burn off the extra calories by delivering more Focuses!

Weeding Whickham

We had a Planting Up Whickham maintenance event this evening. Down to Church Green at 6pm to weed the flower beds. All done in an hour. Everyone piled the weeds into a large sack which is still sitting on Church Green. I'll take the land rover down tomorrow morning to collect the contents. They'll be fed to my chickens.

Another Focus delivery

After a weekend of writing Focus leaflets and celebrating the 30th birthday of Focus in the Whickham area, today we went back into the ground war determined to deliver, errrrrr, yet more Focus newsletters. My colleagues kindly gave me the largest patch in the whole of Whickham, the Watergate Estate, complete with 370 doors. I did it in an hour and a half.

Happy birthday Focus - 30 years old

We had a bit of a party today. It is now 30 years since we first produced Focus in the Whickham area. It's the only regular newsletter produced by a political party in the area and it is widely respected by residents and universally despised by the Labour party. Hardly a Gateshead Council meeting goes by without a Labour councillor making a sneering comment about Focus. That suggests to me it is working well.

We had a cake to celebrate the 30 years of Focus. Eggs from our ducks were used to make it (we have a bit of a glut of them). And a crowd of us gathered in my front garden, between my land rover and my trailer, for the photos.





Here we are with Focuses old and new. I'm holding the first edition, dating back to 1985 when we were the SDP/Liberal Alliance. Cllr Sonya Hawkins, on the left, is holding the most recent edition which has just been delivered in Whickham (I still have a patch to do). Cllr Chris Ord is holding a copy of one of his ward Focuses from 1993, the year after he was first elected. He's looking a bit younger in the photo in that edition!

Incubating Easter Eggs

It's spring and that means our incubator comes back into use. The first eggs to go in are from our quails. We started incubating them in Good Friday. They are due to hatch 2 weeks today, in time for photos of cute chicks before polling day!



Meanwhile, a friend of mine hatched some of my hen eggs last week. So here is the exclusive, never-before published photo of the cute chicks taken on my phone after I finished delivering leaflets in Sunniside yesterday.

Whickham 20mph zone proposals

The scheme put forward by Highways officers at Gateshead Council for a 20 mph blanket zone in Whickham has now been officially advertised by the placing of legal notices.

People are asking us how they can make their comments, either to object to the scheme or to support it.

We recently wrote in our Focus newsletter that these need to be made in writing to Mike Barker, Legal and Corporate Services, Gateshead MBC, NE8 1HH.

However, we now also understand that Council officers will accept comments via email – MikeBarker@Gateshead.Gov.UK

All comments must be with the Council on or before 10th April 2015.

So far, representations have been made by Ward councillors that around 70% of the people who replied to our survey are in favour of a 20 mph zone around schools but opposed to a blanket zone. We know this because we have recently carried out an extensive survey amongst Whickham residents.

Other questions that residents have asked us are:

What is the reason for introducing the scheme? – it has been proposed as part of the West Gateshead Links to Schools project. The Council’s aim is to improve the journey to school taken by pedestrians and cyclists.

How is it being paid for? – the funding is coming from the Government, from the Department of Transport.

So if you have a view on this scheme, this is your chance to make your voice heard. To make sure that your comments are included, please send in your comments as soon as possible.

Photo: me, Cllr Chris Ord and Kevin McClurey on Front Street where Gateshead Council are installing a new crossing.

Taking rubbish from the North West

Gateshead Council had a scrutiny meeting recently to consider the issue of landfill in the west of the borough. There was a major incident last month in which high winds had blown a huge amount of rubbish from one site in particular, Blaydon Quarry, into neighbouring communities. At the meeting, the Environment Agency was questioned their response to Blaydon Quarry. One member, Paul Foy, claimed that the site was taking rubbish from Manchester. I don't think anyone would want Gateshead to take rubbish, cast offs and waste from the North West, or indeed anywhere else. Sadly, we have to as Gateshead Council has given planning consent in the past to landfill and we have to live with the consequence.

My argument is that putting rubbish into holes in the ground is a completely unsustainable way to deal with waste. We should all be working to reduce the amount of waste we produce. My non-recycling waste wheelie bin is filled only once every 6 weeks. Our recycling bin is put out for collection once a month. We no longer use the garden waste collection service. All organic waste is composted. Garden waste is wherever possible fed to the livestock. Paper is shredded for bedding for the poultry. We try to turn wherever possible our rubbish into a resource. Not everyone will be able to do this to the extent we do in our household, but we can each do our bit.

It was noticeable that when I saw the Blaydon Quarry landfill site last month, much of the windblown waste caught in trees, fences and shrubs nearby was plastic carrier bags. It's great news that Lib Dems in government have taken action to tackle the plastic bag blight by placing a levy on them. But the sooner we stop using them completely, the better.

Back in Swalwell

I joined our Whickham North Councillors in Swalwell last night for a bit of campaigning. Swalwell was home to me for 15 years. We lived in Napier Road, in two Tyneside flats knocked into the one terrace house. We moved from there to Swalwell 12 years ago but we thought it useful to get a photo in the street. I'm pictured above with local Lib Dem Councillors Chris Ord, Sonya Hawkins and Peter Craig.



We then headed down to Swalwell Church to have a look at the flower beds there. I helped plant them up last year with flowers donated by local allotment holders. As you can see, the bed now needs a bit of weeding. I'm a bit tied up at the moment to do that however!

Campaigning in Lamesley

A little bit of campaigning in Lamesley ward last night. I knocked on doors of some of those who would have been affected by opencast near Birklands had the plans been agreed last year. I led the successful battle against them and people I spoke to yesterday still remember my involvement. I am launching soon our eFocus for the Lamesley and Birtley wards so last night I was able to sign up a few more people to it. More about that soon.

Has my Labour opponent dumped the Labour manifesto?

Labour has made a tremendous fuss on social media in Blaydon about delivering their leaflet over the past few days. Dave Anderson, my Labour opponent, praises the "volunteers" who have been helping to deliver his literature. It's always good to thank people for volunteering their time. Perhaps Mr Anderson may wish to thank the staff of the delivery company which he forgot to mention who have been delivering his leaflet in the Whickham area of the constituency. As I was returning from feeding the goats and poultry yesterday morning, I watched a deliverer from a local delivery company, push the Labour leaflet, along with those for pizzas and gardening services, through my letter box. I understand from colleagues that the leaflet was still being delivered across the Whickham wards yesterday, though some did arrive in letter boxes at the end of last week. It seems however that a Twitter comment by Labour council candidate Chris McHugh last week was a bit premature. He announced that there had been "V positive feedback" from residents of the area to the leaflet, a comment made before it had arrived in the letter boxes of so many residents!

Anyway, I've read through the leaflet. It's stuffed full of the usual Lib-Dems-eat-your-babies-for-breakfast style allegations. But the lead story announces Dave Anderson is "delighted to wholeheartedly support the 38 Degrees campaign to repeal the Coalition's ... NHS reforms and to reinforce Labour's unwavering commitment." Commitment to what is not explained. Labour certainly aren't committed to a full repeal. Their policy is to cap the profits companies can make on NHS contracts, where the contract itself is valued at over £500,000. This is of course a gesture rather than a significant change. A company could easily pile up all sorts of overheads on the cost of a contract.

38 Degrees is demanding something different. They want an end to all private contracts. No NHS organisation would be able to buy in from the public sector. Quite how they will deal with contracts to buy drugs is left unanswered. Quite how the NHS will be able to provide dental services without buying them in from the thousands of private dental practices is an issue ignored by 38 Degrees. Who will build new hospital facilities without putting out contracts to private sector building companies is unexplained. Whatever the answers to these issues is, Labour do not support the end of NHS contracts going to the private sector. Mr Anderson is clearly at odds with his own party. Is he the Labour candidate in this election, or the 38 Degrees candidate?

Mass injuries to Labour councillors after being impaled on fence?

Full Council in Gateshead on Thursday 26th March included taking a final decision on the Gateshead local plan. This document sets the planning policies for the years ahead. Liberal Democrat Councillors have been in battle with the Council over the greenbelt. We argue that no land needs to be taken out of the greenbelt for house building. Labour on the other hand are arguing the opposite - they support calls to build on land at places such as Dunston Hill, Crawcrook, Ryton and so on.

When the draft plan was debated by Council last year, a number of Labour councillors voted against it. This was the biggest rebellion I have seen in my 28 years on Gateshead Council. In the wards affected by greenbelt loss, there was an attempt by the Labour party to portray themselves as the guardians of the greenbelt and that they were dead against building on it, at the same time as they were defending the local plan and its contents. We saw that in their election literature last year.

Whilst this smacks of fence sitting with a foot in both camps, how would these Labour councillors vote last Thursday? The answer is they didn't. Whilst we would expect some absences for perfectly good reason, Labour numbers were down by 21 on Thursday. There will be a variety of genuine explanations for many of the absence but the no-show of the great majority of Labour councillors from affected wards was very, very noticeable. Even the deputy mayor Alex Geddes, who I am pleased to say was in good health in the morning at the freemen ceremony which I also attended, was absent. I fear there has been a sudden outbreak of injuries caused by sitting for too long on the fence. All that rusty barbed wire, jagged fence posts and thorny brambles must have taken their toll.

I wish them all a return to good health as soon as possible and look forward to their speedy return to Gateshead Council meetings.

Everything's coming up roses

My first job to do today was to take photos at another Planting Up Whickham event, this time on Coniston Avenue, on the Lakes Estate. There is a rose bed on the entrance to the Estate and the group has decided to take on the planting and maintenance of it. This morning a group of residents did the work.





Cllr Peter Maughan was raised on the Estate and he planted a rose in memory of his father who died recently.

The group are taking on the on-going maintenance of the rosebed and as it is at the entrance to the Estate, it will be noticed by many people.

Community pub at Marley Hill

Last night we ran another community pub at Marley Hill Community Centre. The aim is to get young families in the early evening, hence the reason for assembling the children's play equipment. David and I ran the kitchen. I also sold my hen and duck eggs to raise funds for the community centre.



Whilst the event was popular with young families, we still need to work out a way to attract visitors in the later part of the evening, though there were still some families in when we were closing at 11pm. These are early days for the community pub but as it becomes more established, we will be looking to open more often than the final Saturday of the month that we do at the moment.

More deliveries

We had a mini action day in my ward yesterday to deliver 2000 letters and an equal number of Focuses. All done though the second patch I had to deliver was done this morning. The Focus is entirely about volunteering possibilities in the Whickham area. It's already been delivered in Whickham North and Whickham East and has resulted in a number of people coming forward to help local organisations and events.

Whickham Street Surgery

We held our street surgery in Whickham, outside the Library, yesterday morning. We got noticed - hardly surprising given the huge diamond corex posters we had with us. And we had a good number of people speak to us as well. It seems that people have been watching the videos we made of recent council meetings. One of them was in the eFocus on Friday so that got noticed. Someone mentioned they had watched the video of Labour Councillor John Eagle speaking in the council budget debate in which he made a sickening attack on me. The constituent is pondering on lodging an official complaint against him!

Whickham eFocus no. 94

The latest edition of eFocus for the Whickham area (number 94) has just been published and can be viewed on this link.

Freedom of the borough for cultural leaders

I had to be at the Sage yesterday morning to give a speech supporting the granting of the freedom of Gateshead to two people and an orchestra. It meant an earlier than usual feeding time for the livestock but the ceremony went well. Those being made freemen were Anthony Sargent, former director of the Sage through its early years, Lord (David) Puttnam, former film director and now leading figure in the North East's cultural renaissance, and the Royal Northern Sinfonia, represented by Bradley Creswick.



This was my first ceremonial event as Leader of the Opposition in Gateshead and thankfully, I made no gaffes or mistakes. I even had 5 Labour councillor and a Labour peer congratulate me on my speech! Inevitably, I had to get some photos to share with you:



Me and David Puttnam.



Me and Bradley Creswick.



Me and Anthony Sargent.

Our plans for Marley Hill

Marley Hill Community Centre, of which I am a trustee and member of the management committee, has a large amount of unused land on two sides of it. My plan is to turn it into a community garden and allotments. We have used some of the Local Community Fund, a small fund which councillors can use to support community activities, to draw up a feasibility study. There will be public consultation in the months ahead. There are restrictions on what we can do on the land as it is in greenbelt but we are working with the planners on this.

I took these photos on Tuesday after a meeting of the Marley Hill management committee where I explained to members where we are with the plans. There is still a long way to go but the wheels are starting to turn.

Envelope stuffing

Hooray! Over 3000 letters stuffed into envelopes recently and last night they were all bundled together in their delivery patches. They are all for my ward and delivery will take place in the next day or so. We are writing to a variety of people so the different letters had to be integrated together.

Visiting Dunston Staiths

On Tuesday, there was a ceremony to mark the opening of the Dunston Staiths after the completion of restoration work. I missed the speeches as I had to be at another meeting, but when I arrived, I managed to snap a few pictures, some of which I have included here. The Staiths are the biggest wooden structure in Europe though, sadly, it was damaged a few years ago by arsonists. Nevertheless, it's worth a visit.

Councillor Eagle's budget speech

Gateshead Labour Councillor John Eagle is a regular reader of this blog. Hardly a meeting goes by with his making a reference to it. He has supported some rather distasteful views in the past, backing a Facebook site that advocated the violent murder of Margaret Thatcher. I've put the whole of his speech that he made at last month's budget meeting onto YouTube. In it he employed a rather vile description of me. I'll leave it to readers to make their own judgement about this person.

My council tax speech to Gateshead Council

This is the video of my speech to Gateshead Council budget meeting on 26th February. I was still deputy leader then but was also leader elect. The election to replace Frank Hindle had taken place three days earlier. However, only we knew that! The leadership announcement was made the next day.

Gateshead decided to go for a 1.95% rise in council tax. We argued that there should be a freeze which would allow the council to claim a £900,000 grant from the government. A rise of 1.95% would bring in £1.4 million but lose the £900,000 grant. The net effect was to raise £500,000 and to reduce further the national taxes paid towards the cost of Gateshead's services.

Furthermore, over the past 2 years, Gateshead has spent an accumulated £5 million less than was agreed in the council budgets. £5 million more raised from council taxpayers than was needed. The money has been accumulated in reserves that now stand at £16 million. This rather goes against the grain of Labour's fake anger about the cuts. They set a budget which they claimed had too many cuts and then managed to spend less than the amount they already claimed was too low. And their crocodile tears shed over the loss of government grant shows just what a bunch of hypocrites they are. They were offered money and they turned it down. I bet that won't be appearing in their election leaflets.

Coming up this week

I am hurtling towards yet another busy week. As well as lots of election activities (I won't elaborate on them as I'm not going to give all those Labour gremlins who read my blog an advanced look at our plans, though we do have lots of letters to deliver in my ward), I have group on Monday (my second as leader), cabinet, Dunston Staiths renovation event and Marley Hill Community Centre management committee on Tuesday, scrutiny committee on Wednesday to look at landfill issues, a freeman ceremony, a primary school visit to the Civic Centre and full council on Thursday and a visit to Global News on Friday. Meanwhile, on Saturday, I will be helping to run the community pub at Marley Hill Community Centre.

Those being granted freeman of Gateshead on Thursday are David Putnam (film producer), Anthony Sargent (former director of the Sage Art Gallery) and the Royal Northern Sinfonia. Gone have the days when I could turn up at these events and relax whilst others did the hard work. As Leader of the Opposition, I am giving a speech welcoming the honours. If anyone has any good lines I can include, please get in touch!

Gone with the wind

I headed to Blaydon on Saturday morning to meet up with Cllr Christine McHatton and Mark Groves from the local action group that tackles the on-going issue of the problem of landfill sites in the area. There has been a huge amount of windblown rubbish flying around local communities recently and people are quite rightly fed up with the problem. We had a look at 2 sites - Path Head and Blaydon Quarry.







On Gateshead Council we will shortly be having a scrutiny committee meeting with the Environment Agency to discuss the landfill issues. With more and more rubbish being diverted into recycling streams or converted to electricity, the question has to be asked, isn't it time to phase out landfill completely?

Lib Dems in Blaydon constituency have been fighting landfill for over 20 years. I remember helping Ione Rippeth, who retired 3 years ago as councillor for Ryton, to campaign against landfill back in the early 1990s. We simply cannot keep dumping waste into holes in the ground. We have to look at ways of converting waste into something useful. We can each play a role in reducing waste as well. We have successfully cut our waste to a low level in my house. Our general waste wheelie bin is put out for collection only once every one to two months. Our recycling wheelie bin is put out for collection once a month at most. We have decided not to take part in the garden waste collection scheme because all our garden waste will be composted. If we each do our bit, we can cut down on the damage we each do to the environment.