The Lib Dem Focus Team in Low Fell have published their latest eFocus. Key issues covered include:
I am one of the volunteers for Planting Up Whickham who helps look after the flowerbeds on Whickham Front Street and especially on Church Green. Two weeks ago we stripped out all the winter plants from the beds and yesterday we planted up the beds with the summer flowers. I captured both events on the video above.
In 2016, the plans for devolution in the North East collapsed. In what was effectively a palace coup, Labour's Martin Gannon seized the leadership of Gateshead Council from Mick Henry who had been prepared to sign up to the deal. He killed off the deal and North and South of Tyne went their separate ways. 7 wasted years later, Martin is now backing the new devolution plan which is currently on the table. All 7 councils have to sign up to the plan and Gateshead's signature has already been added to the dotted line.
I described the current package as "new". In reality, it is nothing of the sort. It is the old deal dusted down. According to Martin however, it is "completely different" to the collapsed plans of 2016. He points to the forthcoming transport deal as being the big issue that makes this deal a new one. The reality is that the transport deal came along after 2016 and had we had devolution back then, we would have had the transport funding assured (the funding is based on having an elected regional mayor.) So, the deal we have now is a near carbon copy of what we could have had 7 years ago.
The only significant change during Martin's 7 wasted years is the way the mayor is elected. The government have changed elections from the supplementary vote to first past the post for all elected mayors. This applies across the whole of England so this is not a change specifically for the North East. So come on Martin, if the "new" deal" is "completely different" to the old one, tell us what these differences are.
Or shut up.......
Finally, this will be the first same sex marriage ever for a Gateshead Councillor. Something to celebrate!
I'm not sure many people will be shedding a tear over the announcement by Dominic Raab that he will be retiring as an MP at the next general election. His conduct in government has not been above reproach. His recent forced resignation from government is a good example of this. Yet I can't help but think that the prospect of defeat at the hands of the Lib Dems at the forthcoming general election has been a deciding factor in Raab's decision to jump overboard from the sinking Tory ship. He has a majority of only 2743, (4.4%). It is a top target for the Lib Dems. I guess Lib Dem campaigners will currently be saying. "General election? Bring it on!"
Photo above: Leanne and Paul in their seats in the council chamber. Below, Lib Dem Leader Cllr Ron Beadle welcomes Leanne and Paul to Gateshead Civic Centre.
Gateshead Council tenants' satisfaction rating has gone over the cliff, according to a report considered at the recent scrutiny committee that covers housing. The drop is staggering. In 2015, the rating stood at 88.5%. Now it has crashed to just 44%. The survey of 1086 tenants reveals that people are not happy with repairs, anti-social behaviour, street repairs and cleaning.
Gateshead Labour are normally quick off the blocks to blame everyone but themselves for anything that is not good news, despite their 50 years continuously in office in the borough. Expect the usual - blame the Lib Dems in Coalition for everything that is bad. They may have a problem however. The satisfaction rating at the end of the Coalition was stratospheric. Clearly tenants were happier then than now.
Oddly, however, Labour have been rather quiet about this bad news story. Maybe they are busy licking their wounds after their poor performance in the local elections in Gateshead earlier this month. So I thought I would do a hunt around to see if there has been any response from Gateshead Labour to their poor performance on tenant satisfaction. Where better to start than Cllr John Adams? He is, after all, cabinet member for housing!
I looked at his Twitter account and discovered Cllr Adams had time to tell the world his views, hopes and ambitions for the Eurovision Song Contest. Alas, nothing about the poor tenant satisfaction rating, even though he is responsible for housing in the cabinet.
Perhaps Cllr Adams, who was a former special adviser to the Blair government, may wish to enlighten us to his views as to why, under his management, tenants are much less happy with the service than when the Coalition was in power!
So, the local elections in Gateshead are over and we've all had time to compare the size of our votes/majorities etc. So here are a few of the record breakers:
We had our group annual meeting on Tuesday. Attendance was modestly bigger than previously, following the election of Leanne Brand in Saltwell and Paul Elliott in Birtley (both gains from Labour). Ron Beadle was re-elected Leader and therefore Leader of the Opposition on Gateshead Council. Chris Ord was re-elected Deputy Leader. Sonya Hawkins was re-elected Secretary and Daniel Duggan was re-elected Group Chair. I was re-elected media officer.
I filmed this last week on Wednesday to Friday, from the last full day of campaigning in the local elections to the count on Friday. It also includes my failure to predict the Lib Dem gain in Saltwell and my visit to the A&E at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead at 2am, 4 hours after the polls closed! Most of the video is set in Birtley where I managed the campaign that saw a Lib Dem gain from Labour. There's a bit at the Sunderland count and then the Gateshead count.
Despite not having time to rehearse the talk, it was well received. The first coronation we looked at was that of William I. As Conqueror he led a brutal occupation. On the day of his coronation 25th December 1066 (he was declared King in the morning) while the ceremony was being held in Westminster Abbey, his guards outside the building thought there was an insurrection and burnt down nearby homes. The result was an Abbey full of smoke with many of those at the ceremony fleeing in fear. It was not a good start.
The coronation of Richard I (the Lionheart) was one of those dark spots in our nation's history when members of the Jewish community arrived to offer gifts to their king but ended up being beaten and flogged.
In 1216, with part of England under French occupation and a civil war underway, 9 year old Henry III was hurriedly crowned king on his father, King John's death. Neither the Archbishop of York or of Canterbury were available to carry out the service and the crown was missing (either lost in The Wash by John or sold off during the civil war). Instead, they crowned him with a gold corolla belonging to his mother Isabella. The Barons began to shift their support back to him and the French left.
We looked at a number of other coronations but the most interesting one was that of George IV. It was the most expensive and extravagant coronation ever (it cost 20 times that of his father 60 years previously) and the most noticeable event at it was the refusal to allow Caroline of Brunswick to attend. As George's wife she was Queen but George and the government were determined not to let her into the Abbey to be crowned. George and Caroline had been separated for years but the marriage was never annulled. Caroline died 2 weeks later.
The next talk I am giving is about photos from the Francis Newman collection. See the slide below for more information.
The Lib Dem Focus Team in Low Fell, Gateshead, have already published their first eFocus since the local elections last week. It is entirely about the result of the contest in Low Fell. You can read eFocus in this link.
In the local elections, we had 2 targets for gains in Gateshead - Birtley and Saltwell. I managed the Birtley campaign and Ron Beadle managed the Saltwell campaign. Ron had the more demanding job for a number of reasons. Firstly, the Labour majority was bigger (213); secondly the Labour fightback began last year rather than being last minute, and thirdly Labour's candidate (and defending councillor) was an improvement on last year.
My involvement in the Saltwell campaign was limited because I was running Birtley (and my own ward campaign in Whickham South and Sunniside). I therefore had no feel for what was happening on the ground though in our campaign meetings we had regular updates on how campaigns were going on the ground. Given Labour's lead in the polls nationally, a presentable Labour candidate and a history of the ward never before returning anything other than Labour councillors, I was less optimistic about Saltwell. I arrived at the count expecting a Labour hold.
The 2nd last ward to complete its count was mine! Over half the electors in my ward are postal voters and we have a relatively high turnout. Even with 2 more staff to count the votes in my ward, it was 2nd last to declare. Only my ward colleagues Marilynn Ord and Jonathan Mohammed were there for the declaration. Everyone else in the hall was at the Saltwell count. With my result declared, I headed over to the chief exec to sign the necessary papers. As I was doing so I head a huge roar. I turned to see lots of people with yellow rosettes jumping up and down. I hurriedly finished signing the papers and hurried over to the Saltwell count. Lib Dem Leanne Brand had won with a majority of 58.
So 2 gains in Gateshead, bringing out total to 17, facing 49 Labour councillors.
Finally, I am saddened for the defeated Labour Councillor, Robert Waugh, who is the current deputy mayor. He has always treated me with courtesy and politeness. He is still in his 20s so there is time for a comeback, though possibly not in Saltwell.
As the most marginal ward last year, my concern was that the national poll ratings would boost Labour's local vote. All the feedback during the campaign however showed we were doing well. We were assisted by a rather lacklustre Labour campaign which woke up to the threat from us only after the postal votes had gone out (and typically about two thirds of those voting in local elections in Gateshead are postal voters). By then it was too late for Labour to turn around the situation.
So when we arrived at the count we were confident that Paul would win and my expectation was of a majority of about 150. So a majority of 456 was a pleasant surprise.
Labour's losing councillor was Catherine Davison. In many ways I'm sorry she is no longer a member of the council. While our politics may differ, she has always been friendly, pleasant and approachable. Sadly, when you have winners, you also have losers. I wish Catherine all the best for the future.
Some jobs still have to be done, elections or not. In the afternoon I returned to our farm to milk Penelope, one of our goats, only to have the milking area invaded by a ewe and 4 lambs.
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It seems the good people of Whickham South and Sunniside are not yet ready to ditch me as their councillor. On Thursday they re-elected me with 64% of the vote. Thank you to all 1829 people who voted for me and commiserations to my opposing candidates. This term of office is for only 3 years, not the usual 4, as we have boundary changes and all out elections in 2026, by which time I will have done 39 years on Gateshead Council.
I have been reliably informed that the Conservatives used a commercial delivery company to distribute their election leaflet in Winlaton and High Spen ward of Gateshead Council. That's not the interesting point. Rather, the response the leafletters have been getting from residents has not been positive with many turned away from people's homes. It seems that the good people of the ward are not as happy with the Conservatives as they used to be. The ward is the only one in Gateshead where the Conservatives had put in any effort and in recent years stood a chance (not a big chance) of taking the seat from Labour, winning their first representation on the council in 31 years. It looks like the Conservatives' hopes have evaporated, leaving Gateshead to continue as a Tory free zone for another year.
Sam Grist works for Liz Twist, MP for Blaydon. I am reminded of the Labour election attacks on me 20 years ago for working in politics! But we won't let a bit of Labour hypocrisy get in the way of wishing Sam all the best with the election campaign and I am looking forward to meeting him for the first time at the count on Friday.
Sam has something of an interesting background. A quick search of Linkedin reveals that Sam has a long history of working for Labour. This quote caught my attention:
"Having helped with bespoke correspondence for The Leader Of The Opposition, I went on to take a lead on several different correspondence based projects."
This was dated Feb 2016 to Dec 2018. And who was Leader of the Opposition at the time? None other than Jeremy Corbyn! I didn't see any reference to that in his leaflet!
Another quick search revealed Sam's history of standing in local elections goes beyond the borders of Gateshead. He was also a Labour candidate in the local elections in 2021 and 2022 in Newcastle. I haven't looked any further back in time but hopefully his record of standing and not winning continues south of the Tyne!
See you on Friday Sam!
The latest edition of eFocus for the Whickham area (no. 182) was published recently. Issues covered include:
So I applied for a postal vote and joined the 51% of voters in my ward who are already voting by post. I voted for that Wallace bloke. Ballot paper was completed and posted today.
Low Fell Lib Dems recently published their latest eFocus. Edition 121 includes:
I recently ran a competition to name one of my lambs. Members of the public were invited to submit proposed names for this little lady (actually, not so little now) via local residents' Facebook sites. We boiled all the suggestions down to a shortlist of 3 which we announced at the Whickham Library Easter fair on 1st April. Click on the video to find out the 3 names and which one was chosen.
Yesterday's welcome accession of Finland to NATO membership reminded me of an incident last year, on the eve of the Putin invasion of Ukraine. While most of us in the West supported NATO's warnings to Russia that an aggressive attack was not acceptable, some within the political establishment were not so warm towards Ukraine. 11 Labour MPs signed a letter by the leftwing group "Stop the War" which questioned NATO's legitimacy and accused the alliance of "eastward expansion". One of those MPs was Ian Mearns, who represents my home town of Gateshead.
Ian's political standpoint on NATO lasted as long as the phone call he received from Labour Whip Alan Campbell. The rebel alliance were told that they would lose the whip of they did not back down. The eleven signatures rapidly disappeared from the letter. Quite a screeching u-turn.
Nearly 14 months on from the start of the invasion and I am wondering if Ian still thinks it was a good idea to appease Putin, or, as a Labour source said at the time, "You can be a mouthpiece for the Kremlin or a Labour MP. But not both."
I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to visit some of the historic sites of York over the weekend when I was there to attend conference. So here is my video of my trip to the National Railway Museum. I may be too young to remember the steam age but I recall seeing the new Intercity 125s on the East Coat line running through Gateshead in the late 70s and early 80s.
Financial institutions are back in the news yet again, and all for the wrong reasons. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has sent shockwaves around financial markets worldwide. Fortunately the damage in the UK was limited. HSBC snapped up the SV Bank's British subsidiary allowing investors to get access to their money. If only Scottish Widows (SW) could allow the same.
SW used to be one of the most respectable financial institutions in the country. And then it was bought up by Lloyds Group. For many years, it continued to work well. For the past year or so however it has gone into meltdown. It's customer relations are at best shambolic and if you are expecting to get your pension or savings policy out of them, there are delays running to months. Try phoning them and you can often wait over an hour to get through. Then you discover they have lost documents or they send the wrong documents to customers. It is thought that up to 10,000 customers have money trapped in SW.
There is a support group on Facebook on which customers have posted about their problem with SW. It all makes terrible reading for SW. People can't get to their savings to pay for partners/family members in residential care. Relatives of people who have passed away cannot get access to pensions and policies to pay for funerals. Pension funds are supposed to be paid within a few days of a claim being lodged. Thousands of claimants are waiting months rather than days.
When my brother Andrew died, we lodged a claim on his pension with SW and was accepted. 9 months later and SW have still not paid up. So I can speak from personal experience on how appalling the service is at Scottish Widows. This company must be one of the worst run in the country but why on earth are Lloyds Group allowing one of their subsidiaries to behave in such an appalling manner?
A new group of volunteers is in the process of being set up in Sunniside, this time to take on the job of planting up the village. Called Planting Up Sunniside, it will be based roughly on Planting Up Whickham. The second meeting of the group was held tonight in the Travellers. I was there to give my advice and help. I also answered lots of questions about other completely different issues.
Happy birthday Michael Caine, 90 today. He was the star of one of my favourite films - "Get Carter" - based in part and filmed in Gateshead. It is a delight to watch, just to spot the buildings and scenes which are no longer there. The film made the Gateshead Multi-Storey Car Park into a cult icon. This hideous monstrosity of 1960s Brutalism was demolished in 2010. I filmed the video about in 2008 when I was given access to the building and capture a number of views of Gateshead and Newcastle which can now only be viewed with a drone.
BTW, one of my other favourite films in "The Italian Job", also staring Michael Caine.
The Deputy Mayor of Gateshead Robert Waugh made an interesting claim recently. At the Council's budget meeting he sat on his hands when it came to the vote on our amendment calling for £1.4 million to be used from reserves to keep threatened leisure centres open long enough to find community groups that can take on the running of them. This proposal is supported by the group that is campaigning to keep Gateshead Leisure Centre open. Cllr Waugh came in for some heavy criticism for his failure to vote for the amendment from members of the campaign group and residents generally. Cllr Waugh's response was to claim that as Deputy Mayor, he could not vote at council meetings.
His claim is frankly a load of rubbish. There is nothing in the Gateshead Council constitution which prevents the mayor or the deputy mayor generally from voting at full council meetings. For years now I've seem mayor after mayor and deputy mayor after deputy mayor voting in the council chamber. So come on Robert, have an exciting evening at home, just you and the constitution. Spend a bit of time together getting to know each other so you can avoid any further similar claims.
Last week I paid a visit to Leyburn in North Yorkshire. The reason for the visit was to attend a funeral of Mary, who was David's mother's brother's wife's sister. It was an opportunity to meet up with David's relatives who we hadn't seen in person since before the pandemic.
The interesting point about Leyburn is that I have visited it before though it was about 34 years ago. The occasion was the Richmond by-election caused by the appointment of Leon Brittan as a European Commissioner. It was an absurdly long campaign, lasting months and months. The Conservative candidate was William Hague but the "continuing SDP" muddied the waters by fielding a candidate, Mike Potter, who performed remarkably well, coming second and in the process, saving the Conservatives from defeat. Months later the Owenite SDP sank without a trace.
At the time I was a PhD student at Newcastle University and over many weekends we took a minibus full of students to deliver a vast tonnage of leaflets in the constituency. Leyburn was one of the villages we delivered. It had not changed much in the past few decades.
Richmond has now produced 2 Conservative leaders: Hague and Rishi Sunak. I'm not sure whether that is a plus or a negative for the constituency.
The latest eFocus for the Whickham area was published tonight. Issues covered include:
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Photo - me, Ron Beadle (new Lib Dem Leader in Gateshead) and Paul Gibson.
What neither of us realised was that the concert had been postponed. The first I knew of this was the arrival of the new tickets a couple of weeks ago. I decided to go to the concert, as much out of respect to Richard as anything else. A great time had by all. I just wish Richard had been there to enjoy it.
I had been concerned recently that Gateshead Labour Councillor Angela Douglas had lost her voice. Angela is the Cabinet member whose portfolio covers leisure centres. She is therefore at the heart of the controversy about the proposed closures of Gateshead Leisure Centre and Birtley Swimming Centre. Strangely enough, she has been rather quiet about the proposals. Yes, she moved the original report at Cabinet back in October which kicked off the consultation on proposed closures. But when I turned up for an interview with BBC Look North about the proposed closures, she was nowhere to be seen. The BBC told me that they had made repeated attempts to contact her but had not been able to elicit a response. Council Leader Martin Gannon had to do the interview instead.
Labour then held a public meeting in the autumn about the proposed closures and yet again, Cllr Douglas was absent. Martin was there however to fill the void.
In January, when her report came to cabinet, she had nothing to say. This is quite remarkable given the controversy and the partial shredding of the recommendations which had not gone down well the night before at the Labour group meeting. Poor Martin Gannon yet again had to pick up the reins on this at Cabinet.
So it was such a pleasure to hear Angela's voice again on Thursday at the Council's budget meeting. She didn't give a speech (despite much of the debate being about her portfolio) but she did shout at the Lib Dem group when Opposition Leader Ron Beadle called for a named vote on our budget amendment. And then outside the chamber, while the Lib Dem group were getting photos taken, she raised her voice giving her view loudly on her interpretation on what the Lib Dems had not voted for in the Budget meeting.
It's great to hear her vocal chords back in action. And I look forward to hearing her say something, indeed anything, on the issue that is so central to her portfolio.
David Goldwater will be the speaker at the next Sunniside History Society meeting on Wednesday 1st March at 7pm. He will be speaking about recent excavations at Roman Vindolanda in Northumberland but will also be talking about the nearby fort of Magna at Carvoran. The meeting is at Sunniside Club, £10 for society members, £2 for visitors. All welcome.
Calvin Lawson was the great hope of Labour in their failed attempt to wrest control of Low Fell ward, Gateshead, in last year's local elections from the Lib Dems. Alas, now he seems to have disappeared from the radar screen. Insiders informed us last year that Low Fell had not been his first choice when he tried and failed to get selected for Birtley ward. Other insiders told us that the Labour Low Fell branch selection meeting in January 2023 had to be abandoned as no candidates were forthcoming. We have since heard that a candidate from Bridges ward has been parachuted in.
So where is Mr Lawson? Has he thrown in the towel and decided to spend his time on other activities? Has he done what so many in Labour are doing - giving up while Keir Blair-Mark-2 Starmer opens the exit door for all those pining after Jeremy Corbyn? Or is he hoping for selection elsewhere?
Frankly, I doubt many will care.
I was invited by residents to attend a meeting tonight in the Traveller's Rest in Sunniside. They want to set up a group that aims to plant up the village and keep it tidy. I was there to speak about the experiences of setting up and being part of a similar group in Whickham. My advice was to walk before trying to run - start with a limited number of objectives and grow to take on more over time. All in all, a very useful meeting and hopefully another voluntary group in the making.
I was the guest speaker at the U3A meeting in Sunniside Club last week. I turned up with my laptop to give a talk on what history taught me about self-sufficiency. The problem was that I had actually been booked to give my talk about the Washingwell Roman fort. Fortunately, my error was rectified as I had the Roman fort presentation on my laptop. A quick switch of files and problem solved. The talk itself went down well. The self-sufficiency talk is not wasted. I have been booked to give it later this year by another group.
My next speaking engagement is on Wednesday at 1.30pm when I will be talking to the U3A at Sunniside Social Club. I will be talking about what history has taught me about self-sufficiency. So that means two of my passions in one go! I will be giving the same talk later this year to Sunniside History Society. The Powerpoint presentation is ready. I will give it one further rehearsal tonight.
Sunniside History Society met on Wednesday last week. We were expecting a talk on 17th century Newcastle but the speaker at the last moment was unable to get to the meeting. Plan B was put into operation. It was a video of the Tanfield railway from Pontop Pike to the Dunston Staiths. As people had turned up to hear about the history of Newcastle, I also gave an impromptu talk about the Lort Burn, one of the lost rivers of Newcastle. I will be producing a history video about it later this year so my research on the river was incomplete. Nevertheless, I was able to talk without notes for about 20 minutes and then had quite a wide-ranging discussion about the Lort Burn and how it affected the development of central Newcastle.
We are hearing murmurings of dissatisfaction from within Labour and suggestions that rivals are circling. Time to go Martin? Come and join me on the backbenches where we could both become grumpy old men heckling the front benches. We could be the Waldorf and Statler of Gateshead Council!
Just published tonight - edition 179 of eFocus for the Whickham area. Issues covered include the delayed decision on leisure centre closures, council budget, Metro service suspension and my retirement as Lib Dem group leader. You can read eFocus on this link.
Earlier this month, Gateshead Council's all-Labour cabinet debated the recently announced devolution proposals for the North East at a specially convened meeting. Actually, "debated" is probably too strong a word to use. Leader of the Council Martin Gannon said a few words and Cllr John McElroy asked a question about consultation. But all the other Cabinet members remained silent.
Seven years ago the North East looked set to go ahead with a devolution settlement. The seven council leaders accepted it but before long, Gateshead was walking away. For a while, it looked as though Gateshead was going to be the hole in the North East devolution Polo mint. A palace coup by Labour saw the then Gateshead Leader Mick Henry leaving his post and his old rival Martin Gannon seizing the position for himself. The devolution settlement fell apart completely when the Labour run authorities in Sunderland, South Tyneside and Co Durham joined Gateshead is withdrawing from the agreement. Labour divisions and bitter infighting in the North East meant the region went to the back of the queue for devolution and whatever resources go with it. Meanwhile, North Tyneside, Newcastle and Northumberland went for a Mini-Me version of devolution and had the misfortune of seeing Jamie Driscoll elected as the first mayor.
Back to the recent cabinet meeting and I asked what the difference was between the 2016 and 2023 versions of devolution. In my view the current version is a near carbon copy of what was previously on offer. A rather rambling reply came from Martin Gannon who mentioned something about transport funding in 2019. I called it 7 wasted years, a point reported by the local media.
I caught the whole of the meeting on video. Judge for yourself whether what's on offer is what we were previously offered or is something new.
I had planned to be in London today (Sunday), returning on Tuesday. The intention was to go to the Lib Dem History Group at the National Liberal Club on Monday and visit a few museums as well. Alas, the best laid plans have a tendency to crash and burn. My time is needed on the farm. We are planning to buy some new milking goats in February and we need to build a milking shed. None of our other goats are milking at the moment and in the autumn we converted our milking shed into a henhouse as avian flu restrictions require all poultry to be caged. The new milking goats are a bit unplanned but the need to build a new shed outbids the desire to get to London, sadly.
There was an unusual incident at the last Gateshead Council cabinet meeting in December. Lib Dem Deputy Leader Ron Beadle put forward a proposal for council tenants to have more control over housing repairs. My experience of Labour in Gateshead is that they normally reject any ideas or proposals we put forward. This time however, Cabinet member for housing, and former special adviser to the Blair government, John Adams, welcomed Ron's proposal as a good idea worth exploring further. The Lib Dems are ready to return the compliment. All we need to do is wait for Cllr Adams to put forward a good idea himself. So come on John, don't keep us waiting!
Today I announced my retirement as Leader of the Liberal Democrat group and Leader of the Opposition on Gateshead Council. It will take effect from the end of the full council meeting on Thursday 26th January. The group will choose our new leader on Monday 23rd January. I have been leader for 8 years but following the deaths of my brother Andrew and my closest friend Richard, I have had to look afresh at where I am with my own life. Andrew was 59 when he died. Richard was only 49. I had been Richard's carer for many years. Both passed away at relatively young ages.
I was first elected to Gateshead Council 36 years ago and many plans I had for my life were shelved. While some of them have since been dusted down and put into operation - especially our self-sufficiency project - many of our projects either still sit on the shelf or are running at half speed. Andrew and Richard have shown me that time is running out for me to clear the shelf and get all the things I wanted done. So, I am retiring as group leader though I intend remaining as councillor for Whickham South and Sunniside until such time as my constituents don't want me any more.
Last year we added another 15 acres to our farm. It requires a great deal of work to make it productive. I also have numerous speaking engagements with local organisations about local history, and a long list of local history videos I am planning to produce. And of course, sometime this year I will be getting married. I may be retiring as Leader, but 2023 will still be a very busy year for me.
Lib Dem Deputy Leader in Gateshead, Ron Beadle (pictured above with his wife Shakun), was yesterday declared cancer free. He was able to ring the bell at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to celebrate the fantastic news. Well done Ron.
My 2nd history talk of the week will be taking place this afternoon, 2.30pm at Sunniside Church. The meeting is for residents who are suffering from loneliness. I will be speaking about the Roman fort at Washingwell, Whickham. I first gave a talk on this issue in October to the Mothers' Union and then a couple of weeks later to Sunniside History Society. Next month I will be speaking to the U3A in Whickham about what history taught me about becoming self-sufficient. Busy times!
The latest eFocus from the Low Fell Lib Dem team was published today. Issues covered include:
I have just finished putting together a talk on the Tanfield bridlepath which runs from the Tanfield Steam Railway in Sunniside to the Dunston Staiths. The railway which ran along it serving the local mines closed in 1962. The route however is peppered with history. The railway used a gravity incline system for moving the full coat wagons to the Teams where it was loaded onto ships. The same gravity system returned the empty wagons to the mines.
The talk is at 7pm at Sunniside Club, £1 for Sunniside History Society members, £2 for non members.
Happy new year everyone. For Croatia, it is goodbye to the Kuna and hello Euro. Go back a decade and those hostile to the EU and the Euro were predicting the collapse of the Euro because of the Greek crisis. A decade on and the Euro has grown to be a currency in even wider use. No collapse to make the sceptics smile. The pound however has not fared well. We may not be at the historically low level of September when the markets responded to the mad, unfunded tax cuts of the short lived Truss government, but we came close to the event horizon that could have sucked the pound and the economy into a black hole. Back in 2015 when I last visited the USA, the pound bought $1.50. It is now worth $1.20. We are within a zone which could see parity between the pound and dollar. This is hardly an endorsement of British exceptionalism. If the government can't fix the economy, there is a serious danger the pound will be worth less than the dollar. And that will not be good news for the UK.
Earlier this year, the Boundary Commission came up with a draft set of proposals for new parliamentary constituencies. In Gateshead there was a straightforward proposal for 2 constituencies, both wholly within Gateshead. The new constituencies would retain the names of the two existing constituencies - Blaydon and Gateshead. Under the existing boundaries, 2 Gateshead wards are in Jarrow constituency so the change to two constituencies wholly within the borough were accepted by both Labour and Lib Dems as administration would be easier both within the council for electoral purposes and within local political parties for candidate selection and local campaigning purposes.
Then in November came the revised proposals and they are radically different for Gateshead. We end up with one constituency wholly within Gateshead (called Gateshead and Whickham) and 3 partial constituencies: Consett and Blaydon, Jarrow and Washington.
Labour's response is rather telling. They are deeply hostile to the inclusion of Whickham in the name of the constituency that is wholly within Gateshead and they are deeply unhappy with the creation of this constituency though they accept that it is too late to change the proposed boundaries. I wonder whether or not the hostility to both the boundaries and the name have anything to do with Whickham being represented wholly by 9 Lib Dem councillors on Gateshead Council. The inclusion of Whickham in the constituency name draws voters' attention to the possibility that this new constituency could be winnable for the Lib Dem. We were only a few percent behind Labour in the votes cast last May in the local elections within the new constituency. To make matters worse for Labour, the new constituency also includes Low Fell, a strong Lib Dem ward, plus the neighbouring ward of Saltwell where we were close to taking the ward in May.
Having stated they want to axe Whickham, their alternative name was "Gateshead Central". We argued that Whickham should be retained as it is the biggest town in Gateshead borough outside the urban core.
Labour argued that "Gateshead" should appear in other constituency names as well. They called for the Jarrow constituency to be renamed Jarrow and Gateshead East. I agreed that the name needed to be changed but Labour were not willing to accept my alternative of Jarrow and Felling. As I pointed out at council cabinet, the 4 Gateshead wards going into the constituency were previously part of the Felling Urban District. Labour were having none of it!
Labour also proposed "Washington and Gateshead South" for the new Washington constituency as 2 wards from the borough will be joined to it. But I put forward "Washington and Birtley" as an alternative. After all, most of the voters in the 2 wards actually live in Birtley. I suggested that if you asked people from Birtley where they lived, the answer would be Birtley, not Gateshead South.
Interestingly, Labour did not apply the same thinking to the new Consett and Blaydon constituency. At the cabinet meeting where this was discussed, I pointed out the inconsistency in Labour's approach: why weren't they calling for this constituency to be called Consett and Gateshead West? I didn't get an answer but shortly afterwards they quietly changed their position and called for Blaydon to be stripped out and Gateshead West to be inserted instead. It would be interesting to know whether Liz Twist, Labour MP for the current Blaydon constituency, supports scrapping the historic name of her constituency.
There will be 28 constituencies in the North East once these changes have gone through. Somehow, Labour in Gateshead expect Gateshead to appear in the name of 4 constituencies, in effect, one in seven constituencies to be named after Gateshead. Labour argue that in the 50 years that Gateshead Council have existed, residents have developed a strong sense of unity towards Gateshead. Whether or not this is the case is irrelevant because the constituencies are to elect people to Parliament. And interestingly, there are 22 wards here each electing 3 councillors to Gateshead Council. Not a single one has the name of Gateshead in it.
Anyway, below is the recording of the debate at cabinet on the new constituencies and the names.
The latest edition of Low Fell eFocus was published last week. Key issues covered include:
You can read eFocus on this link.
On Wednesday last week, I stood down as a trustee of Whickham Voluntary Library. I have been a trustee since the voluntary organisation was set up 5 years ago to take over the running of the Library from Gateshead Council. The reason for this retirement is simple: I need to rationalise what I am doing as I am spreading myself too thinly. I need to concentrate on fewer tasks. In addition, having purchased our new farm earlier this year, there is even more demand on my time. I have enjoyed being a Library trustee but I will continue to support their work (and provide goats for their Christmas and Easter craft markets!)
Whickham Library fair was held yesterday and I brought Ramesses with me. He is one of our billy goats and he was there to be cunningly disguised as a reindeer and attract donations for the Library and visitors to the event. He certainly got a great deal of interest (and lots of carrots). The video shows it all.
Gateshead Council are to appoint historian and former resident of the borough, David Olusoga, as a freeman. The ceremony will take place in February. He presented the tv series "Civilisations" and is the author of a number of books. You can read more on this link.
I recorded the debate at the Gateshead Council cabinet meeting on 25th October. The cabinet took the decision to consult on the impact of closing Gateshead and Dunston Leisure Centres with the option to close Birtley Sports Hall as well. This was the meeting where it was revealed that Gateshead Council had not applied for levelling up funding from the government but instead has applied for funding for the Gateshead Quays conference centre.
