Progressive future for Hexham Constituency

There seem to have been a lot of anniversaries recently. 100 years since the partition of Ireland, 40 years since the Brixton Riots, 10 years since Amy Winehouse died.  I don't remember the partition of Ireland in 1921! But my Dad used to talk about it a lot. He was born in Tipperary in 1921. Imagine being born then, there. Just when things were really kicking off in Ireland. If you haven't come across it, there's a weekly programme on BBC sounds called "Year '21". It's a programme which charts the history of 1921 in Ireland, week by week. It's a fascinating listen. Presenting the history from different perspectives. There's contributions from the descendants of some of the key participants. There was one episode which referred back to an incident in Dublin in 1920, which I remember my Dad talking about when I was young. It was the original "Bloody Sunday". There was a coordinated assassination of a number of British intelligence agents i...

I was on holiday last week - in Scotland. Very lucky with the weather. It was very noticeable that the local supermarket had a lot of empty shelves. This week that issue has been in the news more widely - the perfect storm of staff being off due to rising numbers of COVID infections, either because they are infected themselves or have been a close contact. Couple that with the general shortage of HGV drivers and you realise how precarious our food supply is. Despite that there were apples from Chile and avocados from Peru on offer in the supermarket! Does make you wonder if that's the best way to make a picnic in Scotland. The "pindemic" is yet another new word we have to get used to. I know several people who have deleted the App for fear of being pinged. It's easy to be critical of the Govt and others for the handling of the pandemic. At the beginning, in retrospect, big mistakes were made but who would've done any better as the situation was "unprecedented...

I sometimes listen to the BBC Newscast podcast. It's quite entertaining. An informal look at the political issues of the day. Guests are interviewed in a very chatty style and often come across differently  to when they are getting a grilling my an aggressive interviewer. Yesterdays Newscast was a Keir Starmer special - called Strictly Starmer as it was recorded in Blackpool and he met 12 members of the public who had all previously voted Labour but had, for one reason or another, not voted Labour recently. He was given the opportunity to pitch a few policy ideas to them and then have a chat with them about what it would take for them to vote Labour again in the future. He chose to highlight 3 policies: 1. A package of investment for children who have been affected by the pandemic and missed out on education - to catch up 2. A jobs guarantee for anyone under the age of 25 who has been unemployed for 6 months - to be guaranteed a job or training 3. Buy British - to encourage consume...

The morning after the night before. It's a terrible sensation - that feeling of that horrible knot in your stomach and not really wanting to face the day. After all the anticipation and hope, you are left with an intense feeling of disappointment and regret. I've had this feeling quite a few times over the years for one reason or another. My football team, Crystal Palace, has been in the cup final twice. The first time, in 1990, I was lucky enough to be at the old Wembley stadium to witness a classic cup final against Manchester United. It finished 3-3 after extra time. Ian Wright, having been injured, came off the bench to score twice. Palace were within touching distance of winning the FA Cup. Then Mark Hughes equalised and the match finished level. No penalty shoot outs in those days - a replay a few days later. The next day I queued up at Selhurst Park, along with thousands of other hopeful and happy Palace fans. The banter in the queue was great. There was no doubt that Pa...

It's non stop sport at the moment. As if the footie wasn't enough, Wimbledon finals weekend and the Tour de France as well. Mark Cavendish is a complete legend. I hope he wins another stage in the Tour. I'm hoping Ash Barty is going to win the tennis. A great ambassador for the sport. Sport is a great leveller and a great way to bring people together. Some people think that sport and politics don't mix. I've never really understood that. I love the way sport and politics mix. Ali refusing the draft in the Vietnam war. The Black Power fists at the Olympics. The sporting boycott of Apartheid South Africa. The England players taking the knee. It's all part of the same thing. Why shouldn't sports people be political? Using their fame to promote a better world. Surely we can all get behind that? As ever, it's not that straightforward. I've struggled to support the English football team over the years, partly because my Dad was Irish and Mum was Scottish. ...

It's July 2021. The next General Election is probably going to be in May 2024. So that's less than 3 years away. What's going to happen between now and then? What should those you want to see a non-Tory government be doing? To be honest this week I am too pre-occupied with the Football to think about politics too much. But right now Italy are in extra time with Spain, and I thought I need some light relief - so time for a bit of blogging. Both Italy and Spain have had fascist governments in the last 100 years. Italy never seems to have a stable government and every now and again there is a massive disaster like remember that big bridge collapsing a few years ago. There's a big North/South divide. There seems to be more or less permanent political turmoil and coalition governments come and go quickly. Whenever I've been to Italy over the years, it always seems like a fantastic country to live in and the atmosphere is generally very welcoming. Likewise Spain. I've...

It makes a nice change to see Keir Starmer a bit animated, after the Batley and Spen result!  A lot of people including many Labour Party members have been a bit puzzled as to why he has been so unanimated, generally, since he became party leader. I've only heard him speak live on one occasion - I went to the Labour Party Leadership hustings in Durham. The 3 surviving candidates (Keir, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy) were on the platform. Jess Philips, Clive Lewis and whoever else was in the race had fallen by the wayside by then. The hustings were straight questions submitted by the audience (Labour Party members) via the chair. Each candidate had the same time to answer. Of the 3 candidates, Keir and Lisa came across the best, I thought. They had a natural way of communicating which made it seem like they weren't reading from a script. I would've been happy with either of them as leader. I actually voted for Lisa as I thought it was about time the Labour Party had a w...

The Batley and Spen result - phew! I woke up at 4am with an uneasy feeling. I put the radio through my headphones, so not to disturb my sleeping wife. When I heard the result hadn't been declared, and the count was on-going, I feared the worst. It was clearly going to be close. As I listened to the result i held my breath and then shouted "yes" very loudly, which didn't go down well with my wife! What are the lessons for a potential progressive alliance? Looking at the numbers:                                      2021                             2019 LABOUR                  13296                            22594 CONS            ...