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Protest or policy — now we have to decide

Mayoral Election

Every politician’s nemesis: the ordinary voter. For our elected representatives, there’s no higher stakes moment than a conversation out in the wild. On such interactions are elections won and lost, and careers made or destroyed. There’s a long history of things getting ugly. In 1880, Joseph Cowen Jr, the founder of the Tyne Theatre, owner …

Mayoral election

‘What I’ve liked hearing from my rivals…’

AIDEN KING (Liberal Democrats) What have you liked hearing most from any or all of your rivals? We’ve had a number of hustings since the start of the campaign and, although there are definitely things we all disagree on, I’m pleased that all six candidates agree that this deal is only the first step on …

Who will run our region’s police forces?

Voters preparing to elect mayors in the North East and Tees Valley might be forgiven for thinking they are the only ballots on May 2. Indeed, it may ultimately be in the privacy of the polling booth that many find themselves staring at a list of unknown candidates to lead their local police force. That’s …

Tees Valley

Tees Valley: Houchen rocked by Gibson attack

Middlesbrough FC chairman Steve Gibson has criticised Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen over the huge Teesworks regeneration project and come out in support of Labour candidate Chris McEwan. The leading business figure accused the mayor of ‘giving away our children’s future’ in an exclusive interview with The Northern Echo. This is a reference to a …

Bob Hudson

We need to talk about academies and free schools

Complex policies need time to demonstrate whether, or to what extent, they have worked. The recent report on the impact of Sure Start is a case in point. Only now, after two decades, is it possible to show the positive impact on health, family functioning and academic achievement. Or take the new tobacco and vapes …

Michael Chaplin

Gardener, chauffeur, soldier, pitman, family man, journeyman

I missed a family birthday lately, but there were no bruised feelings — or embarrassment for me — for the simple reason the person concerned was no longer around. In fact, he died all of 29 years ago at the age of 102, which given the many challenges thrown at him throughout his long life …

Football

Pride in the shirts of noisy neighbours

As a Sunderland season ticket holder, Jack Ramsey wouldn’t normally tune in to watch Newcastle United. But there was something far more important than regional rivalry at work during the Magpies’ Premier League clash with Tottenham earlier this month. In a footballing first, a group of deaf and hard of hearing Newcastle fans were kitted …

EYES &
EARS

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Off The Record

Feeled with a Kiss!

“I’m a 60-year-old with the thigh muscles of a man half my age. Go on, have a feel.” I almost choked on my cherry Coke. My shorthand suddenly drifted off into a trembling, wavy scribble. I could feel beads of sweat starting to drip down the inside of my best pinstripe trilby. And I realised …

Innovation Festival is under starters orders

When Jack White, The Wonderstuff and chart-topping North Tyneside neighbour Sam Fender agree to headline Newcastle’s Innovation Festival, it’s likely that Angela MacOscar will feel her work there is done. It’s an ambitious wishlist but then Angela is an ambitious type. In just eight years she has transformed Northumbrian Water’s sector-disrupting summer shindig from the …

Innovation

Back in time — Dr Who fans descend on Allendalek

NEWS

They came out from hiding behind the sofa and materialised in the Northumberland village of Allendale — more than 80 Dr Whovians from around the world for the Museum of Classic Sci-Fi’s Monster Men Event. Genevieve travelled the furthest back in time (think about it!) from Australia. She was still struggling with the jet lag …

NEWS

Fans, players and staff — the real victims of stadium farce

Amid the gnashing of teeth last weekend following the latest round of VAR-induced squabbling, a sentiment began to emerge that, in the North East at least, put much of that noise to bed: spare a thought for Gateshead Football Club. As supporters, pundits and even official club accounts fumed over refereeing in the Premier League …

Culture

Banking on the Exchange

Consternation greeted the news at the beginning of last year that the council had appointed a new operator to run the venue known as The Exchange on Howard Street, North Shields. The arts-orientated charity that had been in charge for seven years had tendered but a rival bid from Stonebanks Investments, promising a lavish revamp, …

Jamie Hardesty

More than a match for our tech friends in the North

I’m enjoying the articles I’m reading in The QT each week. With enhanced devolution fast approaching, there’s rightly a lot of speculation and concern relating to how we get the most out of the opportunity. What’s interesting is the commonality of attitudes I’m seeing, irrespective of which sector commentators hail from. It seems most of …

SUE TAYLOR

No such thing as drinking responsibly

Imagine a product causing seven types of cancer, one million hospital admissions a year, and draining public resources of billions across healthcare, social services, crime and disorder and our economy. Then imagine that product sponsoring major sports events, delivering relentless advertising on TV and cinema, getting piled up at the entrance to supermarkets and being …

My life through a… sketchbook: Sheila Graber

THE STORYTELLERS

Now in her eighties, acclaimed artist and animator Sheila Graber has been capturing the region in her sketchbook for more than seven decades. Born and raised in South Shields, South Tyneside and the wider North East features heavily in her archives, which she is generously using to raise money for three causes close to her …

Books

Fancy a date with ‘Sandy’ McCall Smith?

“It sounds a bit pretentious but I do lose track,” says the storytelling powerhouse that is Alexander McCall Smith, apologising for the latest benign tsunami of tales he is unleashing upon us. Bit of an exaggeration, probably, but he does rather spoil his fans. “I’ve got a new Ramotswe coming out, I’ve got a new …

End of a Vera — but what a legacy

Brenda Blethyn first pulled on the distinctive fishing hat, scarf and gabardine coat back in 2010 when episode one of Vera started filming in the North East for ITV. Now, after 14 years and more than 50 episodes the award winning actress has confirmed she’s stepping down from the role of DCI Vera Stanhope after …

Television

NEWS

Buzzing for the summer ahead

It sounds like the best job in the insect world. It’s the chocolate mining bee, and is one of 72 bee species which have been recorded in the North East during a major citizen science project. A total of 721 volunteer recorders have reported more than 22,000 sightings of bees, ladybirds and orchids across the …

News Digest

Eyes and ears

COMMUNITIES HELD BACK: If the country’s former mining communities were brought together they would form the most deprived region in the UK, according to a new report published this week. The State of the Coalfields 2024 report said that 40 years after the Miners’ Strike began people living in former mining communities face lower pay …

CULTURED NE

Bald truth makes for a great show

A show which finds the funny as well as the challenges of living with alopecia has opened at a Tyneside theatre. Following a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023, Newcastle performer Sam Macgregor booked a chunky run of Truly, Madly, Baldly at Laurels Theatre in Whitley Bay. Bafta-nominated actor, Jack Robertson (Gerry and …

Tony Henderson

Tick tock, tick tock….

It was a favourite song belted out in social club concert rooms after a surfeit of Fed Special or, in the case of the ladies, Babycham and/or snowballs. “Enjoy yourself it’s later than you think, Enjoy yourself while you’re still in the pink The years go by as quickly as you can blink Enjoy yourself, …

The Community Foundation supports anyone to be a philanthropist by donating time, talent or money to make a difference on our doorsteps

Education

Key to unlocking untapped potential

These are tense times for everyone involved with Key Subject Tuition. Last week, founder and director Claire Wardle submitted an application that could transform the South Tyneside education provider’s ability to arm a generation of young people and adult learners with vital skills and improved prospects. Should Key Subject Tuition be successful in its bid …

Cup winner’s precious haul for sale

A century ago tomorrow (April 26), Newcastle United goalkeeper Bill Bradley found himself living the football dream as he stepped out at the new Wembley stadium. Bradley, born in Wardley in Gateshead, was drafted at the last minute into United’s FA Cup final team against Aston Villa on April 26, 1924. He had been second …

Heritage

Dancing with mother

Performance

An exhibition exploring the experience of motherhood will get a fitting finale next month (May). Katie Cuddon’s A is for Alma at the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle will offer a stage to three dancers from balletLORENT — and their toddlers — for a series of free performances. Newcastle-based artist Katie invited the award-winning dance company …

Law

Newcastle is a major player in law

Several top-class universities churning out future lawyers; international firms rushing to expand; and a stream of new offices opening this year. Newcastle and the North East have a legal sector that is growing quickly. An area which tended to specialise in a few sectors and boasted well-run local firms has experienced huge change in the …

Classical

Glass books a rare date with the Glasshouse

There was a ‘wow!’ moment from The Glasshouse this week with the announcement that the Philip Glass Ensemble is performing there on September 26, on a rare UK tour. The group were founded in New York in 1968 by Glass himself, the composer who upended classical and film music in the last century with his …

Sam Wonfor

Cultivating an award winning career

Talented gardener, Lucy Whitehead is hoping it will be a case of third time’s a charm when she heads down to the grand final of a national competition in London next month (May). The 26-year-old from Whitley Bay will represent the Northern category for the third year running after being named the region’s Young Horticulturist …

Community Sport

Serving up a feast of tennis

As the wonder of Wimbledon starts to peek over the horizon (OK, it’s still yonks away, but something has to get us through this perpetual chill), a three-day tennis hoopla on Tyneside sounds like the perfect way to get us in the swing. Six Newcastle parks will play host to the Tennis Festival, which has …

THE CONVERSATION

Maybe it’s time to create a fuss about freeze on funding for arts subjects

Recent guidance issued by the Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, to the Office for Students reveals conflicting priorities in Government and pours fuel on fires burning in an already troubled higher education sector. The focus on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) — “strategically important high-cost subjects” — is met by a freeze on funding for …

Television

Return of The Red King?

The Red King may have only just hit our screens, but a second series is already at the top of writer Toby Whithouse’s to-do list. Well, nearly at the top, once he’s finished reviving Bergerac for UKTV. In a week where it was confirmed that iconic ITV detective, Vera will be hanging up her hat …

Theatre

Review: Dad’s Army, People’s Theatre

Play spin-offs from TV sitcoms are a genre unto themselves. You go not to see characters on a page brought to life by actors but actors playing the actors who made them famous on TV. So it is with Fawlty Towers, Hi-de-Hi! and indeed Dad’s Army. Captain Mainwaring, thanks to 80 episodes in nine series …

Culture news

Culture digest

£300,000 funding boost for Newcastle University museum and gallery Research England has awarded Newcastle University’s museum and art gallery significant funding to support their important work with researchers. Over the next five years, The Great North Museum: Hancock will be given £235,000 and the Hatton Gallery £80,000 from the organisation’s Higher Education Museums, Galleries and …

Transport

Dad’s car is driving force for executive service

Not so long ago, Graeme Stammers spent much of his time playing on a games console at home. Fast forward to today and there’s a chance the footballers he used to play with on FIFA could be sat in the back of his car. The former taxi driver found himself permanently parked up during the …

Boxing Clever – Fallout

Amazon Prime’s latest big budget TV show Fallout is the adaptation of a long-running and much loved series of video games that are set in a version of the United States that has been pretty much eviscerated by nuclear war. Like several of the games, the narrative starts before the bombs drop, in a version …

Classical

BBC Proms back at The Glasshouse in July

Tickets are on sale for BBC Proms at The Glasshouse whose return with a clutch of varied concerts will be music to the ears of all who enjoyed last year’s inaugural weekend mini-season. It puts the North East music centre on a par with the Royal Albert Hall and provides a weekend home for the …