The QT

Tuesday 15 October 2024
15/10/2024

Author name: Arlen Pettitt

Government minister talks to students

Collaboration is the only way forward

There are lots of different ways to talk about what’s possible in policymaking. Perhaps the policy agenda is a container ship which takes years to turn. Or your preferred policy is a raft sat on the water’s edge. You’ve done the work gathering all the pieces and lashing them together, and now you’re just waiting …

Focus on exports can drive region’s growth

Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves began the week speaking about deeper ties with the European Union, as Labour looked to set out how it would return the UK economy to stable growth. It’s an important topic for the North East, as international trade has defined much of the region’s economic geography, and its traditional industrial …

Business leaders should pump up the volume

This election is crying out for someone to talk about how we can change things in this country, rather than just talking about what needs changing. Whether it is Tory pledges to tackle ‘sick-note culture’ or cut taxes to ease the cost-of-living crisis, or Labour’s promises around childcare places or a publicly owned green-energy company, …

A region divided by a single party?

The Secretary of State for Business dropped a clanger this week, referring to Tory peer Ben Houchen as the Tyne Tees Mayor. It was a slip which drew the inevitable suggestion that perhaps the Conservatives weren’t really paying attention to the North. The Labour Party, on the other hand, confirmed it most definitely was paying …

Protest or policy — now we have to decide

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 …

Battling a two-speed North East

Is there one North East? Or are there many? There’s a tendency to talk about the North East as if every one of the 2.7 million of us experience it exactly the same. The North East needs X, we’ll confidently say, it wants Y. Reality is, of course, much different and quality of life and …

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