Not so long ago it was the lawyers and journalists who were the activists. How times have changed. With the birth of the environmental movement and social media it now appears almost everyone is. In many schools, where teachers embed man-made climate change and gender-fluid narratives, youngsters are seemingly encouraged to take up a cause. …
There’s every likelihood that the North East mayor elected today will be chosen with the backing of less than 15% of the region’s electorate. That’s not to say they’ll be illegitimate. The winner will probably get somewhere around 35-40% of the vote, but if previous local elections are a good guide, turnout will be about …
As CEO of Gosforth Civic Theatre, I have often thought I should start a support group for introverted leaders of arts organisations. I am quite shy; I am more comfortable loitering outside with the smokers or chatting with the technician and front-of-house team when I should be talking to the politicians or the other cultural …
Some people start reading their paper on the front page, others at the back for the sport. But I am one of those who has always turned first to the ‘matches, hatches and despatches’ announcements, with my focus progressing through the decades from the engagements and marriages of my contemporaries to the births of their …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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, …
So, here I am doing the thing that epitomises most people’s idea of the freedom of the single writer. Trundling about on leafy Suffolk lanes in my camper van, Hilda, on a Saturday afternoon with no need to be home for a couple of days, just the open road ahead of me. I’d performed some …
With expectations of a Labour election landslide growing by the day, thoughts inevitably turn to the question of who might be in the next government, and specifically for our region, which North East MPs might make the cut. The one obvious shoo-in for Cabinet rank is of course Bridget Phillipson, MP for Houghton and Sunderland …
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