copydude

I'm not so sure. Labour didn't listen in Scotland. Now they're history. It is a problem with this country that the Government exists inside the Westminster bubble. It's totally London centric. There are no regional policies worth the name and local MPs don't fight their constituents' corner. Remember Brown's laughable Mansion House speech just prior to the bank crash, extolling the virtues of the 'light touch regulation' that brought it about. 'No more boom and bust', he smugged. And where exactly was the boom in Bishop or Bradford? Where are the millennium domes, wheel, shards and assorted vanity projects in Hartlepool? In many (now former) Labour constituencies up here, including where I live, the last boom was around the turn of the century. Look at a map of Europe - at present 50% of our export market. Look at the location of Finland or look at the size of Poland, bigger than Germany. Is the entire national wealth splashed on one town? We don't pay any lower rates of tax for living up here. What about infrastructure for a start? One of Boris' first edicts was to cancel the one and only high speed train to Darlington. Even cash-strapped Italy has a brilliant high-speed network. And it's affordable. A train ticket just down the road to god-forsaken Doncaster cost me £50 the other day . . . I could fly to Spain or Berlin for that money. Don't even think about the cost of a ticket to London.

'The most wonderful time of year' in Labour's former heartland.

Sadly, that's the truth. I think people in the North mostly voted for change . . . Something or anything just has to happen. Many places have been in never ending decline since the 1950s. From the 60s to the 80s the railways were axed, the mines and factories closed and nothing was ever put in its place. Blair's Labour threw some money at Manchester, Liverpool, Durham and Newcastle but just about everywhere else is desolation row. In my village, we still don't have gas . . . well, the miner's got free coal. . . even though there are pipes under the fell only a mile away. Most people have a dangerous oil tank where the outside loo used to be - there's no pace for it to be further from the house. Internet speeds are a staggering 4 - 5mb between the blind spots. There's no investment in anything. Every year there are fewer shops in the high street. You should spend Christmas - the 'the most wonderful time of the year' - in Bishop Auckland, Christmas shopping among boarded-up shops, the department store that's been closed for years, under one or two pathetic, not so bright lights. A refurbished Bonmarche has failed after one year. Even Poundland can't make it work when everyone's skint. People voted Labour out of habit but, like cigarettes, they finally realised it was pretty terminal for their health. The fact is. Labour doesn’t want Labour voters, awful people with ferrets and whippets and a bag of chips. Polly Toynbee doesn’t want them, neither do Guardian readers. I had a circular from Helen Goodman, former Labour MP for Bishop, a bitter rant blaming Jeremy for her demise. But look around her constituency and you won’t see a sadder vista of total non-achievement.

Hard Borders Trading on less favourable terms Loss of citizen's rights Loss of representation at European Court

Oh, say it ain't so! Were still having street parties up here in the Northern Powerhouse.

Er, what happened to the Brexit bounce?

Now, where did this phrase, 'Northern Powerhouse' come from? You know, I've been up and some streets here and I'm still lookin'. Think someone might have said, 'Northern Poorhouse' and was misreported?

I notice someone put a 'Really?' flag by the North East. Maybe it's because it's all buy-to-let up here - Southern landlords buying up streets of ex-miner's terraces. (Like the one I live in.)

We shall see. I have personally cancelled my subscription and membership. When the 99% vote overwhelmingly for the 1% there's something seriously wrong wrong with the opposition in this country. No Labour leader can expect an easy time from the Murdoch press, as Kinnock and Miliband found to their cost. But when an opposition leader is similarly reviled by his own party - the Polly Toynbees, Alistair Campbells, former Blair babes, Guardian so-called 'opinion' formers and so on, it really is surprising he got any votes at all. The fact is, Labour is a dysfunctional party that has lost any contact with ordinary people and is now just an irrelevant adjunct to the Westminster bubble. It's amazing how some in Labour crave the return of Blair - a guy probably further to the right than Ghengis Khan and whose war sparked the biggest back bench rebellion in Labour history as well as the permanent gagging of Auntie BBC as an independent news source. It's quite clear that anyone further north than Watford needs some equivalent of a Nicola Sturgeon type local nationalist. The funny part: Nicola was originally the object of Murdoch's distaste: 'The Most Dangerous Woman In Britain' ran the headline. But he switched tack to oust Labour in Scotland when 'Red Ed' wouldn't back off from press scrutiny.

It’s The Mutt Wot Won It! The pooch did really well too. Lucky for Jezza that Boris left the other dog at home!

Of course. Re-opening the mines will be a wonderful boost for Durham. Affordable coal prices was a very big election issue up here. There was a definite spring in everyone's step here after the result was announced. Once again our great high street in Bishop Auckland will bustle with shops like Debenhams and Woolies. There's even talk that the old Lyon's Corner House may finally re-open. Anyway, just rejoice at that news!

I don't think it has much to do with the style of Labour. The kind of areas being lost in Durham - Darlington, Bishop Auckland - and in Wales have been in almost permanent decline since before the miner's strike. In fact, a study commissioned in the 1920s detailed the Durham as the least diversified economy in the British Ises. People call themselves, 'the forgotten'. New Labour was as London-centric as any.

Seems more like one party system to me . . .

I used to vote Lib Dem on the basis of proportional representation. Well, that didn't work out. Since I was asked to share, here's why I voted today. Think it'll get done?

It is quite interesting how this is a non-issue as far as electioneering is concerned. Tuition fee debt and HPI has pretty much scuppered the chances of anyone under 40 from ever emerging from a debt pile into self determination.