Envelope stuffing

How to turn a mundane, repetitive job into something interesting!? On Sunday, Gateshead Lib Dems hired the concert room at Sunniside Social Club for an envelope stuffing event. 35 members turned up to help put 25,000 letters into envelopes. We turned the day into a social event and put on a lunch as well. My job was to manage the event, making sure the right letters went into the right envelopes. Thanks to everyone who came along.

The job of delivering the letters is next on the to-do list!

Ready for tomorrow

 

We are having an envelope stuffing day tomorrow. 25,000 letters will be put into envelopes. I have spent much of the past week printing them. Lots of members will turn up tomorrow to give a helping hand. Should be good fun!

And still the action days keep rolling

 

It's Saturday! For Gateshead Lib Dems that means it's another action day. Today we were in Whickham North and Swalwell ward. I squeezed a delivery in after my ward surgery. 3000 Focuses delivered. 1000 more to go, scheduled for the next few days.

Ward surgery

 

Whickham councillors' ward surgery was held this morning. We decided to hold it outside the Library rather than in the cozy room inside. This way, more people see us and talk to us about local issues.

Candidates are in short supply for Labour and Reform

 

I have to admit that finding candidates for local elections is something of a challenge. Finding candidates who want to win is even more challenging. Here in Gateshead, the Lib Dems started selecting candidates just weeks after the last local elections in May 2024. With 66 to find, we decided to start early. We have 60 chosen so far and the final prospective candidates are currently being interviewed.

So how are the other parties doing in Gateshead? We are not aware of any functioning Your Party. The Conservative Party has not won a council seat here for 34 years. It wouldn't surprise me if some of their previous candidates are soon to be reincarnated as Reformers. The Greens have 3 candidates in Bridges ward but we have heard nothing on the grapevine about standing in the other 21 wards. But what of Reform and Labour?

Some interesting Facebook appeals for candidates for Reform have been circulating recently. Take a look at the one above. Similar appeals were made at the end of last year. And they have been repeated in the past few days. That sounds to me Reform are struggling.

And Labour? Firstly, we need to consider the large number of retirements of Labour councillors. We don't have exact numbers but we have a good idea whose going and whose staying on for the electoral battle. This is making it doubly difficult for Labour. We had heard that one ward, held by Labour since the Middle Ages, has one candidate in place (all Gateshead council wards have three councillors). The Labour ward branch met recently, we are told, and only 3 members turned up and none of them wanted to stand.

I still think both Reform and Labour will fill all their vacancies, even if it means scraping the bottom of the barrel, indeed scraping below the bottom of the barrel. But I could be wrong.....

Gateshead full council meeting

 

Council meeting on Thursday at Gateshead Civic Centre. It was the first meeting to be broadcast live over the internet (other than during the pandemic). The Lib Dem group fought long and hard to ensure the council's meetings are online. We got there, eventually.

The Yanks are coming......

 

On Sunday I had to stay at home in the morning to work on data for forthcoming Lib Dem literature. At the same time Gateshead Lib Dems were holding yet another action day, this time in Bridges ward. I told colleagues in advance that I would not be at the action day in the morning but I would join up with everyone at the Gateshead Tesco cafe for lunch. I brought David with me as we were both going from Tesco to the Glasshouse (formerly the Sage) for a concert by the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

One of the songs they played was, "The Yanks are coming". I'm not sure the citizens of Greenland would have been singing along to that one. Let's hope the people of Greenland are allowed to live as they wish without a bully wanting to destroy their country.

Great concert, nevertheless. I was back home at 6pm for our weekly campaign meeting.

Sweeping Labour from power in Gateshead

 

Labour have been in power in Gateshead Council since the authority first came into existence 52 years ago. We have all-out local elections in May and the Lib Dems are determined to sweep Labour from power - hence the photo above. I took this shortly before full council yesterday - some of Gateshead's Lib Dem councillors with brooms ready to sweep Labour out of office.

We hear on the grapevine that Labour are struggling to find candidates. It seems that Labour are no longer in a position to offer aspiring politicians an easy-win seat on the council. Lots of Labour councillors are retiring and we understand that Labour members are not coming forward to stand. The likelihood is that Labour are set to lose big style. That's hardly an incentive for Labour members to throw their hat into the ring. 

Anyway, watch out for more of Gateshead Lib Dems sweeping Labour out of the civic centre.

Bridges action day

 

On Sunday, Gateshead Lib Dems held yet another action day, this time in Bridges ward. It looks as though Labour have abandoned Bridges. Cllr John Eagle is stepping down in May. Cllr Robert Waugh was elected in September 2024 and has not yet attended a meeting. I can't imagine his standing again. That leaves Cllr Angela Douglas. I have heard on the grapevine what her intentions are but nothing is confirmed. We have come across no Labour activity in the ward since the by-election. Bridges was a Labour stronghold in the very recent past. They are now facing an existential crisis in the ward. All the indications are of a Labour collapse.

I wasn't able to make it to the action day. I was running the Lib Dem print operation instead. I did however make it to the Lib Dem gathering at Tesco's cafe in Gateshead. That's something not to be missed!

This speaks for itself!

 

I spotted this while out and about. It speaks for itself.

Whickham South and Sunniside action day

 

Another Gateshead Lib Dem action day was held yesterday, this time in my ward of Whickham South and Sunniside. I am pleased to report that all patches in the Whickham part of the ward were either delivered or taken by people who will deliver them this coming week. The Sunniside edition will also be delivered this week.

Photo above: my ward colleague Cllr Marilynn Ord with a bundle of Focuses ready to head off to deliver them.

Look what arrived today

 

Look what arrived today! Four boxes Focuses - 2000 for Sunniside, 2,000 for Whickham South. We start delivery tomorrow. Tonight however I need to spend an hour bundling them into the delivery patches.

Target seat candidates list completed

 

On Tuesday Gateshead West Lib Dem branch held their first meeting of the year. The key aim of the meeting was to finalise the candidates for the target seats in the branch area. I'm pleased to report that this task was completed at the meeting. Meanwhile, each of the wards in the branch gave campaign reports. There are now only three and a half months to go to polling day in the local elections. They are getting horribly close!

Another missed action day

 

A second Gateshead Lib Dem action day last weekend was held in Pelaw and Heworth ward and for the second time I had to miss it. The snow was gone when my colleagues were out in the ward delivering  the latest Focus but it was still cold. I was stuck in the warmth of my home writing the Whickham South Focus. Some of my colleagues are pictured above enjoying the cold winter sun. Meanwhile, I was working hard to ensure the deadline for getting the Focus ready for printing was met.

Ryton action day - or not

Last Saturday it was meant to be a Gateshead Lib Dem action day in Ryton ward. Alas, the snow put an end to it. Instead, in the warmth of my house, I wrote the Sunniside Focus. Most of it was written by the end of the day. Ryton action day has been rescheduled.

Has Jenrick alienated red wall voters from Reform?

So, Jenrick has been evicted from the Conservative Party and immediately moves next door to live with his chum Nigel. Media reports suggest he has been talking to Reform since September last year, before the Conservative conference. That means he has been secretly plotting to knife his colleagues for four months. No wonder Farage said, "Never trust a Tory". So what are the immediate effects of this back stabbing incident?

Kemi Badenoch has buried her only realistic rival for the Tory leadership. She's safe, for now.

So far, defections by sitting MPs from the Tories to Reform have been rare: 2 now, including Jenrick. His jumping ship could encourage others to do the same.

Reform is going to look more and more like the Tories 2.0. In red wall areas, Reform has reach into some areas where Labour have previously been dominant but have taken people for granted. Political activity is minimal and Reform can potentially walk in and fill the vacuum. People in those areas are not Conservatives. Taking in large numbers of defecting Conservatives could alienate these red wall voters.

I wonder who the next defector will be? 

Pipe dream

 

It was meant to be a fantastic building attracting worldwide attention and international visitors. It was meant to put Gateshead on the map. But the international convention centre, planned in the last decade and meant to have been built well before now, is yet to have a brick laid. The initial cost of £260 million has ramped up and the land on the Gateshead Quays where it was supposed to be built remains derelict.

It became obvious that the plan was going off target in 2024 when Labour put out a leaflet in the Bridges by-election to Gateshead Council. Labour listed lots of good thinks they alleged were happening in the ward. Noticeably missing from this list was the convention centre.

As we enter 2026, we await a report from the Regional Mayor on whether or not there is enough demand for the facilities.

Ron Beadle, Leader of the Lib Dem Opposition in Gateshead, described the floundering convention plans as a "pipe dream" at the Council's corporate resources scrutiny committee on Monday. At the same meeting I tried to get officers to pin down an expected date for publication of the report. They wouldn't do that. All I could get was a commitment that it would be sometime in the coming months.

We await its publication with interest.