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Merlin, Pleased somebody else is looking at this stuff and seeing a problem! Not sure I agree with your prognosis that Labour lost its way since the 70's and maybe you should look at our esteemed MP's personal situation when he suggested his People's Party idea. But that's history now and we need something constructive to move forward with. Leaving aside national governance for a minute if we look at what has happened locally for that last umpteen years, and try to see why Bedlington has fared so badly, I think it's down to Party Politics. People are elected, supposedly to represent us, but only if they wear the right coloured tie! Once they are 'in power' 99% of the time they don't even have free will in the way policy is worked through and instead a select group dictate the way that party's membership has to vote. That's a bad way to run anything and means decisions are based on political expediency instead of merit. Now there are plenty of political animals on this board can anyone of them please explain to me what the party structure has to do with getting a pot hole filled in on the road outside our houses or getting Mrs Jones's gutters fixed? Until someone can, I fail to see the relevance of the party structure certainly up to County Council level. Just because an idea comes from one side doesn't make it correct in the same way that an idea coming from a different side doesn't make it wrong. Relying on a party structure in this way only means that many times perfectly viable ideas and practices are ignored in favour of ones based on political dogma. To illustrate that with a local example, making Ashington the commercial heart of Wansbeck was a mistake, Bedlington could have fulfilled that role and had many more natural assets to exploit and build on. That politically biased decision taken at the formation of WDC side-lined Bedlington into also ran status and meant for all the investment and time put into it, Ashington could never fulfil that role sustainably. I will concede there could be a role for political parties in national governance, however even then we see political leaders who have no relevance to the vast bulk of the population. Again I have a question, if our MPs are only in Westminster to represent our views when was the last time any of them asked what we thought on any given subject? Without a regular conduit how on earth can any of them stand up and say they represent their electorates.

Dear All. Prior to any press release I am proud to inform you that following, what seemed to be an endless `change of use` process with NCC, SNRG/Synergy now have a Bedlington home: 90A Front Street East. On behalf of myself, Colin, Neal & John I would like to say a huge thank you to Andy Millne, his sister & Dad for their kind & generous offer of premises & for sticking with us over the past three years. Please watch this space for our second newsletter & be rest assured that I will keep you up to date as & when things happen as your continued support is equally valued. So it begins...

I'm NOT a Tory! I simply use my eyes, my brain, and my long experience. Every time this country has had an era of sustainable prosperity it has been under a Tory government. Every time we've had a Sterling crisis, and lost control of our economy it has been under a Labour one. Economists warned where the Brown/Blair duo were going, and it has come about. I don't agree with Tory !*!@#-footing around; I certainly don't agree with Clegg and his meaningless "fairness" agenda. I'm MUCH more aligned with the sound ideas of UKIP. But, it's a case of the art of the possible. I'm anti-Labour because I've seen what Labour's "the World owes us a living; it's all the fault of those capitalists" ideas have done for our town. That's not to say there weren't some fine people in the early Labour party people - Clement Attlee for one - but they are people of a bye-gone age. Today Labour is the equivalent of the US Democratic Party - the lawyer's party. People who chase ambulances and don't produce anything. People who are in it solely for building their own careers. And, people who have no belief system or new ideas. That's totally foreign to the hard working people of our area, the people who produced the real wealth that our country is built on. Yet, they continue to be duped by the rhetoric and the meaningless promises. Red Ed even had the barefaced cheek to turn up at yesterday's rally knowing full well that what he'd do is near exactly the same as what the people were protesting about. Oh yes, he'd take longer to do it, and try to sugar-coat the bad medicine, but in the process we'd all end up even worse off, and the government would have even less flexibility due to the increased debt burden. Believe me what the current lot is doing is the very minimum to stave off yet another currency crisis. If you still don't agree with me then tell me how you'd manage the economy to get us out of this mess, and I (and others) will then tell you why it won't work. I'm also happy to tell you how to make this country one of the most prosperous in the world again! You won't like those measures, and neither will the electorate. So no political party is going to go near them - simply !*!@#-foot around the edges of them like the Tories and the Lib Dems. And... at this point, we are back to the art of the possible.