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Mick was the natural choice for NUM president. The extreme left of the Labour party and union movement hatched a plot to exclude him. It's those people who should be vilified for the miner's strike disaster not MT. They unleashed forces they couldn't control, and left the government with no alternative but to break the NUM. Mick's proud boast was that he never called a strike for political reasons, but only to benefit the membership, and - like Bob Crow - only picked fights he was certain he could win. Now there's a real hero for Adam. Can't see the Labour party going anywhere near that one though!

A bit cruel Tony; it can come to us all, and shouldn't diminish what we've actually achieved in our lives. Ronnie R ended up a bit "forgetful" too, but it in no way diminishes that he was one of the very best presidents; one who (by actually confronting the problem head-on) ended the cold war and made the World a safer place for us all. Anyway, what's to the point is that Gordon never missed an opportunity to be seen as heir to the MT legacy - he left plenty more clues for the history books! That sounds very healthy. And, I think that your late Bob Crow was one of the better trade unionists. He did what he had to do for his members, and never dragged them in to a conflict where the odds weren't greatly on their side. A latter-day Mick McGahey I'd imagine! That's quite unlike.. ummm.. you know who!

No you weren't meant to hear that, it was not for a traditional (old) Labour audience. He let other people put the actual word around, including Tony - but that's the image he carefully cultivated for southern audiences. That's because they don't have one! They do have real policies for real reform though, if you care to read them. http://www.ukip.org/issues You are dead wrong Adam! Yes, local people like you can help, but real and lasting change needs to come at the national level. Malcolm is spot on in his diagnosis of why things don't happen here. We can all see what is needed, but there's absolutely no reason why establishment politicians should deliver, or ever will deliver. That's unless they are shocked into action in the same way that pro-EU Cameron has been shocked by UKIP already. Labour too can be shocked into real action, but even the slightest chance of a UKIP win is the only way that is ever going to happen here. So... whichever way you look at things, and whichever direction you are coming from, the only chance for real and lasting change is to support UKIP. BTW you can't simply dismiss ten disastrous years and a wrecked economy by saying "Tony Blair, he was a wolf in sheep's clothes.". When you vote Labour that's exactly what you get. Old Labour long since worked out that it was unelectable. Only a few tame dinosaurs (like our Ian) are kept on to maintain the pretence that they are "for the workers". Maybe they are for the workers, but they're certainly not British workers, or anyone you know!

There are a lot of Thatcherites in UKIP that's for sure, but there are also a lot of solid working-class and left-leaning people who've seen through the present system. Sometimes they are both, but sadly not that often hereabouts! That's hard to explain to people who've been so heavily indoctrinated that MT was evil personified. The truth is never as plain or simple as most would have you believe, and in a different life MT would be right up there supporting miners - in many ways she did. She also had a deep distrust of snake oil political types, and was a real conviction politician - sadly lacking nowadays! Don't you think it's strange that both Blair and Brown at one time or another have claimed to be her true heir? How do you rationalise that one? It's a real pity that many in our local community are still fighting a battle that long since ended. The real enemy is the London-centric liberal (with a small L) elites, who produce nowt, but think they have a divine right to rule. There are just as many of these in Labour as the Tories, and they are hand in glove with each other! The whole thing is like one of those carefully scripted wrestling matches; anyone with any sense knows it's all pre-arranged, and in awkward places even carefully rehearsed, but people still buy into the idea that it's a genuine contest. Ummm.. it's going to surprise you how many people from Bedlington are thinking like me - and sadly the rest aren't thinking! Maggie it's great to have your input, but you've got things standing on their head. If we go on at the present rate the Germans are going to drag us into their Fourth Reich. There are already moves afoot for an EU army, and in the "post democratic" superstate that's intended, you can bet that WWIII will eventually result. As you say power corrupts, and you have to look no further than the USA to see how easy it is for a few nutty military types to drag hundreds of millions of otherwise peaceful people into a disastrous war - and in situations where none of their own interests are directly threatened, and where none of their own territory is at risk. Just look at Crimea in recent months to imagine what would be made of that by a European superstate. UKIPs policy there is to leave well alone; bringing Ukraine into the EU is destabilising and can only stoke conflict. The Russians quite rightly see this as a land grab by traditional enemies, and feel justified in helping their compatriots by the same sorts of devious means that the US and EU has been helping to stoke up the problem in the first instance. UKIP is the only party that says this is none of our business, and we shouldn't be meddling. The present situation would have been unimaginable to our parents, and their parents generations. As we commemorate the centenary of that first disastrous war, we should try to imagine what they'd want to tell us from their graves! It would surely be don't trust the Germans and their ambitions, and don't let it happen all over again! It's not your everyday German citizen we should be wary of, but expansionism is in the psyche and it repeatedly takes hold of individuals in power. What on earth is the EU if it isn't yet another manifestation of this? We can trade perfectly happily without customs barriers with none of the superstate BS! But (just like with the Common Market / European Union deception already perpetrated on us) there's a hidden agenda, and when it becomes obvious to all it will be far too late. Look at the four main party leaders and ask yourself which one is doing it because he feels a genuine concern for his country and which ones are there simply for self-advancement and raw power. Nigel has already stood down once, and when he achieves his transparent goal he'll step down. He's not after power; he simply wants to break the mould, and then have a peaceful life at the pub or on the golf course. His man-of-the-people persona is not assumed to get votes, he actually is one of us, and like us totally p'd off with the system! That's why the establishment has no answers, and why they will try every trick in the book to cling onto power. Don't buy any of it! You have been - and are allowing yourself to be - hoodwinked by people who actually consider themselves to be smarter than you. It suits the establishment to keep our town in poverty, and, if you continue to vote for an establishment party, that is exactly where it is going to stay! Think Salvation Army not military army - with the emphasis on salvation!

Tony, I want people who tell it as it is and don't play politics! All parties have their hangers-on, and I'd cheerfully submit that the Wallace and Gromit party have more than their fair share! They certainly had more than their fair share of convicted villains in recent years. Before you echo the establishment propoganda tell my honestly what you don't agree with here: http://www.ukip.org/issues What we have today is not a meritocracy; we have an establishment that's in a cozy duopoly to stitch-up the common man! It's completely London-centric, and loony liberal to an extent of excluding and positively suppressing what most ordinary people in the rest of the country think and feel. UKIP is the country's best - indeed only - chance of a popular revolution. If you support Labour, or the Tories, and in particular if you support the LD's, you are against democracy. That's no more evident than in the inter-party stitch-up to prevent the British people having a say on their own destiny. Cameron has now broken ranks here in order to save his own skin, but he's not to be trusted with this country's destiny, and will return to his elitist roots. None of your regular parties trust the electorate, indeed they hold ordinary people in contempt. A lot of people now see this, hence the rise and rise of The People's Army.

If anyone wants to see this TV program then please PM me, and I will arrange "a private viewing". I'm sure the Beeb would be unhappy about it being made available as a public download. The short Shiney Row bicycle sequence is certainly in that film. Though, as Maggie says, it was taken from Ken's 1960 Monitor program. Why - of course - it's in B&W.

LOL - My FIRST Lenny phone actually, but not my first Lenny gismo by any count. And, it's instead of a cute little Alcatel droid that's my top-pocket communications workhorse, and certainly not to replace the Note 3. Latest toy is a http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-ME180A-MeMo-inch-Tablet/dp/B00G6G08YU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406996724&sr=8-1&keywords=asus+me180a but I only paid a tad over £90 brand new including courier delivery on amazon.it, so it was a no brainier. It may have been a pricing error as they quickly hiked the price Last month's Asus ME172V (impulse chain store purchase) was a bit disappointing so I moved it straight on, but the 8" ME180A is absolutely great, and I wouldn't buy another 7" tab of any make now. I was actually after the Intel powered ME181, but they are still a bit pricey, and the chip is an ageing 32nm one - with 2GB of RAM it would get me more excited. With the ME180A I thought I'd bought an AMD powered x86 device, because some twit reviewer on the Internet billed it as such. But in fact it's a quad core Rockchips ARM CPU that comes in at over 20K on the Antutu benchmark, so no regrets there. Particularly wowing is that it has built-in Miracast (WiDi), and pairs nicely with the Netgear Push2TV. Great display too! Even at £130 'ish it's a really good buy. An extra 64GB of Kingston flash cost £25 and bumped it to 72GB - can't do that with a (Asus made) Google Nexus! Just had a play with a Sammy http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Galaxy-8-4-inch-Tablet-Bronze/dp/B00KLED6Q0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1406997295&sr=8-2&keywords=samsung+tab+s, and wow, is this spectacular? Completely wipes the floor with an iPad in every respect. When I see one around the £200 mark it's a sure buy!!

Hmm.. isn't politics telling people what they want to hear - then when they give you some power you do what you want to do? Its called representative democracy, obviously because you represent it as democracy, whilst it's certainly not! In fact this is one of the things we discussed at the party conference. / I'm sure you will find a full answer in our manifesto when it's published. / But that's not really the question - the real question is... / We need a full and frank public debate about this important issue [after which we will do absolutely nothing, again!]* *delete as appropriate P.S. Vote UKIP - the REAL class war is about to begin! http://www.ukip.org/ukip_scores_by_election_win_in_miliband_s_backyard

...tells you which application/window the unwanted sound has started coming from. Many times recently I've had to chase around closing stuff because something I never consciously selected has started playing - somewhere!

I can think of some slightly more cutting answers for people self-centred enough to be asking some of the questions in the FAQ. Unfortunately they wouldn't add suitable dignity to the occasion! Update: Some rather remarkable and evocative photos of the conflict sites here: http://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-28461026 I admit to pinching one for my desktop.

Well.. sure makes a change from those why can't I post emails and PMs! The cleaners will be around. Welcome anyway.

I think that's shorthand for their community centre and library not getting the chop. The old old story. When the people who've mindlessly voted labour all their lives - just because their parents and grandparents did - start using their noddles and voting Labour out just now and then, then they won't be taken for granted and things will start to happen. A vote for UKIP would be a good start, and have the further advantage of making Mliband face up to one of the most important issues of the day instead of constantly ducking it. Just one defeat for Labour is all it will take to transform this place. Whatever party gets in the next time around they will all be listening instead of taking us for granted - either as no-hopers to the Tories, or always and forever in-the-bag to Labour. Of course it would also help if those who use Bedders as a dormitory, and live the rest of their lives elsewhere, actually got off their backsides and voted! Maybe we should picket all main roads out of town in the morning?

I notice this morning that following a pushed Samsung update to my Note 3 that the compass icon had gone from the pull-down control bar. It's been replaced by a Google maps "pin". It seems that Android has taken full control of the GPS power and full user emphasis is now on "Location Services". This is in line with what certain GPS based apps have been hinting for a short while now - announcing that Location Services are off when I'd simply thought I'd tuned off temporarily unneeded GPS hardware to conserve battery. We'll see how this one works out, but I'm uneasy about what looks like a move towards a operating system for ignorant tecnophobes like iOS. (idiots Operating System - just thought I'd sneak in this week's round of "Apple bashing" there Brett! ) I want to be able to turn off the GPS hardware when I don't see a need for it power-wise, and control Location services when I don't see the need for it on personal grounds. If Android is going the Big-Brother route I'm going to migrate to something else. Roll on *real* Linux phones; there's a big tech-savvy market out there, so what is stopping you smartphone manufacturers?

Really Adam! This guy just about built the telephone answering machine industry single-handedly! http://www.imdb.com/news/ni57512961/ Not your average tinsel town resident then?

No urban myth; lifetime guaranteed first person testimony that. And, none of the kiddies involved were poor; all adequately fed from Tory (and enlightened Socialist) homes. There may have been an odd few scholarship kids from poor backgrounds, but exactly who was a state secret. You know, the sort of thing those evil Tories do simply to salve their consciences. Interesting proggie tonight on Radio 4 concerning this disadvantaged jewish kid from a South Wales mining community who got to grammar school. I thought the best bit was when he came up against posh, privileged, public school type across the dispatch box in the HoC over - of all things - education policy. That's the same posh public school twit who introduced tuition fees for higher education - after promising not to! I will leave you to fill in the names.

http://hiddenfromgoogle.com/ The Streisand Effect at work again - they never learn! Maybe it should be renamed "The right to be remembered, again, and again, and..."

Deffo an oversell of Ashington there! Would Mr L get so animated if it was beautiful down-town Bedlington getting slagged off? Answers on a postcard to: 94 Station Road, Ashington, Northumberland, NE63 8RN.

Hmmm... could have tried harder I think. Though the "anti-business attitude" that have always been pervasive from you-know-who you-know-where you-know-what-party has always been a factor. Despite this there's a lot of upside to locating in our town, so let's not be too pessimistic. We wish her well anyway, and we just might learn something by following the progress here.

If that's a cost-cutting measure what were the wasted costs before the cost-cutting measure? I was watching a proggy the other night about this mouthy fat bitc... sorry, public service boss, building a million pound dream home. How could she possibly be affording to spend like that with no mortgage, I though. And she hadn't even been made redundant - yet! Sadly, under Labour this sort of agreement was the norm. Things, can only get better - well they did, for Tony's cronies! Onward and upwards the people's army!

Unite are telling Milipede that it's undemocratic not to be matching Camberlin's promise to hold an in/out referendum on the EU. Well we all knew that, and Milipede too, but it's nice to hear it spelled out in terms even the Labour front bench can't duck. Other unions might join in this call - well, let's all hope this democracy thing is catching. Though one party democracy is unlikely to catch up with is the Liberal "Democrats". (The party of in - the wrong!) They admit they were dead wrong about the UK adopting the Euro; they admit that the EU needs drastic reform; they admit that Junker was a disastrous choice for the UK, but somehow we all need to believe in Santa Claus because it will all come right in the end. Yes, you'll see; they can't be wrong all the time, can they? Whenever some organisation includes democrat in its name you can bet that's because it is anything but! How about some honesty LDs? You fear the electorate; be honest, change your name to The Liberal Autocrats! And... for anyone still saying that UKIP is a waste of space: do you really think there'd be such an outbreak of honesty in public life if UKIP hadn't being doing so amazingly well in the polls? Onward and upward The People's Army! The question at the end is the best bit. The tired old men of Europe just don't get it; and Dave wants you to believe that he can change their one-track minds.

Does the Daily Express read Bedlington.co.uk? You could be forgiven for thinking so. http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/485441/Tory-Jeremy-Paxman-blasts-Newsnight-as-made-by-13-year-olds Right on cue this morning, Russell Brand and all! BTW Maggie he wasn't "winding up" Paxo. Paxo was genuinely surprised that someone so superficially intelligent could spout such naive nonsense. And there I think you have Brand in one word: superficial. It's negligible because there are people like you Brandie who reinforce the delusion by urging people not to exercise their right to truly representative government. You use "Big Businesses" as a scapegoat. Big Business listens intensely to its consumers (and doesn't have a vote for the taxes it pays), but the kind of politicos you actively aid by your misdirection are exactly the same sort of manipulative, media-cheque-banking, sods you are! It's the organ-grinder not the monkey - dummy!

The same place as the will to vote out the status quo! But there is ever-increasing hope... http://www.ukip.org/former_labour_party_press_officer_richard_bingley_joins_ukip

My Nazi father would be so proud Herr Fuhrer - err.. Chancellor! Yes, the British and a few disorganised rabbles stand in our way, but this time it will all be different. Wrong footing Camberlin with that worthless promise was a masterstroke!

He's actually a pretty empty vessel Maggie. On the Newsnight interview he was exposed as just that: Anyway, now that Paxo has been released from his requirement to be impartial and "non-controversial" it's quite interesting what he says: I think maybe he includes Russell Brand amongst those 13-year-olds. He went on to say: Does this mean UKIP is about to recruit another parliamentary candidate?

One third pint bottles. Actually I tell a lie about one particular school in Gosforth; the unused stuff quickly disappeared into the kitchens to be used in the school dinners, which were - of course - billed to parents!