Government is losing its way in the North East
IHAVE a small amount of sympathy – so small you’d need an electron-microscope to see it – over Boris Johnson’s tweet that appeared to confuse Whitley Bay with Teesside.
The idea that this tweet showed Mr Johnson’s contempt for the North East is, I think, wrong. Mr Johnson shows his contempt for the North East through his policies, whereas this tweet was just a mistake, almost certainly the responsibility of some underling as it’s unlikely Mr Johnson – a man not known for his assiduousness at the best of times – does his own socials.
My sympathy with the Prime Minister is limited because he does have a bit of form here. Everyone remembers his speech to the CBI last year for the half-witted reference to Peppa Pig World and the bit where he lost his place and muttered “forgive me, forgive me” like a colossal clod.
What went less remarked upon was that he told the audience how great it was to have a freeport in Teesside while standing in the Port of Tyne. Given that the decision to assign freeport status to Teesside when its submission was outscored by the North East bid that included the Port of Tyne – a decision generally seen to favour Mr Johnson’s political allies on Teesside
– it was a remarkably tineared remark.
Politicians often trip themselves up on the minutae of local politics and – more often – geography. I recall being at a conference in Hexham where then Agriculture Minister Liz Truss – possibly the next Prime Minister, for the love of God – mis-pronounced “Alnwick” with a hard “l” and a hard “w”. The groans could be heard from miles around.
I also heard Sajid Javid speak at Durham Cathedral and start his speech with some facts about it that had almostly certainly been gleaned from the cathedral’s Wikipedia page in the taxi from his hotel.
Perhaps we should go easy on politicians. Their knowledge of Northumberland or Whitley Bay or Durham is probably no worse than my knowledge of London or Suffolk or many other parts of the UK. We expect them to show up in our towns and villages, pronounce “Ponteland” correctly and answer questions on whether Joelinton should play in midfield or attack. They can only know so much.
Needless to say, my sympathies only go so far. On the day of his illfated Whitley Bay ice-cream, Mr Johnson had already been to Hartlepool and Sunderland, with each visit including a photo opportunity that could be shared on social media to indicate his commitment to each place. There is a certain efficiency in this, but how much can you really learn about three different parts of the North East on flying visits lasting no more than an hour or so?
The problem with the Whitley Bay tweet wasn’t that Boris Johnson doesn’t know the difference between Tyneside and Teesside; it’s that the Prime Minister spends so little time in the North East that he had to cover an area of more than 3,000 square miles and 2.6m people in a wet afternoon.
The UK is ridiculously centralised and politicians spend almost all their time in London. If you want an illustration of how London-centric this country is and the damage that does, drive across the Tyne Bridge: a major traffic route and symbol of Tyneside is rusting away before our eyes but the decision on whether or not we can repair it has been sitting on a desk in Whitehall for a number of years.
Successive Governments have talked a good game about devolving power to regions like the North East and done little to properly achieve it. The current Government’s levelling up white paper, to give it its due, identifies all the right issues but the signs that it will follow through are vanishingly small.
Instead of dropping in to Whitley Bay, Hartlepool or anywhere else for a picture and an ice cream, what we need are the politicians who live in our communities to have the power and the funding to change lives for the better.
■ Graeme Whitfield is editor The Journal.