Please leave the North East alone Mr Osborne

George Osborne's failure to take responsibility for his actions is breathtaking. The withdrawal of public sector funding was disproportionally targeted at the North East, undermining any chance of a private sector revival. The abolition of One North East, the most successful Regional Development Agency in the UK was an act of vandalism that lost this Region a major driver for growth, One North East had a gearing ratio of 8 to 1 (private sector investment of £8 for every £1 of public sector money) and was delivering new jobs and opportunities up to the day the Tory's shut it down. The reality is that policy driven from London cannot appreciate the needs of the North East, or understand the economic infrastructure that is waiting to grow. The LEPs that they created to replace RDAs cover too small a geographic area to have any impact, and the decision by 7 North East Council's to merge these functions is an important step forward in freeing the North East from 'remote control' from London and creating an environment for innovation and growth. Mr Osborne, you are the primary cause of the economic woes of this country, having snuffed out the recovery with a string of ill-thought out policies that has delivered zero growth for 3 years. If you want to really help, then leave the North-East alone.

[in response to press release from Osborne stating that  more needs to be done for the North East]

No School for Michael Gove's Children

Being denied the right to go to school is something we oft think of as happening 'somewhere else'. The outstanding speech by Malala to the United Nations this week being a great exemplar. Yet it is happening here too, not by force of arms but by legislation. 120,000 children will be denied a school place this September because provision of school places has been thrown into chaos by Michael Gove. His neo-Stalinist desire to seize control of schools from local people has led to the replacement of School Organisation Plans that took account of local need and parents wishes, with a dogmatic driven desire to spawn academies and free schools regardless of the resultant localised over-provision. Thus we have the absurd phenomena of Free Schools opening around the country at great public expense, which are less than half full. Yet there are dramatic shortages of primary school places elsewhere. To hide this fact Michael Gove has used executive powers to allow schools to refuse admission to children seeking to start class on September 1^st of the year of the their 5^th birthday; a decision taken without Parliamentary approval. Far from seeing a growth in Localism, so trumpeted by David Cameron when he forged his coalition after failing to win the General Election, school provision has been centralised in Whitehall, with scant regard to local need. As a result £millions will be poured into empty schools that are not needed, whilst under-provision elsewhere will deny education to 120,000 children.