Isn’t it about time we put the current economic problems into a bit of perspective ?
Look around the cities and towns of the North East and there has been major developments and unprecedented growth.
Most people these days have one or two cars, live in centrally heated, doubled glazed houses with satellite or cable TV - with a television in every room - along with computers and many people have regular holidays abroad.
Not so long anyone who had access to all that would be considered pretty well off. Now these things are considered commonplace.
Now if some people can only have one foreign holiday every six months or isn’t able to have a new car each year they imagine they are in someway deprived.
And this is when the wingers really come out from under their stones.
And the easiest target for all this whinging is the Labour government, especially for the pro-Tory elements of the national media which has undue influence for so many people in the UK.
Lets get real, not so long ago most people in this region worked in poorly paid jobs, had one telly and were lucky if they travelled abroad once or twice in their entire lives.
The current economic slowdown is a product of the capitalist system which will always have peaks and troughs, and is not the fault of the current Labour government.
We should be counting our blessings that we were born British that we live in a country which is both rich and served by an established and stable democratic system.
And a country in which the NHS will save your life without checking to see if you have enough money in the bank to make sure you can afford to pay for medical treatment first.
A country which has courageous and professional armed forces which puts itself at the service of Britain and does not think the country should be at the service of the armed forces.
I am sure the citizens of Zimbabwe would swap places in a heartbeat, they know what it is really is like to live in a country with genuine poverty ,rampant inflation and widespread lawlessness.

It is good to see that the Durham Miners Gala is as successful now as it has been for some time.
So even though the deep mines of this region have been closed much of the culture which came from this industry lives on. From the beautiful banners to the brass bands and the political speches, the heritage is still strong.
Durham Miners Gala

This is a terrific website which confirms the bias and prejudice which exisits among the London based media against the North and the people who live here.
Read this and learn the truth.
And if Northerners aren't angry after reading this, then they should be !
The North - South media divide

I hope that the council, One North East and the university presses ahead with this with a sense of urgency.
And I hope they go ahead with the plan for the 30 story sky-scraper, its about time that Newcastle had some sleek, tall modern buildings too many new offices etc built recently have been a bit "stubby".
Lets reach for the sky !
Newcastle Science City

I think that the Euros have been better off wiithout in-ger-land.
The quality of the football is better as the best European teams have players who can control the ball with one touch, unlike a lot of the home-grown players who need three touches of the ball just to bring it under control.
Never has a country produced so many over-rated over-paid footballers as this one.
I can happily live without the incessant over-the-top hype of the media here.
And then there all those numpties who think clagging a Chinese made plastic flag onto their German/French/Italian cars symbolises anything other than they are tastless bandwagon jumpers.
And those fans who mindlessley boo the oppositions national anthems before trashing a few local bars. What this proves is beyond me.
Since Wembley was rebuilt in-ger-land have become the London and the south east's local team.
They should change the name of the team to London United.
Overall, I don't think it would bother me if in-ger-land never qualified for anything ever again.

Its good to see that there is a recruitment drive for people with the ability to work in marine industries, both people who have skills already and those who want to be re-trained.
The marine & shipping related industries in our region are growing.
Marine Design Centre

The Ministry of Defence have announced a £3.9bn project to build two aircraft carriers with a shipbuilding joint venture known as BVT, involving BAE Systems and VT Group. The 65,000-tonne vessels are to be built in four sections at yards in Barrow, Cumbria, and in Scotland.

A&P Tyne in Hebburn, McNulty in South Shields, Heerema in Hartlepool and Cleveland Bridge in Darlington, are all going to share in the massive new contract for the aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy.There could be hundreds of millions of pounds worth of work for the region.

There are many other companies throughout this region who can win work on this project as well.
This contract proves we still have engineering skills and in particular maritime related skills to compete with anywhere else for this kind of work.
Good news all round.

The Sunday Times revealed Sir Robert Atkins, a Tory MEP and former government minister who served in the Thatcher and Major governments, used his parliamentary expenses to fly to his son's wedding in the US. He claimed that it “coincided” with an official engagement. Atkins is also among the many Tory politicians who put family members on the payroll. His wife is employed as a secretary and his son worked for him until 2004.
Meanwhile, the Sunday Mail reveals another Tory John Purvis has admitted paying £120,000 of tax payers money to a company he owns.
Millionaire landowner Purvis funnelled the taxpayers' cash through a company he is a partner in. He claimed £120,000 in expenses for six members of staff. He was also caught up in an expenses row in 2004.
Yet another Tory Den Dover was removed as chief whip last week as it was revealed that he had paid up to £750,000 to a firm run by his wife and daughter.
The accounts of the Dover family company, MP Holdings, reveal that it spent £32,000 on repairs on the family’s Hertfordshire home. A further £56,411 went on motoring costs and £75,397 on postage and stationery.
That’s a lot of stamps.
Caroline Spelman, the Tory party chairman who is ironically tasked with making sure Tory MPs’ expenses are beyond reproach, was also forced to defend her decision to use expenses to pay her nanny claiming it was for secretarial work.
How people do you know even think about having a nanny in the first place ?
The expenses row is a setback for David Cameron after the Sunday Times disclosed how Giles Chichester, the Tory leader in the European parliament, had channelled £445,000 of expenses via a family firm.
Alan Duncan, the shadow business secretary, also faces questions over a donation of almost £160,000 from Ian Taylor, an oil magnate whose company was fined for trading in Iraq in defiance of sanctions.
The donation was registered with the Electoral Commission as a gift to the Tory party. But a spokesman for his firm said he had made donations to Duncan’s private office.

Is anyone surprised at all this Tory sleaze ?
Its just the Tories behaving exactly like Tories always do.

Is it time that before this region can expect a fair deal from those who make the decisions in London we are going to need a pressure group or even a political party to represent this regions interests?
The North East seems to be regarded as a backwater by those who make the decisions which affect us.
These decisions are made not only by the government of the day but at a lower level by senior civil servants, and as these people live and work in London and the south east their decisions are going to be heavily biased in favour of that part of the country, as has been proved many times throughout history.
The Northumbrian Association seem to keep a very low profile, which is a shame as they could have provided a voice to express our concerns.
Perhaps a new organisation is needed with a higher profile and a left of centre political edge to be in step with the beliefs of the majority of this region.
After all the SNP and Plaid Cymru have helped push the cause of Scotland and Wales respectively.
Its time we had something similar.
Perhaps it could be called the Northumbrian First Party.

There are plans to build a major offshore wind farm off the North East coast which could supply as much energy for this region as a nuclear power station.
I hope that the plans for the wind turbines come to fruition, but only if this region can benefit from the development.
We already have seen investment in the offshore industry with the wind farm at Blyth so at least we have a start.
And we also have an in-built advantage with a succesful oil and gas offshore industry and ship building heritage, one site which could surely be used to build, install and maintain the wind turbines would be the Swan Hunter yard at Wallsend.
It is up the appropriate goverment agencies and the companies concerned to take advantage of the possibilities for the future. Offshore wind farm plans

On the three great industrial rivers of this region there is testimony to our shipbuilding and maritime heritage and while there isn't the shipbuilding any more there is an ongoing investment in various marine related industries.
On the Tees there is a massive investment in the offsore industry through the Sea Dragon project which had seen the re-opening of the big Haverton hill shipyard Sea Dragon on the Tees
On the Wear, which was once a great ship building river a shipyard has reopened to bring ship refitting work back there Wear shipyard
And on the Tyne one of the major civil engineering projects to have been started in recent years is the new Tyne Tunnel and an old Wallsend dock is going to be used to build sections of the Tunnel itself New Tyne Tunnel
This proves that the rivers have the potential to bring a wide range of work and many jobs here.
But it is important that these areas are not given over to bland over-priced housing which will deny their more productive use in the future.

Following the creation of hundreds of jobs earlier this year, Nissan at Sunderland have announced that another new car is going to be built at this factory.
The Nissan factory in our region is the most successful in Europe and 80% of the cars made there go for export through the Port of Tyne.
I wonder why a foreign owned car factory can be such a huge success here while British run car companies have failed ?
Could it be that some British management is not up to the job ? Nissan

Here are links to websites which celebrate the unique character and history of our region.

The Pride of Northumbria is a website looking at regional history & identity including ancient ancestors, dialect and identity, sporting greats, heroes and villains and more The Pride of Northumbria

The Northumbrian Association campaigns for the return of the Lindisfarne Gospels and looks at other aspects of regional culture, although the website could do with an overhaul The Northumbrian Association

One part of of regional history which gets overlooked is the support for the Jacobites which existed here Northumbrian Jacobites

The North East Labour History Society is Britain's oldest regional labour history society
The North East Labour History Society

Two superb history websites North East History and a definitive history site from the Northern Echo

MODERN NORTHUMBRIA

"To be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to be ever a child. For what is man's lifetime unless the memory of past events is woven with those of earlier times?" -
Cicero.

The Great North Museum (due for completion in 2009) is going to be a facility which brings together collections from a wide range of existing museums and galleries.
Included will be an interactive Hadrians' Wall, and treasures of the ancient worlds of Greece and Rome as well as history relating to our region.
Included in this fantastic project will be the The Natural History Society of Northumbria
The Museum of Antiquities
The Hatton Galleries
Find out more about the whole project here The Great North Museum
To help support the work of Tyne and Wear Museums (including the Great North Museum)people can make a voluntary contribution here .

The Tyneside Cinema has been a part of the cultural scene on Tyneside - and throughout the wider region - for many years.
The cinema shows a range of films which don't get shown at the usual multi-plexes and as such is a real asset to this region.
For the last few years the Tyneside has been based temporarily at Gateshead town hall while its traditional base in Newcastle has been undergoing a major modernisation.
The upgrading is nearly complete and the Tyneside Cinema will be returning to Newcastle towards the end of May.
To find out more, including how to suppport the Tyneside, visit here The Tyneside Cinema