Nick Gray

My favourite was the one about the cleanliness of the tip.

High inflation meant many or most Levelling Up Fund projects were born into unaffordability.

Good to see this moving - whatever the local detail, it's one of the many stalled Levelling Up fund projects around the country.

Mind... there's always a 'mind'... Gateshead council have been trying to get this built for at least 20 years so I'd hesitate to describe it as turbo charged.

The indicator was a survey question - the % of people who agree that people from different backgrounds get on well together in their local area.

TBF, the residents survey it came from and which all local authorities did was useful. Now (of course) unaffordable.

As a relatively junior local government policy officer I attended a meeting at Government Office for the North East in which four of us argued about a 0.5% stretch target to the community cohesion performance indicator.

The Telegraph non job detector unit would have had a field day.

Action plan launched to build stronger communities The government is launching a rallying call for action, setting out the first steps towards a more connected, cohesive and resilient United Kingdom

Will there be indicators? I want a performance indicator to complete the naughties vibe.

www.gov.uk/government/n...

Didn't see that... but no, it's not hugely constructive.

My personal complaint is the suggestion (in blue labour vibes pieces) that most labour politicians aren't talking about bread and butter issues like public services and economic opportunity. It's just not true.

I've only seen exasperation at a lack of content, not outrage.

So the policy implications are that Labour should stop spending all their time talking about vegetable rights and peace (which they aren’t doing) and start talking about public services and economic opportunity (which is where they’ve consistently tried to steer the conversation since 2010).

These appeals to bread-and-butter issues appear to invite us to assume labour politicians and activists are knocking on doors, talking to people about post modernism and gender identity.

I'm not sure it's true.

I'll give it some thought and tell you what we’re doing via mail - you'll be easy to find.

If nothing else, being aware of what similar research is going on in the wider region is helpful… it looks better in front of the policymakers too!

I don't have loads of critical work to hand (although I have view) but we are working on this down on Teesside (Stockton and Darlington) so I'm interested in whatever work in happening elsewhere.

I'm not sure the EU had any bearing on UK austerity.

It's not like yougov polling saying just this isn't all over social media.

Not doing austerity would have been a good start.

Setting aside my unhinged bluesky liberal echo chamber joke... isn't defence spending increasing?

Wasting money on feeding children that could be better used to bomb children. Typical lefties.

I would simply cut waste, cycle lanes, woke, and the spiralling welfare bill.

With everything that's going on in the world, it's important to stay focussed on the things that really matter, like REF 2029

I’m glad I do regional development and I’m not just about to submit a paper on Trump, MAGA and paleoconservative isolationism.

That’d be a tough gig – it was bad enough when Johnston went while our Levelling Up paper was still under review.

I love a proper gueuze - the sort that will have the enamel off your teeth - so was pleased one day to see some in Tesco. It tasted like Barr Shandy. Shocking.

Is that the overly sweet 'sour' talking...am I going to lose friends?

If I wanted to be evacuated from Dubai with no questions asked, I'd simply have ensured I was ordinarily resident in the UK and paid my taxes there.

For all the terrible things going on in the world, I still get angry about "sour" beers that taste like alchopops.

I'll choke it down, obviously, but I'm not really enjoying it.

But interesting how closely it aligns with new conservative populism.

Hating the overeducated middle class is O'Neill on autopilot. Standard Spiked, LM, revolutionary communist party stuff.

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

TBF, the guaranteed clicks are in saying something bad about either of them, but Liverpool is top.

(It's a toss up as to which of them has thinnest civic skin)

The bourgeoisie are school teachers, accountants and NHS workers now?

I'm going to have to re-read some of the Marxist stuff and refresh my understanding.

I didn't need to look to know Liverpool or Newcastle would be either top or bottom of this list.