I attended an event this week at Live Theatre entitled: Radical North East, is this our moment? On the simplest level, I appreciated that an open and inclusive political discussion was happening in Newcastle – one that anyone, regardless of their views and backgrounds, could attend. It sounds bizarre, but panel discussions such as this with real stakeholders are few and far between – certainly in my experience. But sitting there, one leg crossed over the other with my tatty cap sitting on my knee, I was itching to get up and outline my thoughts, my feelings, and my vision for a genuinely radical North East.
What a feeling
To me, we are an inherently radical community. There can be very little debate around it. It’s in our blood, our bones. Our history of involvement in the suffragette movement, the bravery shown by our striking miners, the Jarrow Crusade – the list goes on. Radicalism, ultimately, isn’t something primarily defined by actions; it’s a vibe – an emotional outlook, a gut feeling, an innate ability to challenge norms, to be sceptical towards power, and to be proud of your own community. In the North East, I think we have that within us.
For working class north easterners, I think that radical spirit is something we’re born with. It’s the stories we’re told as we grow up. It’s sitting with your granddad and hearing stories of his childhood: brothers dying young, accidents in the pit, the almost grotesque, bone-breaking reality of a job that somehow was the source of undeniable pride. And growing up, as granddad becomes frail and you grow into yourself, it’s picking him up from the Working Men’s Club after having drinks with his old pals, reminiscing on the good days that weren’t all that great, seeing the twinkle in his eye, his pride in you, and the person you’ve become – the barriers you’ve overcome to break from the mould and explore opportunities that, for him, were never ever possible. And when he’s gone, its the plaque above the bar with his name, and his favourite catchphrase: just another day.
And so I think, regardless of your politics, we all carry that radical streak. Is this our moment? I think so. But we’ve never needed permission to make it one. Because bluntly, time and time again, when our backs have been against the wall and we’ve been well aware of the insurmountable objects standing right in front of us, we’ve never cowered, and we’ve found a way to make it our moment – however small, however fleeting. We’re resilient, and we’re strong. And we will always chip away at the coalface to forge a new path.
For those outside of the North East, that rhetoric might read as twee or self-righteous – other communities across the country have struggled with similarly long histories of underinvestment and deprivation. But I think the North East sits in an unusual place within that, because whatever we’ve faced, we’ve always stood together; forever resolute. And if that’s not radical, I’m unsure what is.
But now, with a PM apparently aligned with a genuine levelling-up agenda, and a driven North East Mayor with the bit between her teeth, it’s on us to turn that emotion, that feeling, into action.
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Education
For me, there is one area which could have the greatest long-term impact on levelling-up our community: our schools. A radical North East is one that, while focused on action, does so with its people at the very centre. If we can improve opportunities for our young people especially, we can facilitate a new generation of thinkers and of leaders who can carry on that work in the years to come.
Votes at 16
Last night, when asked a question about voting for 16-year-olds, the panel unanimously spoke in favour. For me, I agree in principle, but only if it comes with the civic education to make that vote mean something. If we aren’t investing in educating our children on politics, and on the way our institutions work and what matters to them, what are we actually letting them vote for? If the next generation of voters are going to be allowed to have their politics shaped and bent by social media when their brains are at their most formative, that seems short-sighted to me.
I was never taught politics at school. It rarely came up. If anything, politics and civics were weirdly taboo. It wasn’t ever something that we seemed welcomed into.
When I look around Blyth today and see people from school posting hard-right propaganda, AI videos and fake news on their Facebook timelines, I think it’s no wonder when our education system does very little to educate them on how to consume media, often because our teachers and leaders are unsure how to themselves. Sure, giving votes to 16-year-olds looks great, but if that’s all you’re prepared to do, and they leave school with poor literacy, a smattering of middling GCSE results, and feel that there is no obvious next step to go into, what have we achieved? We build resentment and encourage them to engage in a system which – on account of our own negligence – they are increasingly likely to seek to topple as they age.
I’ve written before that nationally, but especially in the North East, there is an opportunity vacuum. Now, with the rapid and foolishly unregulated advancement in AI and technology, that vacuum has become a void. Even for the most able of young people, those with brilliant grades and shiny degrees, there is very little without a network of well-connected people already there. And guess what? In the North East, the vast majority of us don’t have that.
When I arrived at Newcastle University in 2018, I knew two other people from my school going there – to a top University less than half an hour’s drive from my front door. By contrast, the students I met on my course and within societies came to Newcastle because they knew a network of tens of students was already there, or preparing to, from the private school they’d attended. The first question you were always asked was: what school did you go to? At my home university, I was an outsider.
And what’s worse, when I was writing my UCAS application, amongst some staff, Newcastle was not a university we were particularly encouraged to apply to. Durham sure, because they had their supported progression programme for underprivileged students. Northumbria (a great university by the way) yes, because subconsciously the former polytechnic was deemed more our level. Durham only seemed viable because they’d let the poor kids in for less. And even then, that programme was mostly an exercise so that they didn’t have to be so selective through standard UCAS applications for colleges to meet their quotas.
Newcastle always had the sort of vibe – not that they’d ever really admit it, but it was definitely there – that it wasn’t quite the right place for people like us. Maybe I’m projecting, maybe it’s the chip on my shoulder. But I felt it, both at school when applying and when I arrived.
Education in the North East has to have aspiration at its core; otherwise, what’s the point? If we’re not pushing kids to do the best they can do – irrespective of their class background – what is the actual point of schools and exams? If the aim is just to do good enough compared to the background you come from, the entire system is failing.
It’s an uncomfortable truth – and not the case in every school in the region – but in the most deprived places, it’s a reality. Reading ages and literacy rates are appallingly low, attendance often even lower. Staff turnover sky high. A radical North East starts by reforming our education system, tearing up everything that doesn’t work, root and branch, and rebuilding.
In my view, a lot of that begins in pre-school. We may have to accept that, through our own negligence, we have wasted the potential of a generation already – that people my age, and those 16+, might already have had their cards marked by the mistakes that exist in the system. That can be a hard pill to swallow, but that’s not to say that it’s untrue. Of course, it’s not intended as a blanket observation, and many will push back and argue that there are many young people from our region who do great stuff. It’s true. But for working class kids without guidance, mentorship and access, it’s a rare phenomenon. And the onus is entirely on the student. That’s a lot to shoulder.
Our question should always be: how can we have as many brilliant North East young people reaching their potential and, if it doesn’t sound too twee, reaching for the stars to meet their dreams. Posh kids aren’t told that certain careers are inaccessible. If they want to be actors or artists or musicians, they aren’t told no in the same way we are. When posh kids want to study History or English, they’re not met with: “well what are you going to do with that?” like I was (I eventually studied Law because it felt like a “real” subject). We have to face up to that. We have to restore ambition and aspiration because, when it’s all boiled down, that’s what radicalism is. In the North East, we are a community of storytellers; a region of dreamers.
From pre-school and nursery, reading and access to arts and theatre should be a staple of the curriculum. We should expose kids to books and creativity at the earliest possible age. In an age of rapid technological progress, it’s the human ability to think freely and create that will make us unique and maintain us. And we have to keep that going all the way through the system.
We need to involve more coursework components into exams that aren’t just writing essays. It should be performance-based, or creatively driven, so that there is a release valve from just sitting and writing exams. People have to enjoy studying and feel that they can express themselves in the ways they know how to, if we are ever going to give them the confidence to reach their potential. That’s how we maintain the essence of our North East grit and spirit. Through the power of expression. Practically, that means funding creative subjects and reading recovery in every primary school, training teachers to teach media literacy and politics with confidence, and building formal mentorship and access schemes that connect state school pupils in the North East with the universities and industries currently closed off to them. We have to acknowledge what makes us different, hold it close, cherish it, and never let it go.
Green energy
If radicalism is about seizing a moment, then green energy is an exciting one. The North East already has the ports, the engineering heritage, the coastline and the history to become the country’s genuine hub for offshore wind and renewables. That opportunity is sat right on our doorstep, and we’re already making real inroads. We cannot afford to let it pass us by again.
But there’s something more important here than the jobs and the investment. This is our chance to prove that progressivism isn’t a zero-sum game – that lifting one community up doesn’t mean taking something away from another. If we’re going to close your factory, we owe you the truth about why, and a real path forward: retraining, or a move onto one of the new green projects springing up along our coast. Nobody – young or old – should be left feeling behind, or stuck without options or support, because the country decided to change direction.
And we need to shout about it. It’s great having the conversation in the North East about the North East, but that’s not enough anymore – we need to get the word out there. Flood the zone with our success stories. Dominate the media landscape telling our own story, on our own terms, for once. Put hope back into our communities, so that whoever you are, you can grow up believing that anything is possible.
Because if we can’t do that, what’s the point?
Them or us?
There is one existential, and remarkably simple, reason why this has to be our moment: because if it isn’t, it will be the hard right’s.
They promise an equally radical North East too. The difference is that the barriers standing between them and achieving it are far lower than ours. Their vision isn’t to build anything – it’s to cut and strip away everything that’s good, to remove hope entirely, to divide us further, to destroy rather than rebuild. Their plan is to let anger simmer and fester, and have us turn on one another, all from the comfort of an office in Whitehall. Their project doesn’t cost anything, because it was never about investment or regeneration in the first place – it’s about setting fire to everything and calling the smoke progress.
If they’re elected, their chances of success are high. That’s exactly why this has to be our moment. We can choose to be radical, and fight for a genuinely better North East – one built on hope, community solidarity, and opportunity. Or we can surrender to anger and division.
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