Category: Politics

North East young people really do want to make a difference. They are concerned about climate change and have some ideas to build hope.

We all remember songs from our childhood. Songs stick. Act Now has an important message and not one to forget.

A group of volunteers in the North East are working to support and resettle refugee families who find a home in our region. The ANEW team (that’s Amnesty North East Welcomes) must raise funds, find suitable accommodation and work for at least one year – if not two – on integrating the new arrivals into life here in the […]

The UK government still says that it is not time for their ‘Plan B’. Meanwhile for many people ‘Freedom Day’ felt like ‘Anxiety Day’.

Why Eye North East is a collaborative video project from North East Bylines. It’s a celebration of a year of publication.

By 1850 many of the technical problems of safety in the north east coal mines had been solved. This did not mean a completely smooth ride though

The NHS is in crisis. The government has mismanaged Covid and Brexit has not helped. An analysis by Giuseppe Bignardi.

Are Britons really tolerating high Covid rates? What about the example shown to us by our politicians? Carol Westall investigates.

New research has shown that more people are working from home due to difficulties caused by the petrol shortages.

Supply teachers do an invaluable job – keeping classes going and even schools open. We need to value them more.

I am sure I am not alone in deploring and regretting our exit from the Single market and the Customs Union

A personal story of cancer and immunotherapy, showing the vital importance of the contribution of scientific experts

Firefighter, Annabel Evans, of Sunderland has gained distinction grades ‘across the board in her training with TWFRS.

The loss of freedom of movement due to Brexit means that British teachers now need a permit to work in Europe.

Four in ten youngsters across Newcastle are trapped in child poverty according to the NE Child Poverty Commission.

Slick your hair back smooth, hold your arms wide open. Tell your fellow countrymen their beloved land is broken. Play on their grossest fears and promise wage increases, then take your shiny hammer and smash their land to pieces. When the fabric is dismantled from ceiling down to stanchion, wave a cheery farewell and retire […]

I fear I could be suffering from Schadenfreude, as I find myself somewhat unable to show empathy for the boss and biggest shareholder of Wetherspoons pub chain, Tim Martin. Brexit promoting Tim Martin must take some of the blame for the current crises in food, energy, labour and logistics, that the country is still reeling from. He […]

I was in Malta last week. A surreal experience with a Mediterranean climate, English spoken, fish’n’chips (and mushy peas!!) in a posh café in Valletta. In conversations with the friendly Maltese, the prevailing words, uttered quietly, once the polite language about shared history, culture and friendship had been done – “but Brexit….”; as if referring […]

On 5 October the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Coronavirus met to discuss the UK government’s ‘Winter Plan’ with witnesses giving expert evidence from a local, national and international perspective.   In September the Prime Minister announced the plans for tackling Covid during autumn and winter in England. ‘Plan A’ is designed to prevent […]

Unite the Union, the United Kingdom’s largest Trades Union, has called on Ben Houchen (Conservative Tees Valley Mayor) to ensure that everyone employed at the new Freeport has their rights protected – whether they are members of a Trade Union or not. Regional Officer, Pat McCourt, said: “While we welcome the creation of potentially thousands […]

Yesterday a group of protesters with Irish, British and EU nationalities went to London to highlight their belief that the rewriting of the Northern Ireland protocol is not democratic. Some came from the group, North East for Europe, representing the region’s Irish community. Spokesperson Louise Brown said: “We were out protesting yesterday as it is […]

Some of the English-speaking world’s most renowned historians have recently set up a scholarly group whose aim they declare is “to reclaim history, not weaponise it”, by means of calling out “fake history” in the face of “culture wars”. Their website, History Reclaimed, justifies this endeavour as a response to undefined “campaigns to rewrite the […]

A major scholarships programme to help students from low-income backgrounds in North East England to study at Durham University has received a new donation of £1 million. The donation to the Durham Inspired North East Scholarships program, which supports exceptional young people from across the region to fulfil their potential at Durham, comes from Dr […]

On Wednesday 15 September 2021, I was given the present of a lifetime. It was a day that was better than Christmas and my birthday combined. A fellow Freshers Team Leader sent me the news that Gavin Williamson had been sacked as Education Secretary. I may or may not had screamed in the middle of […]

Bus routes and services are experiencing disruption across the country, particularly in the North East. This is a knock on effect from the HGV crisis as bus drivers are being ‘poached’ by haulage bosses for hugely increased wages. The reasons for the bus driver shortages Gateshead Council leader Martin Gannon, chairman of the North East […]

North of Tyne Mayor, Jamie Driscoll, sums up the North East’s attitude towards Boris Johnson’s so-called “Levelling-Up Agenda” – there is quite literally no definition of what it actually is, despite the Prime Minister having been in Number 10 Downing Street for two years. Something which is born out in the representative poll of 10,000 […]

Boris Johnson was accused of cakeism, when he claimed that there would be no downsides to his hard Brexit policies. We now have evidence that it is not really possible “to have your cake and eat it”. Trade with the EU is no longer frictionless, thus resulting in a drop of UK exports. The current […]

It’s not that a high wage, high productivity economy is a bad idea. It’s what we desperately need to improve the lot of everyone in our broken society. It’s the bare-faced insincerity of Boris Johnson, the man who dreamed up the argument, perhaps even as he spoke to Andrew Marr last Sunday, as a way […]

Are those beer goggles you’re wearing, Mr Gove? Michael Gove visited the site of the South Tees Development Corporation in late September. When he spoke of that experience at the to the party faithful on Monday, many may have been enthralled by what he had to say. Many on Teesside, meanwhile, were left absolutely speechless.  […]

Gregor Gowans lives in Poland and is a journalist at trans.INFO. North East Bylines interviewed him to find out first-hand about lorry driver shortages and related matters. Gregor confirmed that there is indeed a lorry-driver shortage in Britain and throughout Europe, including Poland. But, he stressed, it is: “emphatically not true that there are empty […]