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In the first of a series of posts on the fortunes of the three main parties across northern England in 2012, Ed Jacobs looks at the Liberal Democrats' year in numbers. Share 8 inShare0 Email Melting away: the Lib Dems' hopes of revival in the north look as robust as a chocolate fireguard, says Ed. Photograph: Alamy The words 'It's been a tough year for the Lib Dems' are ones which could have been used last Christmas and the Christmas before, and will likely be appropriate next year and the year after that as well. As 2012 draws to an end, we find the party seeking to outline a distinct identity within the coalition over the Leveson Report and the green agenda, and trying to portray itself as the conscience of a Government which, without the Lib Dem presence would be doing many, many, unspecified, 'nasty' things. They don't agree with Nick, apparently. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA The reality is, that when we look at the Liberal Democrat year in n

ractical help with community input is slowly beginning to turn the tables, argues Ian Swales MP, whose Redcar constituency came bottom of a national league of economic revival Share 5 inShare0 Email Back in action: the steelworks by the Tees estuary in Redcar. Photograph: Nigel Roddis/Reuters The north east has not had it easy recently. A year ago I had to appear on Newsnight to explain why the local authority of Redcar & Cleveland which includes my constituency was 324th out of 324 local authorities in a BBC/Experian survey of area economic resilience. Other Teesside local authorities at the bottom included neighbouring Middlesbrough and Hartlepool. There is no doubt that unemployment is still too high and opportunities still too limited in the area, but I can see real desire from the Government to help the north east thrive. The Regional Growth Fund (RGF), which has pumped millions into the north east and has had a real effect in my constituency, is doing great work in h

We have nothing to fear from examining the issue but the onus should be on those advocating reform to justify their case Share 22 inShare0 Email Many young people experiment with cannabis; most drop the habit, and relatively few get seriously stuck into the hard stuff. Photograph: PA We all face a difficult choice this morning. On the smouldering issue of drug legalisation, do we back the permissive instincts of Russell Brand and Michael Fabricant, the Tory MP with the unnatural blond hairdo? Or do we join the Daily Mail columnist and mental health campaigner, the level-headed Marjorie Wallace, in rejecting any move towards decriminalisation? It's a tough one, a modern dilemma – which is why we call them dilemmas. There is a case for both arguments and powerful reasons militating against them too. That may be why, as Alan Travis reports, the Commons home affairs select committee, chaired by the irrepressible Keith Vaz, has merely urged a royal commission to consider the

Far more commitment is needed from Government, argues Anna Turley, Labour's prospective candidate for Redcar, in a response to local Liberal Democrat MP Ian Swales' piece here last week Share 36 inShare0 Email Steel and the seaside at Redcar. A great past needs help to become a great future. Photograph: Gary Calton Ian Swales MP was right in his Guardian Northerner article last week to recognise the importance of rebuilding economic resilience in the north east, and in particular of Redcar and Teesside. However his analysis of his government's role in supporting recovery here smacks more of wishful thinking than of reality. Instead of defending Margaret Thatcher's legacy on Teesside, as he did in a recent debate in Parliament, Mr Swales ought to look to what more his government should be doing to drive growth in a region with the potential to be at the heart of Britain's economic revival. The truth is that this double dip recession – the longest in history

'm interviewing the man who runs Britain's largest public sector union; what would you like me to ask him? Share 14 inShare0 Email Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian For the last two and a half years Unison has been at the centre of union opposition to the coalition's austerity programme and it organised last November's mammoth strike. In some areas its campaigning has been successful (one of the under-reported stories in the autumn statement was George Osborne's decision to abandon regional pay). But the austerity programme continues. I'll ask about what has worked for Unison, what hasn't, and what comes next. I'll ask about relations with Labour and the future of public services generally. But I'd like to hear your suggestions for questions too. As you can see from its website, Unison has taken strong positions on a range of public service issues. Here's the speech that Prentis

Alex Salmond's case for independence has been struck a severe blow by José Manuel Barroso, but why is the EU so nervous, asks the European Policy Centre Share 81 inShare0 Email José Manuel Barroso, European commission president, is anxious to avoid a two-tier Europe by allowing Scotland to join using the UK's opt outs Photograph: Vincent Kessler/Reuters The unfolding controversy over a future independent Scotland's status within Europe has reached a crisis point for the Scottish government: in the dispute with commission president José Manuel Barroso, the credibility of a significant chunk of its case is at stake. But within this crisis are unanswered, pivotal questions which could allow the first minister, Alex Salmond, some wriggle room. And there is one puzzle: why would the European commission be getting so involved at this stage, two years before the referendum? One possible answer to that comes up in a thinktank discussion paper published in October by the

Whether you are delighted or alarmed by the changes in England and Wales probably depends on your own experiences Share 27 inShare0 Email Boris Johnson: the blond self-parodic Englishman is also a 'one-man melting pot'. Photograph: Matthew Aslett/Demotix/Corbis How did you react to the revelations which emerged from the 2011 census for England and Wales? Did you measure it against your own life, daily experiences and immediate family? Did you recognise a country which is less white, less Christian, less married than a decade ago – to the alarm of some cultural conservatives and the delight of the multicultural crowd? I think it's fair to say the above trends have been gathering pace for most of the decades since the second world war and that what is different is the scale of the momentum in the past decade, chiefly – but far from exclusively – driven by the huge influx of arrivals from new EU member states which the Labour government allowed after 2004. As with mo