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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

Her adviser should probably not have issued a reminder to the paper, but Miller may feel it is she who is being picked on Share 1 inShare0 Email The culture secretary's housing arrangements have come under scrutiny. Photograph: Neil Hall/Reuters Should Maria Miller's special adviser have reminded – "flagged up" was the verb of choice – the Daily Telegraph that the boss is currently involved in discussions over the new post-Leveson regime for press regulation when the paper started sniffing around her expenses claims over her London home, the one where her parents also live? Probably not in the current inflamed climate, I'd say. Should the Telegraph have made an issue of its hurt feelings in today's edition? Probably not. These things happen. Politicians and their bagmen and women try to bribe (with information) or bully newspapers, the press does the same – as everyone who listened to much of the evidence presented to Lord Justice Leveson in court

Evidence that state agents connived in the lawyer's murder is disturbing, but context is important Share 7 inShare0 Email The De Silva report into the murder of Pat Finucane. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Who could not be disturbed by the latest evidence from the De Silva report that agents of the British state connived in the murder of the Belfast lawyer Pat Finucane all those years ago, or moved by the dignity of the dead man's family in pressing for yet further investigation of what happened and how it was subsequently covered up? There are plenty of questions still to be teased out. The Slugger O'Toole website, always a lively read, provides a few here in an item written by Brian Walker, a well-informed former BBC correspondent and Ulsterman. But broad context matters too. Terrible things were done in Northern Ireland in the Troubles, some of them by the state but rather more by the paramilitary gangs on both sides, the loyalist gangs and by the prime m

Looking back on 2012, Labour MP Bridget Phillipson sets out three Cs - connectivity, competitiveness and cooperation - as the core of revival in a region rich in people, skills and resources Share 34 inShare0 Email Showing the way: Bridget Phillipson on her election as MP for Houghton and Sunderland South at the general election. Photograph: Gareth Copley/PA Despite the reported headline fall in unemployment this week, 2012 was yet another year when thousands of young people across the north east could not find work. In my constituency in Sunderland long term youth unemployment has risen by 194 per cent in the last year. Hard pressed families have no choice but to support younger family members, despite already suffering from the effects of lower wages, higher energy bills and rising food prices. The social and economic consequences of long term youth unemployment are devastating to the wider community as well as destroying young people's confidence and future career prosp

The Guardian Northerner's political commentor Ed Jacobs picks some statistics to illustrate the way the party fared in 2012 Share 7 inShare0 Email Off your bike. In a generally good northern year for Labour, John Prescott took a spill. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA It's been a year of mostly ups for Labour in the north, but not entirely. Success was punctuated by the shock of the dreadful result for the party in the Bradford West by-election which saw George Galloway return to Westminster for Respect. The party also had to endure prolonged controversy over one of its own MPs, Denis MacShane, who was ultimately forced to resign his Rotherham seat over misclaimed expenses. And John Prescott's high profile attempt to become Police and Crime Commissioner for Humberside proved a damp squib. So here is Labour's year in the north in numbers: 47% is the average support for Labour in northern England in 2012 among those certain to vote as measured in the Guardian's

Manchester councillor Amina Lone finds worrying practice in the Government's altered system of assessing and paying disability benefits Share 136 inShare0 Email One of many recent protests against disability benefits assessment tests. Photograph: Philip Kirk/Corbis The welfare reforms enacted by the coalition government have proved to be controversial; but none more so that the shift from Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independent Payments (PIPs). Each share many similarities, for instance the inclusion of a daily living allowance and mobility component that are essential to ensure that individuals can maintain control over their own lives by taking responsibility through personal choice. However, organisations such as Disability Rights UK believe that the main driver is to cut allowance and reduce public expenditure. Whilst reducing the deficit is of course critical for our economy, it is also a political choice about who carries the responsibility for achi

Elizabeth II's reputation for restraint means she is given a lot of credit – which was not always true of her predecessors Share 32 inShare0 Email The Queen and David Cameron – distantly related via some 200-year-old hanky-panky. Photograph: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images The announcement that the Queen will be attending a session of the cabinet on Tuesday to mark her diamond jubilee tells us more about the monarch, the cabinet and indeed ourselves than is obvious at first glance. Not so long ago the very idea might have caused uproar, among constitutional purists as well as republicans. It may well do again one day. The Queen has spent 60 years demonstrating personal restraint and (most of the time) discreet good judgment. That may be why the rightwing press failed to get pompous about her dignity when she did that classy gig with James Bond for the Olympic opening ceremony. She has a lot of credit in the bank. That was not always true of Queen Victoria, whose reputation fo

Private equity firm Cerberus is selliing its stake in gunmakers – instead of leading a campaign to clean up gun laws Share 56 inShare0 Email The Newtown school shootings have sparked renewed calls for gun control. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA I thought BBC Radio 4 showed commendable delicacy on day four of the Newtown school massacre story when it placed an unrelated news item within its wall-to-wall coverage of the dreadful slaughter of 20 children and their teachers from a report that nine Afghan girls had been killed when they stumbled on an old landmine when foraging for firewood. Though no offence was meant, the contrast between the coverage of the two incidents was painful. The grief of the American parents, the shock that went through wider society, so powerful that even the powerful and complacent National Rifle Association (NRA) noticed by day five, was heart-rending and distressing. But to my mind the coverage was excessive, with the multiplier effect caused b

Nigel Adams, Conservative Member of Parliament for Selby and Ainsty and Parliamentary Private Secretary to Lord Strathclyde, Leader of the House of Lords, gives his personal take on 2012. Share 30 inShare0 Email Plugging in. North Yorkshire is taking a lead with superfast broadband; a powerful way of helping skills and jobs. Photograph: Rex Features 2012 has been another tough year but thankfully in respect of employment we are seeing a turnaround that appears to be baffling some economics commentators. In my own constituency of Selby and Ainsty in North Yorkshire, unemployment has fallen by a quarter since the coalition has been in office. With a national unemployment rate of 7.8% and Selby and Ainsty's rate falling to 2.9%, I am encouraged that a recovery is well underway in the region. In fact, there are now record numbers of people in work and across the Yorkshire and Humber region has seen employment rise by 48,000 to 2,503,000 people. The Office for National Statisti

The Guardian Northerner's political commentor Ed Jacobs rounds off his look back at how the three main parties have fared in 2012 Share 19 inShare0 Email Big northern hitter. But has the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne been hitting his own party's wicket? Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters U-turns, bleak electoral prospects and a deeply unpopular Chancellor. It's been a tough year for the Conservatives up north. Here's the party's 2012 in numbers: 24.6% - the average support for the Conservatives in northern England in 2012 among those certain to vote as measured in the Guardian's regular polling by ICM Research. Three – the number of U-turns made by the Chancellor in the wake of his 'omnishambles' budget in March. Among them was the tax on static caravans which would have had a severe impact on the largely East Yorkshire-based industry. In a joint article for the Guardian Northerner, the Labour MP for Hull North, Diana Johnson and Br