:38:35. > :38:39.End-use for us to be reckoned We will be dissecting the that by-
:38:39. > :38:47.election win for Labour and trying to make sense of the results across
:38:47. > :38:50.the North-East. With me to discuss a tall, and will be speaking to the
:38:50. > :38:58.leader of Northumberland council who kept his seat despite calling
:38:58. > :39:04.his home town a dump. We have been back to see the
:39:04. > :39:09.collieries in County Durham. First up, the first woman ever to
:39:09. > :39:13.be elected to represent South Shields in Parliament. Emma Lewell-
:39:13. > :39:17.Buck took the seat with a comfortable majority. The former
:39:17. > :39:22.social worker was clear what message she thought voters were
:39:22. > :39:28.sending to the Government. I was pledging change. I will fight for
:39:28. > :39:32.jobs for our young people, I will fight for growth in the town centre.
:39:32. > :39:37.I will take the fight to the Tories on cuts they are making to hard-
:39:37. > :39:46.pressed families. Labour gained 11 seats on Cumbria County Council
:39:46. > :39:51.mainly at the cost of the Conservatives. Norma Redfearn's
:39:51. > :39:57.victory means that not a single council in the north-east and
:39:57. > :40:02.Cumbria is controlled by the Tories. The Government picked up a terrible
:40:02. > :40:08.mess from the last Labour government. It has been difficult
:40:08. > :40:11.for them, they have had to make some very hard decisions. I think
:40:11. > :40:19.local government and everybody else have had to cut their cloth
:40:20. > :40:28.accordingly. The defeated mayor of North Tyneside. UKIP arguably made
:40:28. > :40:31.the biggest waves with a strong second place in South Shields.
:40:31. > :40:38.According to their deputy leader, it puts them in a good position for
:40:38. > :40:43.next year's European elections. is showing UKIP is not just a
:40:43. > :40:50.southern-based party. We can come into the North and Paul excellently
:40:50. > :40:55.as well. It bodes well for the European elections next year.
:40:55. > :41:00.for the Liberal Democrats, seventh place in the by-election just ahead
:41:00. > :41:06.of that Monster Raving Loonies was a truly shocking result. More
:41:06. > :41:13.damaging, the loss of 15 council seats in Northumberland. In Cumbria
:41:13. > :41:19.the Lib Dems but the trend and gained one. It has been an OK day,
:41:19. > :41:26.but it is really only to plan. We anticipated making a few gains, and
:41:26. > :41:32.it has come to fruition. The rare sight of a contented Lib Dem.
:41:32. > :41:36.Voters in County Durham did turn to youth in the face -- in the shape
:41:36. > :41:43.of the 19-year-old Thomas Nearney who became the youngest member in
:41:43. > :41:47.Durham County Council's history. The sky is the limit. At the moment
:41:47. > :41:55.that the focus is definitely on doing all I can and being as
:41:55. > :41:58.accessible as I can. Plenty of political experience and wisdom
:41:58. > :42:02.around the table. That by-election result and the Windsor North
:42:02. > :42:09.Yorkshire, you have to accept that UKIP are taking votes from the
:42:09. > :42:14.Conservatives. They are taking votes from all over the place. We
:42:14. > :42:19.retain under our eight seats in the Scarborough Borough of. Regain that
:42:19. > :42:23.UKIP made were from the independence. The Labour Party were
:42:23. > :42:29.pushed into third place by Scarborough Borough, and the Lib
:42:30. > :42:34.Dems came trailing in fifth. They won seats in North Yorkshire, not
:42:34. > :42:38.in Durham when they were up against Labour. If it was the Conservative
:42:38. > :42:44.and Liberal Democrat vote that collapsed in South Shields. We need
:42:44. > :42:50.to look at why people voted for UKIP. People get disgruntled with
:42:50. > :42:55.the Government in power. A lot of them do not like the message. They
:42:55. > :42:59.like the anti-Europe, anti- immigration message from UKIP.
:42:59. > :43:03.have cut immigration by a third and a probing with the tremendous
:43:03. > :43:09.deficit. If people look closely at the policies have you kept, they
:43:09. > :43:14.may not see a resonance with them. In terms of the last election, they
:43:14. > :43:24.were promising 125 billion in increase spending but had no means
:43:24. > :43:25.
:43:25. > :43:29.of its Ben -- paying for. They want to go back to smoking in pubs.
:43:29. > :43:34.need good keens in the county elections, but you're only winning
:43:34. > :43:40.in areas where Labour has always one in the past. In some respects,
:43:40. > :43:44.I feel as if I am dancing at someone else's wake. Labour had a
:43:44. > :43:49.good gains across the country. But I would like to say a couple of
:43:49. > :43:55.things about UKIP. I spoke to people on the doorstep who had
:43:55. > :43:58.already posted their postal vote and voted UKIP. These were Labour
:43:58. > :44:02.voters and they told me they were protesting against the
:44:02. > :44:08.Establishment, feeling as if they were not being listened to. They
:44:08. > :44:12.told me very clearly, come the general election, we will be voting
:44:12. > :44:19.Labour. Labour did not lose one single councillor across the
:44:19. > :44:25.country to UKIP us. Do you accept it may not just be about protest.
:44:25. > :44:30.Some of their messages may appeal to Labour voters. We have to take
:44:30. > :44:34.those things very seriously. Some people who are voting for UKIP were
:44:34. > :44:38.saying to me, we will not vote for them and a general election, but we
:44:38. > :44:44.need to make our protests because we feel the three main parties are
:44:44. > :44:52.not listening to us. Quite an achievement for you, given all that
:44:52. > :44:58.was going on, to hold on to your seat. What you put that down to?
:44:58. > :45:03.all put a lot of hard work in, and I guess having a higher profile and
:45:03. > :45:07.having done the work, and knocked on hundreds of doors was enough to
:45:08. > :45:15.push me past the finishing line. Even though you have a bit of a
:45:15. > :45:19.nasty publicity. I did. But I was able to stand in front of people
:45:19. > :45:25.and explain the context of the comment and what I actually meant
:45:25. > :45:29.was about the retail offering in that time I belonged to. Your party
:45:30. > :45:35.to go real hammering in the Northumberland and Durham. The
:45:35. > :45:42.result in South Shields, do you have to accept some parts of the
:45:42. > :45:47.north-east see your party as dead? No, I do not accept that after all.
:45:47. > :45:51.We are part of the Government and governments never do very well in
:45:51. > :45:58.parliamentary by-elections. Conservatives got fired in South
:45:58. > :46:03.Shields, you were seven. I except a was a bad results, but you need to
:46:03. > :46:09.think about UKIP, in the past we were seen as the anti-establishment
:46:09. > :46:16.party. We cannot claim to be that any more because we are part of the
:46:16. > :46:21.Establishment, we are part of national government. Robert, what
:46:21. > :46:26.does your Prime Minister need to do to see off the UKIP threat question
:46:26. > :46:31.mark we need to listen to the reasons that people voted for UKIP.
:46:31. > :46:34.In many ways the voted for them because they cannot vote for the
:46:34. > :46:41.traditional receptacle for protest vote which was the Liberal
:46:41. > :46:47.Democrats. By and large, certainly on the doorstep... Should
:46:47. > :46:54.Conservatives look at UKIP policies? Certainly not. Perhaps
:46:54. > :46:58.they could be stronger on immigration or Europe. People blame
:46:58. > :47:02.the European Union, but sometimes it is the European Court of Human
:47:02. > :47:08.Rights. On the doorstep I heard people say they were going to vote
:47:08. > :47:12.UKIP, but at the general election they will vote for us. We have a
:47:12. > :47:17.big challenge in the European elections because people's votes
:47:17. > :47:23.are not wasted. And I think UKIP will mount a major challenge at
:47:23. > :47:29.that election. Labour, the people you have got to defeat to go into
:47:29. > :47:36.government, the mayoral election in North Tyneside was a bad defeat for
:47:36. > :47:46.the Conservatives. That is true. My seat was taken by Labour with a
:47:46. > :47:51.
:47:51. > :47:53.five and a half 1000 majority in I did not expect the Conservatives
:47:53. > :47:59.to be topping the poll in Scarborough and Whitby, but we did
:47:59. > :48:05.quite comfortably for. That is the point, Labour are not making the
:48:05. > :48:10.progress that the needs. You need to look at these county council
:48:10. > :48:16.elections, it they have never been our heartland. We have never won in
:48:16. > :48:21.places like the southeast or the south-west, in 40 years. Even with
:48:21. > :48:31.everything that is going on you were not beaten the Conservative us.
:48:31. > :48:33.
:48:33. > :48:38.In 2009, the Tories lost 200 -- gained 244 seats. We have been
:48:38. > :48:45.gaining in places where we need to win. In Derbyshire we had to take
:48:45. > :48:52.it, and we did. We also took Harlow, seeds in Cornwall and Norwich.
:48:52. > :48:56.These are all places we need to win. We could have done by ETA.
:48:56. > :49:01.mention before something needs to be done to tackle this perception
:49:01. > :49:07.that none of the main three parties are talking to people about their
:49:07. > :49:12.concerns. What can Labour do about that? One of the things people are
:49:12. > :49:20.saying is that Labour are not listening to our concerns. There
:49:20. > :49:26.was a real perception that politicians cannot change our lives.
:49:26. > :49:29.Austerity has really hit the north- east, people are really feeling it.
:49:29. > :49:34.Shouldn't they be turning to you in their droves? No-one should be
:49:34. > :49:40.thinking about voting for UKIP, they can all vote for Labour
:49:40. > :49:46.because you were fighting austerity. In my area it was almost impossible
:49:46. > :49:50.to get any more seats. Labour took 94 seats. You could not do any
:49:50. > :49:55.better in that and this is the part of the world hit harder by
:49:55. > :50:05.coalition policies. Jeffrey, how long can you party continued to
:50:05. > :50:05.
:50:05. > :50:11.lose counsellors? Your party can keep taking the is kind of losses.
:50:11. > :50:17.I have been doing this for more or less 40 years, and I have seen just
:50:17. > :50:24.about everything you can see. This is a really bad time for us, but it
:50:24. > :50:28.will turn around. Will it? This is different. You got into a coalition
:50:28. > :50:31.with Conservatives. In areas you are competing with Labour the
:50:31. > :50:37.evidence is that voters do not like that and they will not forgive the
:50:37. > :50:44.use. They may not, but being a committed Liberal Democrat, I have
:50:44. > :50:50.to believe if we express our views to enough people, then it will
:50:50. > :50:53.become what people want to vote for. Would it be easier if you began to
:50:53. > :50:59.unshackled your cells from his coalition before the next election?
:50:59. > :51:04.I think it is important we carry on in trying to deliver the economic
:51:04. > :51:08.prosperity that everyone has cravings. Even if the cost is more
:51:08. > :51:14.councillors losing their seats in the next couple of years. Obviously,
:51:15. > :51:20.I do not want to see that happen, but the reality is that we are in a
:51:20. > :51:26.whole. The country is in a whole. We have to stop digging and get
:51:26. > :51:34.ourselves out of the predicament we are in. The Labour Party are not
:51:34. > :51:38.actually saying anything different to what the coalition are doing. I
:51:38. > :51:45.do not know what the Labour Party would do to get us out of the
:51:45. > :51:49.situation. None of this year's election results were quite as
:51:49. > :51:59.surprising as events in Hartlepool 11 years ago when voters shows by
:51:59. > :52:06.
:52:06. > :52:11.man in a monkey suit to run the Northern farmers have a new ally in
:52:11. > :52:16.their dealings with the big four supermarkets. Farmers can report
:52:16. > :52:24.any supermarket which tries to force them into accepting unfair
:52:24. > :52:32.prices. South Tyneside councillor David Potts has died aged just 30
:52:32. > :52:38.after hospital treatment for Further cutbacks have been
:52:38. > :52:42.announced by Cumbria police. Five times will only open police
:52:42. > :52:46.stations front counters for part of the day.
:52:46. > :52:54.The first and last a elected mayor of Hartlepool has left office after
:52:54. > :53:04.local people voted to scrap the role. His career began in 2002 when
:53:04. > :53:09.
:53:09. > :53:14.he steered it as Hartlepool's of Best wishes to Stuart Drummond for
:53:14. > :53:17.his future. 20 years ago this week centuries of
:53:17. > :53:21.coal-mining came to an end in County Durham. A programme
:53:21. > :53:26.announced by John Major's government seal the fate of many
:53:26. > :53:35.coal pits. 20 years on, what has happened to the men who work there
:53:35. > :53:40.and how has the economy coped. Smart, new housing in South Shields.
:53:40. > :53:43.Estate agents might call it a desirable area, but it hides a
:53:43. > :53:48.secret. You could perhaps be anywhere in
:53:48. > :53:54.the country, but almost hidden away next to this new estate there is
:53:54. > :54:04.something else. It is part of the North East's industrial heritage.
:54:04. > :54:10.All that remains of an old colliery. 20 years ago this month it closed.
:54:10. > :54:16.It is very sad. I felt my future was here. When I came here I
:54:16. > :54:25.thought, I will get my retirement out of this. I certainly had its
:54:25. > :54:30.faults that may be my son would take the job up. The last four pits
:54:30. > :54:37.in the County Durham coalfield. In the start of the 90s may employ
:54:37. > :54:45.nearly 7,000 men. In late 1992, John Major's government announced a
:54:45. > :54:51.pit closure programme. This is an awful decision, but I am afraid it
:54:51. > :54:58.is unavoidable. Miners went to London to rally the Government, but
:54:58. > :55:03.it was to no avail. Both Keith and Jimmy eventually found work but say
:55:03. > :55:08.there is a big gap in the north- east economy for. We have this
:55:08. > :55:16.economy where we rely on call centres and distribution centres.
:55:16. > :55:23.That does not require skills. Nor does it give opportunities. At the
:55:23. > :55:29.Pit, you could rise up through the ranks. The archive images contrast
:55:29. > :55:34.sharply with what it looks like today. Yes, another housing estate
:55:34. > :55:39.and a pretty smart looking one. You might say, the very picture of
:55:39. > :55:47.prosperity. After the shock of the end of the County Durham coalfield,
:55:47. > :55:51.was the gap left in our economy really that they? In 1992 there
:55:51. > :55:58.were 4168 people claiming jobseeker's benefits in the Eastern
:55:58. > :56:02.District. The latest figures show that figure has fallen to 3408. But
:56:03. > :56:07.economists say we need to be cautious. There has been a decrease
:56:07. > :56:12.in people claiming unemployment benefit, but that does not account
:56:12. > :56:16.for people take him out of the labour market altogether. People
:56:16. > :56:22.claiming sickness benefit. There is huge changes in the structure of
:56:22. > :56:30.the working market. Also the type of jobs, quality of jobs and rates
:56:30. > :56:34.of pay. For some, the closure of Durham's Pitts was an opportunity.
:56:34. > :56:40.Tim is now a maths teacher, but he started his working life at a
:56:40. > :56:44.colliery. I got a big push to say, you really need to try and do
:56:44. > :56:49.something else because the mines are going away from us.
:56:49. > :56:53.Shipbuilding had gone, it was difficult. Without the help of a
:56:53. > :56:58.lot of people, especially the family, I would never have made it.
:56:58. > :57:03.I tried to pass on to my students, the enrichment of my life was
:57:03. > :57:08.getting through those harder times. I want them to know what they can
:57:08. > :57:14.do and get out of life if they tried. Some have moved on from the
:57:14. > :57:24.pits, others mourn their passing. But 22 years on, there is no going
:57:24. > :57:26.
:57:26. > :57:32.Would you accept that these places have recovered and in some ways
:57:32. > :57:36.look better? There are a number of issues around that, environmentally
:57:36. > :57:40.people in my constituency are constantly fighting battles against
:57:40. > :57:45.open cast proposals. Instead of having deep mines that employed
:57:46. > :57:51.people with good, well paid jobs, we're getting applications to scour
:57:51. > :57:53.the entire landscape. Local people do not want that and are constantly
:57:54. > :57:58.fighting against it. Environmentally there have been
:57:59. > :58:02.improvements, though we have got to get that into context. If we had a
:58:02. > :58:09.longer discussion we could talk about what is region needs, in this
:58:09. > :58:19.structure, jobs and dignities. Too many people never had a proper jobs
:58:19. > :58:24.after the mines closed. -- this region needs infrastructure. People
:58:24. > :58:29.want jobs that bring in decent money that will feed their families.
:58:29. > :58:33.At the moment, it too many young people are going the way we did in
:58:33. > :58:38.the 1980s. We're losing a generation of young people who are
:58:38. > :58:43.unemployed. Robert, at the time the Conservative Government insisted it
:58:43. > :58:48.would not lead to mass coal imports and depending on other countries
:58:48. > :58:53.for our energy needs. That was obviously wrong, was a short-
:58:53. > :59:02.sighted? We were in the ear of North Sea gas and had our own
:59:02. > :59:06.resources. -- in the year round. These days people may need to
:59:06. > :59:10.retrain and redeploy themselves into different jobs during their
:59:10. > :59:15.working life. The Secretary of State for Transport is a former
:59:15. > :59:21.miner. In my constituency we have a planning application for a new pot
:59:21. > :59:27.- mind which will create 1000 jobs. Do you think people are prepared to
:59:27. > :59:31.go down a deep mine? The modern ones are much different to being in
:59:31. > :59:36.a coal mine, you drive around and Land Rovers at the bottom of the
:59:36. > :59:43.pit. It is an altogether different thing. The effect on the overall
:59:43. > :59:47.economy will be tremendous. We have Nissan in Sunderland, we have new
:59:47. > :59:53.industries coming in creating jobs. Miners did not want their sons to
:59:53. > :59:57.go back down the pit, they wanted them to get an education. Jeffrey,
:59:57. > :00:07.is the north-east a better place without these pits, or of our
:00:07. > :00:09.
:00:09. > :00:16.communities damaged? It is 20 years and a we are lacking that social
:00:16. > :00:25.cohesion that these mines give our communities. We have an enterprise
:00:25. > :00:29.zone on the estuary, and National renewable energy centre, but I
:00:29. > :00:36.think one day we are going to have to go back and get whatever coal is
:00:36. > :00:40.there. Will we ever see deep coal mines in County Down Again? I think
:00:40. > :00:47.they have been largely flooded now and it would cost a fortune to get
:00:47. > :00:52.them right. However, as fossil fuels disappear, as you lose things
:00:52. > :00:59.like all in, the call, and they understand we have more than was
:00:59. > :01:03.ever taken out, that becomes more and more valuable. You can see more
:01:03. > :01:06.reports on his pit closures and their impact on Look North next