Regional Assembly

Friday evening saw me at the Virtual Reality Theatre of Teesside University (aptly named perhaps?) listening to the debate on whether or not the North East of England should have an elected Regional Assembly. I found myself in the strange position of willing on someone with whom I have very little in common - John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister, leading the pro-assembly side. The opposition was led by Bernard Jenkin, with whom I have even less in common. The whole evening was sponsored and chaired by the Evening Gazette and Tyne Tees TV, and the debate will rage right up till November 4th in the Gazette, so no excuse for its readers to be ill informed.
I also got to meet Ed Davey, John Prescott's opposite number in the Lib Dem Parliamentary team, which was good and useful.

Our young guests working at the Hartlepool by-election continue to be inspiring and amazingly wakeful, given the minute amount of sleep they seem to manage on. Ah well, I was young once!