Being angry is fine, but Nigel is not on your side

LESS than one year ago, the people of County Durham returned six out of six MPs for Labour.

- Jamie Driscoll

Northumberland voted Labour in four out of four.

On Thursday, Northumberland Labour dropped from 21 seats on the County Council in 2021, to just eight. In Durham, they went from from 53 seats to just four. Four. Yes, there are fewer seats with the boundary changes, but this is beyond defeat.It is obliteration.

How can a party collapse so quickly? Well, it didn’t. Durham voted for Brexit. People at bus stops weren’t discussing the intricacies of the European Central Bank. They were bemoaning the price of bus fares.

Boarded-up shops. No school places nearby. Youths on noisy motorbikes intimidating pedestrians.

"We haven't even got a supermarket here," one resident of a former pit village told me. The Brexit vote was a howl of pain.

In 2019, the land of the Durham Miners' Gala returned three Tory MPs. This year, just one of 24 Tory councillors survives from the 2021 local elections. The people gave them a chance. They failed to deliver. So the people voted them out.

In July last year, the people gave Labour a chance.

Boy, were they betrayed quickly. Winter fuel allowance. Impoverishing disabled people. Still no buses. Still the shops are boarded up, while the prices keep going up.