Dear Sir,
So, John D. Clare has only just come to realise that the further you are from Westminster the smaller share you get of Government spending.  This has always been the case for as far back as I can remember.  However, if he were to publish the relative spending allocations at the end of Gordon Brown’s New Labour Government your readers could decide if David Cameron is the real villain!
I have to agree with him on his statistics but cannot leave David Cameron to shoulder the blame for any of them. It is all down to party politics and the fact that since New Labour bankrupted the economy, the available spending ‘pot’ is smaller and the party in Government is bound to spend more in constituencies where it is likely to win the seat. Simple!
Thus, for 12 years, New Labour ignored the North East where they had safe seats and spent disproportionately in the south to try and win and keep the southern seats. Before he won the election Tony Blair said that he had to make New Labour a more ‘centralist’ party with wider appeal. This he did, and ignored the North East and his / our constituency thereafter!  The Coalition Government is just doing the same but with a smaller ‘pot’ of money to spend.
Tell it like it is Mr Clare, don’t ignore or try and re-write history! David Cameron is only echoing Tony Blair.  The difference is that New Labour supporters in the North East thought that Blair would be true to his North East power base; however history shows that he was more preoccupied with the ‘Tony Blair legacy’ (and getting his snout into the Westminster trough).
In the end he stepped down and handed his ‘poisoned chalice’ to Gordon Brown who had “prudently” sold our gold reserves at the bottom of the market and then proceeded to “prudently” bankrupt the country.
There are fewer unemployed people in the North East now than there were at the end of 12 years of New Labour.  However, the south have got 12 new jobs to every 1 in the North East.  Could this be that the non-Labour Councils in the south are working with the Coalition Government better than the North East Labour Councils?
The fact of the matter is that all governments of whatever political persuasion have courted the southern voter because that is where they have to win seats; they spend money in the south.
A shed load of money is to be spent on HS2 and it doesn’t even reach the North East proper! Why has no North East Labour politician suggested we start building HS2 at Newcastle and end it in the South? This way, the money would be spent up front in the North East economy and HS2 would increasingly improve travel here before it is completed and drains further money south out of the North East.
The sad fact for Labour voters is that a vote for Labour is a vote for a Westminster focused government.  Neither Labour nor the Conservatives see wooing North East voters a priority.  Labour need to concentrate on the threat to their Scottish power-base while the Coalition Parties have to fend off UKIP.  The only hope for the North East is a protest vote (e.g. for the Green Party or UKIP), Only then will a Westminster Government have to heed how the North East votes.
Alastair P. G. Welsh
Ayclife Village