Blog
Jamie Interviews The Labour Leadership Candidates
Last February, Jamie took time out of his schedule to ask the three Labour Leadership all manner of questions, ranging from trust in politics, the democratic revolution, how best to deal with press vilification and…Top Cat. Take a look. Rebecca Long-Bailey Lisa Nandy Keir Starmer
It is time to put wellbeing ahead of growth
What do the prime ministers of New Zealand, Iceland, and Finland have in common? In a word, wellbeing. I gave a speech last week on inclusive economic growth. Over the centuries, kings and ministers have steered their policies towards different goals. Pharaoh Ozymandias put his realm to work building monuments to impress his rivals. Ancient […]
Twenty-Twenty Vision
Twenty twenty has a ring to it. Last year was politically turbulent. In the North of Tyne, though, we just got on with delivering prosperity for our people. I’ve been Mayor for eight months. Much of 2019 involved setting up a brand new combined authority. Recruiting staff, building relationships, and getting our first programmes underway. […]
The High Street of Christmas Yet to Come
What do you call an old snowman? Water! Ah, Christmas cracker jokes. I love Christmas. I’m not a religious man but Christmas embodies so many traditions core to my beliefs. Family and friends. Helping each other out. Communities coming together to sing carols. Taking time to cook a good meal, and the time to eat […]
Stop The Poverty
“It’s Christmas time, and there’s no need to be afraid.” So says the song. This Christmas, like every year, millions in our country will be working. Emergency services, NHS staff, catering and hospitality workers. Taxi drivers, people staffing petrol stations. And for many people who work, and many who can’t get reliable work, the money […]
Paul Mason – Where Next After Corbynism: A Reply
In the final paragraph of Paul Mason’s thesis he name checks me, saying we need to be “learning from Jamie Driscoll’s mayoral campaign on North Tyneside.” Thanks for the nod, Paul. What did we do to warrant this reference? In one sense, we didn’t do anything special. We just did lots of simple things right. […]
Where does this result leave democracy?
My Dad would shout at the players during the football, “Just put the ball in back of the bloody net!” My brother and I would laugh. “You should write to him and suggest it.” I’m reminded of this when people say “Labour should have won more seats.” Post election analysis is often one dimensional. People […]
Lessons from the 2019 General Election
Most of the analysis I’m reading about the election defeat is not analysis, but schadenfreude. I sometimes write polemics, and sometimes calls to arms, but today, let’s start with some facts, shall we? Here’s the last five elections. Total votes cast for Labour, and the percentage of the electorate at the time that voted Labour. […]
How Do Labour’s votes compare to recent elections?
Here’s an updated one with vote share as a percentage of the electorate. Percentage of the electorate is more useful than percentage of votes cast. The challenge for Labour is to win over voters who’ve voted for other parties, to get out our base, and to inspire non-voters to turn out.
There but for the grace of god go I
Your task is to design a society. Its tax systems, justice, education, health, and so on. But there’s a twist. You don’t know in advance what part you will play in that society. Philosophers call this a Veil of Ignorance. You don’t know your gender, race, age, height. Whether you’ll have a disability. You might […]
The banks get it. The kids get it. Do you get it?
“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs” starts Rudyard Kipling’s poem If-. “Then perhaps it’s because you don’t understand the situation…” continues the joke. On Monday, I met with Andy Haldane, chief economist of the Bank of England. We touched on many things, including making our economy sustainable. He […]
Did you ever have control to take back?
What would taking back control mean to you? Maybe you’ve piled on a few pounds over recent years, and want to take back control over your health. Perhaps it’s wrestling back some work-life balance, returning to that hobby you did when you were younger. If that’s the only part of your life out of control, […]
The town with lessons to share about devolution
On Tuesday I was due to meet Chancellor Sajid Javid in Parliament, to discuss devolving budgets to Metro Mayors. I was due to meet John McDonnell and his team immediately afterwards – it would have made an interesting comparison, since we won’t get to see Mr Javid debate Mr McDonnell. Saj has refused; perhaps because […]
The right to fulfilling work
This week is Living Wage Week. 23% of working people in our region don’t earn enough to live on without getting into debt. The figure is set by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation: £9 per hour. Crucially, it applies to everyone – the national minimum wage is only £7.70 if you’re under 25, and £4.35 if […]
I’ve got two new kids. Apparently.
“Do you have another two kids you haven’t told me about?” laughed my wife. “Eh?” She explained, “It says on Wikipedia we have four children.” A more interesting question might be why she was looking me up on Wikipedia while I was sitting next to her in the living room. The article was neutral – […]
Sorry We Missed You
Ken Loach has a gift of cutting through the statistics and hitting you in the heart. This Wednesday he invited me along to the Newcastle premiere of his latest film, Sorry We Missed You. Without giving any spoilers, Abby works as a carer, Ricky as a “self employed” delivery driver under unremitting pressure to hit […]
The Blame Game
Leadership is difficult to quantify. It should be a defining characteristic in our politicians, a blend of gravitas, consistent values, integrity, and the courage to stand firm when others flinch. We’ve seen real leadership this week, but it’s come from footballers. Last Monday’s Euro Qualifier saw 26 year-old Tyrone Mings stand strong against monkey chants […]
The Queen’s Speech
Today is the Queen’s Speech. Perhaps Boris Johnson will actually win his first Commons vote as Prime Minister. For a man who is so opposed to socialism, he spends a lot of time getting publicly owned. I don’t know why we still pretend that the speech belongs to the Queen. I’ve never met her; I’m […]
World Mental Health Day
“Health, wealth and happiness!” is the toast we’ve all heard. Mental health defines two of these, and impacts on the third. In May, Tyne and Wear Citizens held a Mayoral hustings at the Tyne Theatre, 1000 people attended. The host asked everyone to stand up; a thousand people got to their feet. She then said, […]
It’s all about the power
Last Monday I was in Manchester when the Tory Party conference was in town. I haven’t crossed the floor, it was a meeting of the M9. It sounds like something from a Bond film. Whenever we meet I think of SPECTRE – me and the other 8 Metro Mayors sitting round a huge table, working […]
Labour Conference Blog
Like most high-profile occupations, politics looks different from the inside. The TV news shows Labour Party conference as sound-bites from a packed conference hall. But for every high-profile policy announcement, there’s two dozen fringe events spread across Brighton, a hundred private meetings huddled around tables in hotel bars, and politicians and advisors scurrying around finishing […]
A People’s Bank Explained
Banks are essential to a modern economy. Banks keep money flowing. Cash machines, direct debits, card payments, and other transactional functions. Then there’s savings, mortgages and loans – if you had to save up and pay cash, no one would ever be able to afford a house, and businesses would struggle to expand. The economy […]
Newcastle can be the capital of a new, radical British politics
Ah, that rare thing: a political speech served straight, with no side of hyperbole. One of the most interesting developments in politics so far this year is set to happen not in Westminster, but 300 miles up the A1. On 2 May, voters from Newcastle right up to Berwick can elect their first ever North […]
The Bridge Tax & Public Transport
There are few sights more iconic than the bridges over the Tyne. They’re famous, and represent the ingenuity and industrial skill we’re known for. We should not be charging people to use them. We have an air pollution problem, and it needs fixing. The government’s answer? To force local councils to put an extra charge […]
Kia Kaha. Truth and love will win.
I was horrified to hear about the murders in Christchurch. I’ve been fighting racism and the far-right all my life, through education, community outreach and direct action. My thoughts go out to the injured and the families of those killed. My thoughts go out to those terrified going to Friday prayers for fear of similar […]
John McDonnell is backing me – so is Noam Chomsky
Could there be any better endorsement of my socialist economic policies than John McDonnell, Laura Pidcock and Clive Lewis – all Labour economics front benchers?
A Green New Deal
As Mayor I will: Declare a Climate Emergency Build eco-friendly social housing and plant trees Create a community owned green energy company Tackle food waste and food poverty Provide world class environmental education “There’s no challenge that we face more critical than addressing the dire threat of global warming. NASA has just reported that of […]
Municipal Socialism – We Can Start Now
Right now, there’s a Labour internal selection going on across Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland. I’m on the shortlist as the possible Labour candidate for North of Tyne Mayor. I’m a grassroots activist. I worked on both of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaigns. This is one of the Metro-Mayor deals. It’s not about running the bin […]
A majority of CLPs are backing JD4Mayor
The first phase of the campaign is over. All of the CLPs (Constituency Labour Parties) have voted now, and a majority of CLPs have backed me. The support has been overwhelming. Even the CLPs who didn’t back me, the vote was close, and tied in some cases. At the time of writing, I also have […]
Why Our Economy is Broken
Why Our Economy is Broken. When I grew up in the 1970s, photocopiers were so advanced that my school didn’t have one. When I started work in 1986 the company I worked for didn’t have a computer, we had people whose only job was to type up things the rest of us had written with […]
Questions for Jamie
People have asked questions via our Facebook page, so here’s a video of me answering them. Everything from rural regeneration to clean air zone charging gets covered. And there’s even a disappearing dog walker! We’ll do this regularly throughout the campaign, and it’s something I’ll continue to do if selected and elected. It’s important that […]
It’s Christmas Time
“It’s Christmas time, and there’s no need to be afraid.” So says the song. This Christmas, like every year, millions in our country will be working. Emergency services, NHS staff, catering and hospitality workers, taxi drivers, people staffing petrol stations, to name just some. And for many people who work, and many who can’t get […]
Why Do We Have A Housing Crisis?
Private rents are so high that people have in any given year to work from January 1st until 31st May to earn enough to pay the year’s rent. That’s nearly half a year’s hard graft going on rent. Since the 1970’s, median wages have pretty much remained at the same level – once you account […]
Weathercocks and Signposts
Normally what happens to politicians is the closer they get to the levers of power, the more attention they get from the establishment. Sitting in board meetings, appointments with corporate lobbyists, calls from government officials take up a bigger and bigger part of their calendar. All of these people who court them are well informed, […]