Queen's Speech spells end for One North East
There were few surprises in but plenty for the region to chew over.
Our councils do seem to be getting more powers.
that were held on a regional basis up to now.
And alongside business they'll also play a key role in the replacements for regional development agencies, .
But at the same time our councillors' role in education will be marginalised.
, taking them out of local authority control.
I'll be interested to know what Liberal Democrat councillors in the region make of that.
As I remember actually committed them to bringing many academies back under the umbrella of their local councils.
But what of the regional development agencies?
They will be abolished, but what the Coalition is proposing could allow a kind of "Son of One North East" to emerge.
The plan is to create local enterprise partnerships. Originally they looked likely to be based in local areas - ie Teesside, Tyneside etc.
But it does sound now like they could be run on a regional basis, and the .
The new partnership would have a much tighter brief than One North East, certainly losing control over planning and housing policy.
What's not clear yet though is how the changes will affect its budget, and responsibility over areas like tourism.
It's far less clear, and I suspect less likely, that councils in Yorkshire and the North West will want to keep a single agency.
Cumbria might welcome the chance to have its own partnership, but there might be some concerns about how it might compete alongside the big cities in the North West and against a regional agency over the Pennines in the North East.
Intriguingly, there was .
The Government insist they still have plans to do that, possibly without legislation, but as yet we don't know how this will happen.
Meanwhile, the first victims of public sector cutbacks have found out their fate.
More than 60 passport examiners in the Durham office will lose their jobs at the end of June because of the Government's decision to scrap ID cards and biometric passports.
Labour believe they could be the first of many to find themselves seeking work, pointing out that at the same time the Government has scrapped some of the schemes designed to find people work - .
And as I write, the race for the leadership of the party remains an all Miliband affair.
, now has the most nominations - 48 - while .
Here's the latest list of local backers for the candidates:
David Miliband - 9 - Hugh Bayley (York Central), Sir Stuart Bell (Middlesbrough), Alan Campbell (Tynemouth), Jenny Chapman (Darlington), Julie Elliott (Sunderland Central), Pat Glass (Durham NW), Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South), Jamie Reed (Copeland), Phil Wilson (Sedgefield).
Ed Miliband - 4 - Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham), Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland), Catherine McKinnell (Newcastle North), Grahame Morris (Easington).
- 1 - Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West).
No takers regionally so far for Andy Burnham, Diane Abbott or John McDonnell.
Whoever gets nominated will take part in a hustings in Newcastle on June 26.
I'm Richard Moss, the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s Political Editor for the North East and Cumbria. Welcome to my irreverent - but hopefully insightful - northern take on reporting politics for Look North and the Politics Show.
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