Northern, right wing and proud of both
Posted on August 8, 2010One of the most hateful aspects of British politics is the weird idea that just because you come from a particular place you must think in a particular way. The worst offenders of all are the Labour Party in their arrogant assumption that anyone from the North, and particularly from my native North East, somehow belongs to them.
This is something which annoys me at the best of times, but my blood is particularly up because Kevin Maguire, of the Mirror and the New Statesman, yesterday described Eric Pickles as “Cameron’s pet northerner”.
This is the British equivalent of the age-old, disgusting “Uncle Tom” smear used to accuse people of being race traitors – but is apparently acceptable when it comes to accusing anyone who is right wing and Northern of betraying their roots.
I was born in North Shields, grew up in North Tyneside and went to school in Newcastle. I was steeped in my Geordie heritage from an early age. Kevin Maguire may think that means that I should be a socialist, but I’m not. I’m a libertarian, I’m right wing and I’m proud of it.
The fact that I, or Eric Pickles or anyone else, dares to deviate from what others may think should be our set path does not make me the “pet” of a southerner – it makes me a free thinking person, exercising my own right to choose my own way.
What could possibly be more Northern than having your own mind and speaking it?
I bow to no-one in my pride that I come from the land that powered the industrial revolution, produced heroes like George Stephenson, John Dobson and William Armstrong and made Britain great.
Where Kevin Maguire and I differ is that I recognise what has truly betrayed the interests and values of my homeland. For generations socialists have preached to my fellow Northerners that they should abandon their traditions of enterprise, hard work and innovation and rely on the State instead of themselves.
Sadly, I expect to see more vitriolic accusations of treason levelled against those of us who refuse to sign up to that mantra. The reason Maguire and others are getting ever more shrill is that they feel their grip slipping.
In 2004, Labour held the regional assembly referendum in the North East alone because they assumed we would do whatever they told us. The fact that they were sent reeling home with a bloody nose showed that the fire and the bloody-mindedness that built the North still lives. It just needs to be nurtured.
Tags: Britain, Geordie, George Stephenson, John Dobson, Kevin Maguire, New Labour, Newcastle, North East, Northern, Politics, Regional Assemblies, Socialism, William Armstrong
Categories: Culture, Opinion, Politics
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mark Wallace, andrew_allison, Ben Houchen, Adam Bell, Adam Bell and others. Adam Bell said: RT @wallaceme Northern,right wing and proud of both-a retort to@Kevin_Maguire http://bit.ly/aC06YL << fine Tyneside liberal tradition too… [...]
16.08.2010 08:27
Well said, Mark. As you know, there are many of us from the North-East who know how socialism has wrecked the area. Thankfully, things are changing, and this is what worries Kevin Maguire.
16.08.2010 09:13
I too come from a solid Labour supporting part of the “North” and could not agree with you more. I hate socialism and all the harm it has done to the North. I am proud of my roots and proud to be a right wing libertarian in my views. Kevin McGuire is a complete and utter twat BTW.
16.08.2010 09:19
Maguire is a particularly odious creature who prefers the comforts of leafy Richmond to the bracing delights if his Geordie heartland. If anyone is a ‘tame’ northerner it is he – beloved of his left-wing BBC mates he makes a fortune spewing his bile on political programmes representing the horney-handed sons of toil. He makes my flesh creep.
16.08.2010 09:20
Toilets Maguire is the very model of hypocrisy.
Remind us again where he lives & what he earns – very neo socialist I am sure.
16.08.2010 09:26
Of course I agree with you Mark entirely but I guess I could be accused of slight hypocrisy in my incredulity of Hampstead, Fabian, Champagne, middle class socialists such as Blair, Mandelson and the Millibands. I just can’t see Mandelson going into a Working Man’s club in his former constituency of Harlepool and ordering a light and bitter and Babysham for Ronaldo.
What I think the centre right’s problem is in getting its message out that a very economic free market model will lead to everyone benefiting. For example the NHS pitched into competition with private health care, through health vouchers will mean that we will all have far better health care.
in 1978 at the televised Tory conference a Sheffield plummer was introduced and got up to speak. Margaret Thatcher broke off from a conversation with her grandees and listened intently as he explained why he was a working class Tory and received a standing ovation. At the time of strikes and over bearing unions the Conservative Party then had in me a lifetime Conservative voter and polemicist.
16.08.2010 09:41
Hear, hear Mark. It wasn’t all that long ago we Geordies had Conservative MPs in Tynemouth and Newcastle Central. Soon again we hope…
16.08.2010 09:42
I just find the notion of David Milliband representing Gateshead hilarious.
16.08.2010 09:47
Let alone Blair having represented a NE constituency. I bet they are proud of his thievery and pocket-filling since he left office.
16.08.2010 11:26
Why? Was there not a banana eating monkey hanged at Gateshead once? It could happen again.
17.08.2010 05:44
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16.08.2010 09:50
Good post. For too long, the Labour Party have taken the North East for granted. After 13 years of Labour Government, we had the lowest GVA and highest unemployment in the country. When we needed trade, industry and enterprise in the North East, a Labour Party that took us for granted delivered none of these.
I stood as a Tory candidate in North Durham and got a 9% swing and second place back from the Lib Dems. However, there is still a ‘North Eastern exceptionalism’ as American political scientists would say. People can be unwilling to hear the Tory message because they associated the Tory Party with a troubled past. I think that is something the party needs to address if we are to win seats in the North East.
16.08.2010 10:02
Well said Mark.
Socialism has caused the north to stagnate for too long. The “Monkey in a Red Rosette” mentality is very strong however and no doubt the current modest rebalancing of the economy will be described as rich southern tory cuts against the poor northern working class people.
There remains however a spirit of innovation that the right should look to rekindle over the coming years.
Keep up the good work.
16.08.2010 10:08
Don’t forget that many of the seats in the north east were Tory strongholds until the mid sixties (eg Sunderland).
I still think there is a strong tory streak in the new suburbs around the Tyne and Wear area.
16.08.2010 10:36
I couldn’t agree more. I lived in and around Manchester almost all of my life and the blind loyalty to Labour was sickening. I was born in my grandparents council flat and then lived in a 2 up 2 down house with no hot water and no indoor toilet. By anyones measure, I am working class, but Labour have never represented my interests. My parents worked hard and encouraged my education. That is what made me who I am today. Not Labour and its encouragement of state dependency. They are stuck in the days when workers were exploited by dark factory bosses. Move with the times Labour, or face years in the political wilderness. But please do not assume you represent me just because of my background
16.08.2010 10:42
Sheeple – a term for those who act like sheep, common of the unthinking.
Unfortunately a large number in the North East have the attitude of either “I vote Labour cos father and grandfather voted Labour” or “Labour’s for the common man”. When you look at recent Labour, they don’t care about the core areas as they know they’ll vote for them. Tony Blair case in point – resigns as PM catches train to NE and then resigns as MP, as he can make more money elsewhere! They served their purpose time to cast them aside – did he offer any support for the Labour social club when it closed? More like Trimdon, I’ve heard of that… remind me again….”
16.08.2010 11:29
agree on the regional referendum point although i think it could have been different if real powers such as offered to London mayor was on offer but theirs the crux if people have real power they may not use it the way you want labour is stil strong in the north east but it is floundering with real cuts people are looking around nervously and rightly so our over reliance on the public sector is frightening but people are asking the question why when times were good our roads rai lines etc werent fixed or updated lots of nice artgalleries but some large regional private sector employers were allowed to go close during labours so called good times or relocate their capacity away form the country so instaed of been over reliant on coal ships and steel we were over reliant on cars call centres and the public sector.
17.08.2010 09:21
I am proud to be right wing and from Leeds! Also I think referring to Eric Pickles as a ‘pet northerner’ is seriously misunderestimating an extremely intelligent man.
16.08.2010 12:32
Where do you live Mark?
16.08.2010 12:44
South London, Peter, as a result of my work. It doesn’t stop me being a northerner myself, though!
By Norman Tebbit’s cricket test, I support Durham.
24.08.2010 11:48
och aye if you think geordies are socialist sheep try glasgow and north lanarkshire, a million times worse.
16.08.2010 13:28
Well said Mark. I agree, and I am writing this from Newcastle, where I live. But the assumption that we are all socialists is shared up here too, and I often cause incredulity by taking a different view. But I am not alone…
16.08.2010 13:29
Way back in around 1970 Dennis Skinner was first elected as Labour MP for the mining constituency of Bolsover. At the time his share of the vote was probably 3 times the combined vote of his opponents. By the time of the last election there was not one working pit in his constituency. He had failed to protect the livlihood of the people who voted for him. Although he was re-elected he now no longer has an absolute majority over the other parties. And finally the village in which he lives boasts a BNP councillor. That in an area with no significant immigation.
Labour is in big trouble in it’s traditional heartlands
16.08.2010 14:00
Kevin Maguire is an odious toad, what did you expect from that runt?
16.08.2010 15:17
I know Eric Pickles well enough to know that he is nobody’s pet anything! As a Yorkshireman married to a girl from Consett I find Maguire to be exactly the sort of Socialist that I despise. Their moronic thought process is summed up by the words of that buffoon Prescott and the bottom of the barrel Labour leadership candidate Burnham, over Alan Milburn’s decision to assist the coalition government.
My mother was born into poverty in 1931. She had 9 brothers and four sisters, her mother died when she was 10. She never had anything for most of her life but at 80 she is a very well off woman. Her motto is and has always been….”No matter how bad things get…..don’t vote Labour or it’ll only get worse.”
16.08.2010 15:34
The same applies to anyone who comes from working class roots. We must all be socialists mustn’t we? No!
16.08.2010 15:42
The only thing Northeast about Maquire is his accent.As to his origins likely first generation Geordie with all the pedigree to play for Eire if needed not too far back
16.08.2010 15:50
Interesting because I read a piece he wrote in his comic newspaper some months back, where he talked like he spent all of his time in a pub at South Shields….or was it North Shields? Anyway, he was really playing the ‘working class roots’ card for all its worth.
Now it seems he actually lives in Richmond, Surrey.
16.08.2010 16:33
I disagree on one point only.
The North doesn’t need to be nurtured.
The North needs to be unleashed.
16.08.2010 16:25
Very few of these Champagne Socialist ever venture North of Watford.
Kevin McGuire (born 1961, South Shields) is one of those prats the BBC/ Andrew Marr/ Sky constantly wheel out when they are short of other Left wing, Guardian journalists to bore the public with.
Like the Communist Union leader Bob Crowe whose recently had a nice pay increase on His basic pay from £84,923 in 2008 to £94,747. He’s now started appearing on Question Time again backed by the BBC.
16.08.2010 19:39
A very enlightening post. Labour seem to own the ‘for the working man’ tag. Or think they do. Why should a working man solely follow one political dogma? Labour have taken this for granted and lost their way. To assume they hold the monopoly over the hearts and minds of the working man is arrogant to say nothing of incorrect. No reason why a working man cant be a liberal or conservative. Labour taking its roots for granted has helped only the BNP. David Cameron didnt win the election outright because many in the North and Scotland just refuse to even listen to the party. Some have understandable grievances but to vote for a monkey in a red rosette purely because he’s not the other guy is bad politics and bad democracy.
16.08.2010 21:59
Mark, are you finding it hard to shit right now with so many tongues up your arse?
17.08.2010 03:39
The Maguire line also ignores history. What of Cobden and the Free Trade movement, which grew out of the North?
In Germany the Left still remember this, and use “Manchesterism” as an insult to mean much as our Left mean by “Thatcherite”.
17.08.2010 19:08
I am from Preston and have the embarassment of having a “Respect” candidate in one of our city wards. Needless to say, he isn’t from Preston and doesn’t even work here (surprise, surprise he’s a “social work” lecturer at an ex-polythechnic).
17.08.2010 20:01
One correction. You are Libertarian. That is you are not ‘right wing’. You are not any ‘wing’. Socialist need to label people right or left in order to categorise them as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. They cannot deal with Libertarians as they are neither ‘right’ nor ‘left’. I am also libertarian, but my notional policies are both way to right of Labour but also way to the left of the Tories. PS I am married to a Geordie. Best move I EVER made.
17.08.2010 20:33
Yes, I couldn’t agree more with these remarks.
However there is still, in places, in the North a wooden-headedness that is surprising – often in out of the way places.
17.08.2010 22:04
Why on earth would you concern yourself with the utterances of that prize prat Maguire? As my late father would have said “tryin’ to talk posh and makkin’ a rayt bugger on it!” Top marks for this article though! Regards from a militant Yorkshireman.
18.08.2010 06:21
Well said. Labour treats the North-East as its fiefdom and does nothing for it as it thinks it will get the votes anyhow. Read the Left-wing Newcastle Journal and see how they and their correspondents
revile the Tories, especially Margaret Thatcher. Tell them that she helped Nissan to come to Sunderland or that the revitalisation of 3 rivers took place under her leadership and they just don’t believe it.
18.08.2010 07:52
I think you have missed the point. Maguire’s analysis is crass, but reading between the lines I would suggest the wider issue is that the Conservatives are simply failing to appeal to the Northern electorate in general. As a result of that, the left often jibe Pickles as simply being a token, to try and illustrate representation in the north when quuite frankly they have little. I agree with you that your own ‘speak your mind’ branc of conservatism is apparent in the north, but in a minority. The fact is simply that the Eton toffs simply have little resonancewith your average northern bloke in the Dog and Duck in Bury…
18.08.2010 11:44
I’m from the North, other side of the pennines, and I’m proud to be a socialist. If the majority of people in the North vote for Labour then why is it unfair to call the North a Labour voting area? Perhaps KM hit a nerve i.e. your views are not representative of the society you’re from and you do not understand why….anthony crosland’s ‘the future of socialism’ is a good place to start should you wish to be enlightened!
18.08.2010 15:15
You have to recognise that much of the North is really past its use-by date.
I mean all those old mill and cotton towns and the mining towns. Can they reinvent themselves as something with a place in the modern world (I mean in addition to grumbling about Margaret Thatcher).
I’m a Northener, born and bred, but I’m surprised when I go back (from the New Forest) to hear all the grumbling old bigots (as Gordon might have said) living in a bygone age – especially the educated ones many of whom would be happier perhaps in North Korea.
18.08.2010 20:47
[...] on public relations as an ”outrageous waste of taxpayers’ cash”, Cameron’s pet northener (© Kevin Maguire 2010) has been accused of hypocrisy: the Conservative Party is charging local [...]
19.08.2010 15:15