It was very good to host the canny campaigners from Show Racism the Red Card for a briefing for MPs at the Commons last week. They have got a lot to shout about and took their message of hope to 50 MPs of several different parties.
They were joined at the event by stars of the beautiful game - ex-Fulham and West Ham striker, Leroy Rosenior and former professional footballer and manager, Dave Bassett and former West Ham striker as well as Bobby Barnes of the Professional Footballers Association.
They had united to urge MPs to back the charity's bid to become The Football Association's Charity of the Year for 2011. This would do wonders in boosting their campaign to stop racism in football and open the game up to everyone. Over 100 MPs now support the campaign.
I cannot ignore last week's long-dreaded announcement on public spending cuts.
The plan to make over £80 billion of cuts in the next four years is savage. It will take time to assess the exact consequences as various bodies work out how they will implement the cuts.
But the government admits that there will be half a million jobs lost in the public sector and independent experts reckon that this will lead to another half a million jobs going in the private sector. It's also reckoned that 43,000 jobs will go in the North East.
I told the PM directly in the Commons that the North East Chamber of Commerce says that 17,000 construction jobs are at risk. I stressed that unemployment is not just theoretical but that many of us have lived through and experienced the real desolation that unemployment means. I asked him to tell us clearly whether he believes today what he believed in 1992 - that unemployment is a price worth paying. He claimed that he didn't take that view but side-stepped the other point.
I won't stop asking awkward questions because we should never forget that behind the statistics are real people whose life chances are being ruined by central government diktat.
The government's theory is that the private sector will pick up the slack and mop up those forced out of state and local government services. It's a very big gamble. I will do my utmost to shout in Parliament and elsewhere about the damage that this will do and to persuade ministers to think again about the consequences of their recklessness.
Newcastle Chronicle and Journal
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