Walking up Newcastle's horribly scarred Northumberland Street yesterday, I wondered why I hadn't seen anyone pushing this as a local election theme.

Strikes me as a political gift - voters are cross about the state of their high streets and utility companies aren't popular.

In the early coalition days, ahead of Sure Start being cut, there was a big media push on how it had failed.

TBH, I'm not expert in the evidence around Sure Start, but I do think we expect implausibly quick results from public policy.

A sign of trouble ahead? Road pricing is logical, desirable and possibly inevitable.

It's also so unpopular and politically poisonous that it's at the centre or a dirty tricks row.

A reminder that (while this sign is made up) road pricing is the obviously right thing to do but politically poisonous.

Words like 'deranged' are overused on this platform but not in the case of the 'second most powerful country' graphic. Mental.

Interrupting my immersion in the Tish film with my one negative observation... Maxine Peake is a fine actor but the Geordie accent is difficult to get right.

This is why the freeport & sez conspiracy hawkers are annoying -

They encourage people to waste time worrying about Omni Consumer Products annexing chunks of the country when there's real stuff happening.

I remember when they'd parse the more esoteric sociology journals for comedy outrage... looks like anything is fair game now.