Could there be a local general election impact?

I don’t think anybody has picked up that all Labour’s current problems seem to have emanated in the same place – Newcastle upon Tyne.

Thus the headquarters of the troubled bank which continues to cause anguish for the party, Northern Rock, is based in the city and is one of its biggest employers.

It was at the Inland Revenue and Customs offices on Tyneside that the data on the 25 million people was down-loaded onto the CD-roms that have gone missing.

And to cap it all this week the property developer at the heart of the latest Labour donations scandal, David Abrahams, is from Tyneside and it is his company’s property scheme just by the A1M that has become the focus of much attention.

All a coincidence – of course. But I just wonder if the cumulative affect of the problems might have an impact in Durham City, Newcastle North and Newcastle East – all Lib Dem targets? Any LAB>LD losses could have a big impact on the overall general election outcome.

This part of the world has been a traditional Labour stronghold for decades and has a history of Labour scandals. In the early 1970s the corruption scandals that rocked Labour involved politicians such as T Dan Smith and Andy Cunningham – both prominent Tyneside party figures who were jailed.

Mike Smithson