Kevin Rowan

May 9 2005 By Kevin Rowan, The Journal

It's not impossible not to comment on last week's General Election, but it is irresistible.

However, I must admit that I do find the seemingly endless post-election debates trying. It's difficult for anyone, I think, who isn't a politician, wannabe politician, or party apparatchik to be interested in the self-indulgent analysis of why people voted the way they did.

Yet it must be important. Last year, what was a successful Labour council in Newcastle was decimated by the Liberal Democrats.

Last week, a hugely successful Labour Government, presiding over the best economic circumstances the country has enjoyed for generations, had its majority slashed, although we must recognise and appreciate the historic significance of the electorate returning a third-term Labour administration with a very workable majority.

While the economic achievements of the country have been tremendous nationally, with more people than ever in employment and thousands no longer living in poverty, they have been least keenly felt in the North, yet there were no Labour losses here.

Clearly there is some evidence international issues have been a major concern for many voters.

This is an issue that has taken the voters' attention away from Labour's greatest achievements, in the economy and in social justice, and it in this area that the incoming Government needs to continue to focus its efforts, perhaps more explicitly.

It's best to avoid phrases like "back to basics", but this really should be the focus of the Labour Government for the next few years.

The economy is doing well, but it could be doing much better in our region. Continuing to devolve flexibility and resources to regional organisations to find solutions to regional and local economic challenges is key to this, and so is recognising that to tackle the stubborn issue of worklessness in the North-East, we not only have to create jobs, we have to create high-quality jobs that pay well, offer flexibility for workers and some chance of personal development.

And then the Government needs to find a much better way of communicating this to the electorate. There will always be difficult issues that grab the headlines, but a government with such an economic record should never see its continued success so threatened by other issues.