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It's the one that you want - Moss Missives 2010 Review Part Four

Richard Moss | 10:00 UK time, Thursday, 23 December 2010

Cliff Richard and Olivia Newton John

John Travolta and Olivia Newton John in Grease. All right it isn't them. I would have had to pay for that. It's Cliff, but he is with the lovely Olivia.

As John Travolta and Olivia Newton John famously told us summer days drift away. But they weren't around to see the new coalition government in action.

Parliament's usually massive summer recess was cut back, and the Government continued to announce new policies even when we were all supposed to be on holiday.

The Labour leadership contest also continued apace (a slow pace if we're honest).

So there's no let up then as we enter the Moss Missives 2010 Review Part Four. Ah, for those summer nights.

July

Rotten school window

Dozens of schools were left counting the cost as the Government scrapped plans to refurbish their buildings.

It's bad news for dozens of schools in the region as the Government announces the scrapping of Labour's Building Schools for the Future campaign. Several who had been looking forward to new buildings are now told that there will be a new way of funding work at a later date (we're still waiting).

David Miliband continues to be the candidate to beat in the Labour leadership race, adding the backing of many constituency Labour parties to his posse of MPs.

Raoul Moat shoots dead his girlfriend's new partner, and wounds a policeman as he leads police on a chase across Tyneside and Northumberland. Public interest is so massive that he becomes a cult figure for some. Even Gazza turns up before Moat takes his own life. David Cameron tells the Commons that nobody should have sympathy for someone who was a "callous murderer" and presses Facebook to take down a Moat tribute page.

The Government announces that Eden in Cumbria will be one of the pilot areas for its Big Society plans. That delights Penrith and the Border MP Rory Stewart and constituents who have already taken over a village pub.

The Government chooses next May for a vote on reforming the electoral system - something which will see the North East and Cumbria lose parliamentary seats.

. He denies ever mistaking mushy peas for the avocado dip in a Hartlepool chippy. Shame.

August

Nick Clegg

Nick Clegg is questioned on cuts as he returns to Newcastle.

Oops. They said he'd make an impact but Penrith and the Border MP Rory Stewart doesn't quite make the one he wanted during an interview with the Scottish Sun. He reportedly calls some of his constituents "primitives" who hold up their trousers with twine. He apologises but says he was trying to make a valid point that there are real pockets of poverty in a seat which can look as if it's affluent.

Former Northumberland County Council manager Trevor Doughty causes a commotion when he re-emerges at Cornwall County Council weeks after "retiring" from Northumberland with a £400,000 payout. Eric Pickles condemns the payout, but it proves to be perfectly legal.

Former Darlington MP Alan Milburn is called a "collaborator" by John Prescott after accepting a role as the Coalition's Social Mobility Tsar. He will produce an annual report assessing what the Government's policies have or have not done for social mobility.

The NHS in the North East announces it's shedding 500 jobs. It's the first stage of a reorganisation that will see the end of Primary Care Trusts.

Nick Clegg returns to the region for the first time since becoming Deputy Prime Minister. He announces plans to help people insulate their homes, but a question and answer session in Tyneside is dominated by concern about cuts as one questioner accuses his government of picking on the poor.

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