The Northern Echo

Power Issue has Parties Poles Apart

TWO weeks ago, I wrote about the great economic divide opening up between Labour and the Conservatives - and now I have found another chasm just as wide. Of course, any clash over who should have the power to make key decisions for the North-East and Yorkshire is unlikely tomake as many headlines in next year's General Election fight. However, this debate - with the dry title of "the future of regional policy" at a seminar I attended last week - should matter almost as much.

Hear All Sides

MP FAMILY JOBS SEDGEFIELD Labour MP Phil Wilson's comments in favour of MPs employing their family members (Echo, Oct 26) are outrageous. It clearly illustrates that MPs still fail to understand the anger over their abuse of the expenses system.

Katie's Plight

Katie: My Beautiful Face, Channel 4, tonight, 9pm EIGHTEEN months ago, Katie Piper was a beautiful young woman with a burgeoning career as a model and TV presenter. Then she suffered a horrific attack, arranged by her boyfriend, when acid was thrown in her face, causing extensive third degree burns and blindness in one eye.

John North - Model Behaviour

William Harbutt, inventor of Plasticine, has given millions of children around the world hours of enjoyment. The column delves into his formative years spent in North Shields HE helped shape the lives of millions of youngsters, now William Harbutt - the man who invented Plasticine - is at last being honoured in his home town.

John North - Ten Things You May Never Have Known About Plasticine

The original Plasticine was grey, first selling to the public in four colours. The Chelsea Flower Show exhibit had 24 colours. William Harbutt's family promoted Plasticine as a children's toy by producing modelling kits in association with Mr Men, Noddy and Paddington Bear.

John North - Swansongs of Praise

THE little chapel in Wooley Terrace, among the brightest and best- loved in all Christendom, holds its last service at 2.30pm on Saturday, November 14. It will be a hugely sad day. The At Your Service column had last visited in 2005. "It is a perfect little chapel, a film set chapel, a challenging but unchanging chapel, " we observed.

John North

. . . and finally, a little era ended, two weeks back Wednesday, at the Headlam Hall Hotel. The demands of six fact-based, multi- faceted columns each week mean it is no longer possible to give daytime talks. Teesdale Ladies' Luncheon Club, a jolly lot, copped the peroration. Headlam Hall is approximately in the middle of nowhere, a three- mile walk from the nearest bus stop. Halfway along the road, its governance changes from Darlington - absurdly "Gateway to the Tees Valley" - to County Dur...

Tesco Bank to Bring 1,000 Jobs to Region

AT least 1,000 jobs are being created in the North-East through the banking arm of Tesco setting up a call centre, it was revealed yesterday. Tesco Bank has taken a 15year lease on a building at Quorum Business Park, in Newcastle, a move which forms a key part of its national expansion plans.

Commission Gives Its Approval for Rock's 'Good' and 'Bad' Banks

NORTHERN Rock could end up owing the taxpayer [pounds]27bn which could take a decade to repay, it was revealed yesterday. The revelation came as the nationalised Newcastle-based lender was given approval from the European Commission for it to split into two separate operations, a "good" bank and a "bad" bank.

Dead Difficult

I LIKE Tony Gordon. Yeah, I know, he's a cold-blooded killer and clearly a maniac, but I can't help but not want him to get found out. Not that I'm condoning the fact he went to elaborate lengths to get Liam bumped offand is now engaged to his widow and is bringing up his baby - but admittedly, Coronation Street (ITV1) hasn't been the same since Richard Hillman plunged into that canal. How brilliant that we now have Hillman The Second, complete with equally insane eyes, to bring a bit of terr...

Strictly Retired

Camilla Dallerup tells Viv Hardwick why she'd have loved to have partnered boxer Joe Calzaghe in this year's Strictly Come Dancing DANCER Camilla Dallerup doesn't see herself as one of the victims of the curse of BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing - losing a real life partner to another contestant - until you point out that her relationship with dancer Brendan Cole foundered over those tabloid allegations involving his celebrity partner Natasha Kaplinsky.

Classical

WHAT'S ON: The Northern Sinfonia and Chorus conducted by Nicholas Kraemer present Handel's Theodora at The Sage Gateshead, 7pm, tonight. Box office: 0191443 4661. REVIEWS: Einaudi: Nightbook (Decca 4763639)

Steve Pratt's Top 5

An Education (12A) NIck Hornby adapts writer Lynn Barber's memoir about her teenage years in the early sixties when she took up with an old man (Peter Sarsgaard) and found that much more educational than anything at school. Carey Mulligan gives a career-making performance as the young rebel.

Carey On Being a Schoolgirl

Steve Pratt chats to Carey Mulligan about returning to being a 16- year-old cellist for the Sixties-set movie, An Education WHEN she was 19, Carey Mulligan appeared in a play where she was 14. So playing a 16-year-old schoolgirl in the early Sixties in the film An Education wasn't too unusual for her.

Reviews

An Education (12A) **** Stars: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike, Alfred Molina, Matthew Beard, Olivia Williams,

Fit and Wellie

The wellies were all-important in re-creating Compo on stage, actor Harry Dickman tells Viv Hardwick THE actor who turned down the Royal Shakespeare Company in favour of stand-up comedy with Butlins is currently wearing the most famous pair of wellies in the country. . . those belonging to Compo Semini.

'She's with the Angels Now'

Tributes have been flooding in to The Northern Echo website following the death of teenager Ashleigh Hall, whose body was found in a field near Sedgefield on Monday night. Here is a selection . . . Lizzie Martin, Darlington - I can't believe you have gone.15 years of fantastic friendship we had and i can't believe it has ended like this. We have had some fantastic times together even at the age of 2! I will always think of you and smile, so happy, caring and loving, the person who would do an...

Influential Gathering to Hear of Statue Bid

THE story of a footballing pioneer who made his name in the North- East will be presented to some of the sport's most influential people today. A gathering of the Black List - British football's 30 most important black figures - will listen to plans to honour Arthur Wharton, the former Darlington FC goalkeeper, at an awards ceremony this evening.

Photographerbeginswork On Faces Shoot

DOZENS of people have been showing off their best side, ahead of having their faces projected in a city. Huge portraits of 100 people will be projected onto buildings in Durham Market Place for the Heart of the City event.

Fitness Club Trio Are Jailed for Role in Steroids Sale Plot

THREE fitness club members have been jailed for their role in a huge plot to import steroids and growth hormones from the Far East. David Newcombe, Kevin Lewis and David Fletcher were recruited by others linked to the Darlington gym to wire money to China and Thailand to buy the drugs.