A season not so silly

We’re supposed to be in the ‘silly season’ when politics pauses, courts recess, and government output slows.

The phrase dates back to the 19th century when Parliament’s long summer break left newspaper editors scrambling for stories to fill their pages. They don’t have to worry about 2026!

I have a story today about the Single Justice Procedure, something which sounds like a very good idea but is criminalising vulnerable, sick and elderly people.

There’s a follow up to Friday’s edition which carried news on the new PM’s devolution announcement. Fair to say that Ben Houchen is not happy that devolution doesn’t mean he can do what he wants with the money coming his way.

Then there’s the case of a councillor’s behaviour in Northumberland. We have no details - in stark contrast to what happened in Newcastle last year. Privacy of process Vs public accountability.

Plus, what happens when a private equity company takes over a nursery, a Newcastle academic’s water warning, mopping and bopping at the Commonwealth Games, and North Shields singer songwriter Sam Fender breaks the longest standing record in British music history.

And, for good measure, we have a quality piece of writing on “one of the great full-circle stories in British business”. The words Hays, Irene and Dame may be mentioned.

The Single Justice Procedure (SJP) is not something I am familiar with. It sounds good in theory: magistrates dealing with lots of minor offences in one sitting without the need for defendants or prosecutors to attend.

Except the ‘J’ in SJP is not always apparent and it has been under government review following complaints that vulnerable people, sick pensioners, and hospital patients are being unfairly convicted.

Take the case of an 86-year-old Newcastle man with Parkinson’s disease whose wife has Alzheimer’s. Their daughter manages their finances but their annual car tax renewal went unpaid when she was moving house. He paid an £80 penalty, which left him confused about the criminal prosecution that followed.

Due to the design of the SJP, prosecutors such as the DVLA do not routinely see mitigation letters, and are at risk of missing important information that could bring into question whether a prosecution is in the public interest or not.

A widow who can’t drive was pursued by the DVLA over an unpaid car tax bill on her late husband’s car, an oversight that happened while she was mourning and arranging his funeral. A 77-year-old with severe dementia, with no memory of the original penalty notice, was convicted despite his brother’s attempts to argue his case.

It needs looking at - we’re criminalising people who don’t deserve it.

Devolution or Devolution Lite, that is the question.

Friday’s edition (Eyes & Ears 31.07.06) brought you the news of Andy Burnham’s devolution promise to give regional mayors a share of income tax and business rates. Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said he would like to use that money to give his constituents a tax rebate.

By the time the Prime Minister made his pre-publicised devolution announcement in Sheffield on Friday, Houchen’s ambitions were already common knowledge - as were the views of Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf who said regional leaders should have the power to block asylum seeker accommodation in their areas.

You then had the bizarre situation of the PM responding to a reaction to something he had just announced.

“This is not about allowing mayors to become a mini Chancellor of the Exchequer or a local Home Secretary,” he said. “Those issues around taxation and asylum are national policy matters. This is a policy that is about growth and investment, an area where the UK is currently underperforming quite significantly. If you don’t invest, you don’t get the growth.”

But Mayor Houchen isn’t convinced: “Devolving a pot of cash and then keeping every real decision in Westminster isn’t real devolution. Andy Burnham spent a decade telling Whitehall to let go, but a few weeks into Number 10 and he’s holding on tighter than any minister I’ve dealt with.

“I’d rather ministers just cut out the middleman and lower taxes. But if they’re handing me a share of the income tax raised on Teesside, true devolution means the decision where to spend it is for locally-elected leaders. I want to give every penny back to the workers who earned it through a rebate scheme. If people don’t like that, they can vote for someone else - that’s what real accountability looks like.”

A complaint has been made against an unnamed Northumberland county councillor alleging a breach of the code of conduct.

Standards Lead Simon Openshaw told the council’s audit and standards committee: “All complaints are confidential. That is why we see very few details at this committee. I don’t know the nature of this complaint, but a complaint has progressed through the process that we have. It is likely to be a significant complaint – there are a number of parties involved.”

Intriguing.

Northumberlands’s way of handling the complaint is in stark contrast to the way Newcastle handled a bullying complaint made by a senior official against the then council leader, where the identity of both parties was made public almost immediately.

Privacy of process Vs public accountability. An interesting debate to be had right there.

It’s fair to say that Sir Richard Harpin knows a thing or two about growing a business. He founded HomeServe and sold it for north of £4 billion after all.

It turns out that he’s also a good storyteller who knows how to sell his Business Leader podcast. Here’s how he promoted this week’s interview with Dame Irene Hays on his LinkedIn:

“In 1980, ABTA refused to give Hays Travel a licence. The ‘shop’ was a laminated dressing table in the back of John Hays’ mum’s baby wear shop in Seaham, County Durham, selling Butlin’s and Pontins breaks and coach trips to Blackpool. Without its own front door, ABTA ruled, it was not a proper travel agent.

“So the Hays family typed a reply: ‘It has come to our attention,’ they wrote, ‘that there is a shop in London called Harrods, and in the back is a travel agency called Thomas Cook. Could you please explain the difference?’

“The licence arrived. And what followed became one of the great full-circle stories in British business. Because 39 years later, Thomas Cook, the world’s oldest travel company, collapsed under its debts after 178 years, putting 9,000 UK jobs at risk.

“The little business from the back of the baby wear shop stepped in and bought all 555 of its shops. Hays had 190 of its own at the time. The deal was signed in October 2019, and almost 3,000 former Thomas Cook staff were offered jobs. The press crowned John and Irene Hays the heroes of the high street.

“What came next would have finished most companies. Covid shut down world travel, costing Hays £11 million in a single month. Then, in November 2020, founder John Hays passed away. His wife and business partner, Dame Irene Hays, who had run two councils and a Whitehall department in her first career, led the company through it.

“Today Hays Travel is the UK’s largest independent travel agency, with around 500 branches, more than 4,500 people, record profits, and sales past £3 billion for the first time. First year turnover: £812. Debt taken on in 46 years: zero.”

I should maybe offer him a job.

Here’s a link to the podcast.

I didn’t say it was George. Wasn’t sure if it was George. Turns out it wasn’t George. Friday’s edition (Eyes & Ears 31.07.26) attracted this generous comment:

As always, fantastic summary of North Eastern goings-on! Well worth subscribing to. Just a note that the George Clarke (and yes: I assumed it was the Sunderland-born architect etc) in Celebrity Gladiators (BBC have cancelled Celebrity Mastermind… dumbing down of the BBC anyone?!) is a young YouTuber from Bristol and not our local George. Keep up the good work!!

I would welcome more comments from more of you. This author says Eyes & Ears is well worth subscribing to. It’s a relatively modest £6.99 a month for a minimum of eight editions. All you have to do is click this button:

South Tyneside Council has voted to approve a Local Plan after years of delays, political battles and government intervention. The plan will shape where homes, jobs and infrastructure are built until 2040. South Tyneside’s 2019 climate emergency declaration has been rescinded following a vote at Thursday’s full council meeting. Reform councillors said the authority could continue improving the local environment without maintaining the declaration. Newcastle law firm Hay & Kilner is celebrating its 80th year by recruiting and opening a new office in Stockton. Managing partner Jonathan Waters is looking to increase turnover by 50% over the next five years. A new nature trail created with the help of secondary school pupils from Sunderland has opened at Rainton Meadows Nature Reserve in Houghton-le-Spring. Newcastle Building Society has reported a resilient first half performance in a “fast-moving and often uncertain external environment”. Chief executive Andrew Haigh said: “Our focus has remained on building resilience, investing in the long-term strength of the group, and delivering meaningful value for our members and the communities we serve.” Newcastle entrepreneur Cassandra Sonma Ukaobi has become the first black female founder to secure investment through the North East Accelerator Programme, which is backed by Mercia Ventures. The £50,000 investment will help grow her nurse-led wellness brand Tolicious. Newcastle restaurant My Delhi has already expanded into Sunderland, Leeds and Leicester. Now the owners have has bought Itihaas, a “dining institution” in Birmingham.

The nine biggest private equity-owned chains of nurseries spent 15% more of their income on directors’ pay, rents and loans than large not-for-profit providers, and 9% less on staffing, according to analysis shared with The i Paper.

The two private equity-owned nursery chains with the highest number of places, Kids Planet - which has more than a dozen nurseries in the North East - and Bright Stars, gave pay packets worth £335,000 and £266,000 respectively to senior directors. But the highest-paid director, earning £400,000 last year, was at Grandir UK, which operates more than 95 nurseries.

Parents and staff who have worked for nurseries bought by private equity firms told The i Paper the takeovers resulted in fee increases, additional charges, lower-quality food and toys for children, and losses of highly-qualified staff members.

Almost half of England’s reservoirs are operating at lower than normal water levels, including two classed as “exceptionally low”. Academic Hayley Fowler, a professor of climate change impacts at Newcastle University, warned: “We’re entering an era of water extremes: more floods in winter, more droughts in summer, and not enough storage to bridge the gap.

“If we don’t act now, the taps that ran dry in 1976 could run dry again. This drought isn’t just about a lack of rain.”

San Fender’s duet with Olivia Dean, Rein Me In, has officially broken the longest standing record in British music history. By spending 19 non-consecutive weeks at the top of the UK singles chart, it overtakes the record set by Frankie Laine and I Believe in 1953.

Rein Me In first entered the charts in June 2025 but didn’t reach No 1 until February 2026, just a week before it was crowned song of the year at the Brit Awards. It was knocked off the top spot by Harry Styles’ American Girls, but only for a week. Since then it has only been superseded briefly by Olivia Rodrigo’s Drop Dead and Ariana Grande’s Hate That I Made You Love Me.

I Believe spent 18 weeks at No 1. Bryan Adams’ (Everything I Do) I Do It For You was there for 16 weeks in 1991 and Wet Wet Wet topped the charts for 15 weeks in 1994 with Love Is All Around - until now the longest-running No 1 by a British artist.

A volunteer at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow went viral after breaking into a dance while mopping a netball court. His cue came when Queen’s I Want To Break Free came on over the loudspeaker.

He did the splits, used his mop as an air guitar and performed an impressive rendition of a dance move known as “the worm”, before returning to his mopping as if nothing had happened.

The volunteer was later named as professional dancer CJ Miller, who has done his future employment prospects no harm at all.