Windrush of politicians pay tribute to Tyneside turbine plans
Groundhog Day. Another Thursday, another Nick Clegg visit to the North East, another policy announcement.
And I suspect I'm also going to become increasingly familiar with where he visited - a former shipyard being transformed by the Shepherd family (the former owners of Newcastle United).
. These will be placed out at sea, with blades as big as the London Eye.
They must be doing something right because all political roads seem to lead there at the moment.
For some time Labour have been using the enterprise as evidence of how the North East economy is being turned round with their help.
They've been keen to point to the investment made there by the regional development agency One North East.
Last week, the Shadow Business Secretary Ken Clarke also made a private visit to the site to find out more.
And today Nick Clegg rolled up to .
If he gets into government, he's promising £400m to help transform disused shipyards.
A further £100m will go into renewable energy research at Universities like Durham and Newcastle. He believes it could create 57,000 jobs.
The Conservatives have been picking holes in the financing of the scheme, claiming it's using money the Lib Dems have committed several times.
But the announcement has caused most consternation in Labour circles
I understand Labour intended to announce its own plans to develop the turbine industry in the region's shipyards as early as next week.
So this does look like a bit of a Lib Dem spoiler, but that's politics.
North East Minister Nick Brown duly dismissed it as a photoshoot stunt, and pointed out that the Lib Dems may abolish the regional development agency that helped the Shepherds get the project off the ground.
Freddie Shepherd also said he'd told both Nick Clegg and Ken Clarke that plans to abolish One North East would be a mistake.
He though is clearly keen to get cross-party support.
And the parties are keen to pay court. It's a perfect story - green jobs offering the way out of the recession.
Incidentally, I saw evidence today of how different the 2010 election campaign could be.
Nick Clegg spent at least some of his time on the site being filmed by one of his staff on a mobile phone for .
Expect more of that in the weeks to come.
I'm Richard Moss, the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Political Editor for the North East and Cumbria. Welcome to my irreverent - but hopefully insightful - northern take on reporting politics for Look North and the Politics Show.
Comments
or to comment.