North East news columnists, comment & opinion

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Right royal rumpus over MPs’ oath of allegiance

SUPPORTERS of the monarchy are getting themselves into a right royal rumpus over a campaign by renegade MPs to scrap the tradition of swearing an oath to the Queen.Read

Miliband should come clean about his intentions

IS it any wonder the public mistrusts politicians when every word they utter has to be scrutinised for hidden meaning?Read

Lydia Hearst puts brains on show

LYDIA HEARST has quite a pedigree. She is the daughter of Patty Hearst, who was famously kidnapped by US guerilla group the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974, and who went on to empathise with her captors.Read

Climate-change deniers in hot water

CHANNEL 4 got a bit of a kicking this week over its controversial documentary, The Great Global Warming Swindle.Read

Hatchet job by opera snobs and posh nobs

COULD there really be more than 2000 opera buffs among the topless totty-loving, sport-obsessed Sun readership?Read

Max Mosley’s reputation takes a spanking

SO, world motorsport boss Max Mosley is £60,000 better off (like he needs it) after a judge decided he is a wronged man.Read

MPs still have snouts in the trough

APPARENTLY we should all be eternally grateful for the noble sacrifice made this week by our MPs . . . namely, the abolition of the so-called John Lewis list.Read

Brand-new piece of stupidity

WOULDN’T it have been hilarious if Russell Brand had been prosecuted for wasting police time over his pathetic hoax call?Read

Charvaism is a culture, not a class

A LEFT-WING pressure group wants to ban the word “chav” because it believes it to be offensive. I totally agree . . . it IS offensive, but isn’t that the point?Read

Idiocy of couple who have sex on the beach in Dubai shows

YOU can have sex on the beach in Dubai, so long as you drink it in the cocktail bar of your hotel.Read

Ryanair carry on is plane crazy

I ONCE attended a health and safety lecture where the dangers of making a cup of tea were discussed.Read

Not what doctor ordered

PITY the poor child in the care of neighbour from hell Dawn Shackleton, who was last year evicted from her Tyneside home along with other family members.Read

Royals rolling in it

I SHOULDN’T think many of us have had the pleasure of travelling on the Royal Train, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been taken for a ride by the Windsors.Read

Specs appeal

FORMER supermodel Christie Brinkley is embroiled in a bitter divorce.Read

Question of ability

IF your child has just sat his or her exams, pray their paper gets marked by Peter Buckroyd.Read

Spending more of other folk's wages

THE Royals are not alone in having their snouts in the trough while the rest of us feel the pinch our MPs are at it too.Read

Planner is on a different planet

HAS planning inspector John Gray been overdosing on old episodes of Yes Minister?Read

Flesh and moans

THE art world’s most famous one-trick pony — Spencer Tunick — has been at it again.Read

Phone ban call is crazy

ROAD safety charities want an outright ban on car phones — even the hands-free variety — claiming they make drivers four times more likely to have an accident.Read