General Election 2017: Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn Rally – Gateshead

It’s not very often i’d openly post about politics or elections or anything like that, but today on one my my usual after work walks down the Quayside I knew, south of the river at The Sage the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn were holding their general election rally.

I’m posting it as it’s amazing how much interest people were showing in the future of the country and it was proof Tyneside is still very much red. The noise from that stage was on maximum people clearly were there to listen

Cheers erupted when the leader or policies were mentioned, boos and jeering when the opposition mentioned. It was something else, If you didn’t know what was going on it would have sounded pretty odd!

A few of his colleagues and associates gave a speech before Jeremy came on and the whole Quayside was booming with the noise, it was quite the spectacular, The small square outside the sage was packed to capacity, even from the Newcastle side you could hear it. As I walked towards the Millennium Bridge it sounded more like a sports match or a rock concert as people chanted ‘Corbyn, Corbyn, Corbyn’ this was probably a good hour before he would speak. Both sides of the river were lined with bikes locked up, clearly in line with Corbyn, they shared their method of transport!

Bikes lined up along the Quayside

Despite awful weather all day people turned out in their thousands. The small Square as I said was packed to capacity, people lined the metal stairs that zig-zag down to the car parks. People were in the car parks with nothing but a concrete wall as a view, and people were on the bank-side to the south of the sage, I don’t think you could get anywhere near the stage, and to be fair, I didn’t even attempt it.

The one thing I found spectacular and really (political reasons aside totally) is why I am writing this blog, take away what party it  was, what your political allegiances are, whatever you stance on policies and the way we live, The clear enthusiasm of people visiting was something else, the cheering, the booing, people running to get to the stage as it started, the banners waving bit more so this.. The sage is bordered by a very steep grass bank, it’s been raining cats and frogs all day.. but time after time people took on some sort of Gladiators/Takeshi’s Castle/Krypton Factor/Total Wipeout (choose as appropriate to age) battle to get up as close as possible.. if you slipped it was a long way down and if you were first man up and lost your footing on the soaked and probably muddy grass you were taking the team down with you… I think quite simply people wanted to get there, maybe be a part of the future?

I won’t be harping on about who I am voting for, or why, or what for, when I do i’ll pop into the local polling station, pop a mark on the paper, in the box, then leave. Simple as that.