Sir Alan Beith interviewed by the Northumberland Gazette

Sir Alan Beith has been north Northumberland’s MP for nearly 40 years, but the last two have seen him involved in the hustle and bustle of the Coalition Government

the Northumberland Gazette points out, before interviewing him about the current political situation:

“I never had any illusions that there wouldn’t be a negative effect at least for the first couple of years, because the people who vote for us, if they didn’t vote for us, would vote for Labour, as they have a deep distrust of the Tories,” said Sir Alan. 

“Our job is to make sure the Government is a coalition and therefore that their fears don’t happen. 

“The other factor we have to contend with in the elections is that any Government in the situation that the country’s now in would be making very unpopular decisions. 

“If Labour had won a majority they would either be doing things similarly to what this Government is doing or the country would be heading for disaster, and I think it would be the first one.”

Sir Alan was also keen to talk about the dualling of the A1 - an issue which appears to be the Northumbrian equivalent of the Cornish pasty.