~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~14~RS~)
This is where I hope to make sense of the complex political issues and decisions affecting our daily lives in Yorkshire and the North Midlands
11:03 UK time, Monday, 14 May 2012
A BBC satellite truck stands at the door of a school hall in West Yorkshire; cables snake to live cameras; the panel of national politicians and a packed audience are waiting for the familiar theme tune to be played in.
This is the BBC's Question Time - but not as we know it.
10:49 UK time, Tuesday, 8 May 2012
The Richard Dunn Sports Centre on Bradford's inner city ring road is hardly the most glamorous of locations.
But at dawn last Friday morning it provided everything a Hollywood blockbuster could possibly need.
20:49 UK time, Friday, 4 May 2012
Len added analysis to:
Labour continued to make steady gains in Yorkshire but was unable to grasp its biggest target thanks to the "Galloway effect".
Could the party gain enough extra councillors to finally have a clear majority in Bradford where it has been a minority administration for the past two years? Or would Respect win enough seats to hold the balance of power?
11:17 UK time, Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Spot the odd word out from "razzmatazz", "excitement" and… "politics".
Well, there used to be at least one night of the year when all those words could be used together.
10:23 UK time, Thursday, 12 April 2012
Respect has launched a local election campaign which falls a good way short of the overwhelming "Bradford Spring" offensive promised by the party's new MP, George Galloway.
Yet, in a city where Labour rules the local council as the biggest party but is unable to command an outright majority, Respect could have a chance of finishing up holding the balance of power.
10:07 UK time, Monday, 2 April 2012
As the first ballot boxes were brought into the count, Labour managers in Yorkshire were telling me the arrangements for a victory visit by Ed Miliband to Bradford which was being planned for the following morning.
Even as late as this they were confident their man would be the next MP for Bradford West but expected "some slippage" in the 6,000 majority he had inherited from outgoing Labour MP Marsha Singh.
13:02 UK time, Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Fact and fiction collided in Barnsley this week as a row broke out amongst the audience of a controversial stage play called Dust which puts Arthur Scargill in the dramatic spotlight.
In the middle of the performance at the Barnsley Civic theatre a woman loudly harangued the actor playing the role of the now 74-year-old Arthur.
17:22 UK time, Friday, 24 February 2012
This week saw the 30th birthday of Britain's youngest council leader James Alexander but he will not be unwrapping one gift on offer from the government.
He has refused a grant of £1.8 million made by Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles on condition that he agrees to freeze this year's council tax for the City of York.
17:28 UK time, Friday, 10 February 2012
Labour leader Ed Miliband says he thinks directly elected executive mayors are a good idea.
But he's not having much success persuading Labour council leaders in his own back yard of that.
11:12 UK time, Monday, 6 February 2012
Labour MP John Mann wants eight government departments to move out of London taking their highly paid civil service jobs with them.
The Bassetlaw Labour MP wants thousands now working in Whitehall to move to new offices in the North, Midlands and the South West.
18:16 UK time, Friday, 27 January 2012
I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when the telephone rang in Rebecca Taylor's home last night.
At just 36, Rebecca is a veteran Liberal Democrat politician who has been learning her trade by standing in elections where her chances of winning have been limited.
11:43 UK time, Wednesday, 25 January 2012
It never ceases to amaze me how things can change so fast in politics.
Last week I was writing about Liberal Democrat MEP Diana Wallis' stand against what she called the "anti-democratic stitch up" of the two big political groups in the European Parliament rigging the vote to allow one of their members to take turns at being elected as President.
16:19 UK time, Wednesday, 18 January 2012
Staunch Liberal Democrat MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber Diana Wallis shrugged off her yellow T-shirt this week and stood as an independent candidate in the election for a new president of the European Parliament.
It was the only way she could highlight what many have been calling the "anti-democratic stitch-up" by the two biggest political groupings to take turns to have one of its MEPs elected to the most important post in the European Parliament.
15:49 UK time, Thursday, 15 December 2011
Sometimes you have to chuckle at what a government department says.
This week the Department for Transport said it needed more time to decide on whether to back a proposed public transport system for Leeds as the technology it involves needs more investigation to prove if it will be value for money.
10:25 UK time, Monday, 5 December 2011
I don't think my wife Angela will be quite so ready to agree next time I offer a leisurely drive up through the Yorkshire Dales on my day off (and a night at a nice B&B) so I can be in place in time to film a story the following morning.
She finished up being 'volunteered' as my unofficial camera assistant as I picked up part of the story on the way.
16:38 UK time, Sunday, 27 November 2011
The Deputy Prime Minister chose the Leeds College of Building to announce a billion pound national scheme aimed at getting UK youngsters into vocational training and a job.
The Youth Contract looks remarkably similar to Labour's Future Jobs Fund which the incoming coalition government scrapped as not giving value for taxpayers' money.
15:46 UK time, Friday, 11 November 2011
Every so often you hear or see something that pulls you up short.
This week it was listening to a teenage lad called James Lynch on a stage in Bradford singing his own song - the 'Buttershaw Blues'.
17:28 UK time, Monday, 7 November 2011
Peace groups thought the end of the Cold War and the election of Barack Obama would see American military bases in the UK pack up and head for home.
In North Yorkshire exactly the opposite has happened.
12:41 UK time, Monday, 31 October 2011
Len added analysis to:
With just over three months to go before the 2010 general election Labour's Industry Secretary Peter Mandelson announced that Sheffield Forgemasters was to be granted an £80m loan.
The taxpayers' cash would be used to upgrade equipment including a new 15,000-tonne forging press to manufacture ultra-large components for the growing nuclear power generation industry.
16:25 UK time, Wednesday, 26 October 2011
For a couple of days this week a blade from a Rolls Royce "Trent" jet engine has been exhibited in a rather unusual setting.
The blade, floodlit at night, was on a plinth on an open space in Westminster's New Palace Yard with a backdrop of the House of Commons and Big Ben.
Len Tingle is the BBC's veteran political editor for Yorkshire and the North Midlands, reporting and commentating on the challenges facing of one of the most socially and economically diverse regions in the UK.
He is a familiar face on Look North, on the weekly Sunday Politics programme, and is also heard regularly on the BBC's local radio stations in Leeds, Sheffield and York.
Born in Barnsley, he reported on business and industrial issues from across the UK and the world for newspapers, ITV and the BBC before returning to Yorkshire in the mid-1990s.
"Think of an idyllic or exotic place and I've probably reported from a shop floor, steel mill or coal mine close by - then caught the next flight out without seeing a single tourist attraction.
"It was all great experience for eventually specialising in politics. Scratch the surface of any business story and a politician usually pops out - wherever you happen to be in the world."
Tim Iredale
Political editor, Yorkshire & Lincolnshire
Analysis of politics in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire
Richard Moss
Political editor, North East & Cumbria
Reporting politics in the North East and Cumbria
Andrew Neil
Daily and Sunday Politics
People and policies that make Westminster tick
BBC © 2012 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
