A COLLEAGUE described the Mayor of the Tees Valley as being “cock-a-hoop” when he was able to disclose that he had signed a non-disclosure agreement with airport owners Peel in time for his first anniversary press conference.

It could have been that the terms of the non-disclosure agreement prevented the disclosure of the existence of a non-disclosure agreement, so he wouldn’t have been able to disclose anything.

However, his disclosure enabled him to present a significant step forward. Many were sceptical about his headline-grabbing pre-election plan to buy Durham Tees Valley Airport, but the non-disclosure agreement suggests Peel, which owns 89 per cent of the airport and has appeared reluctant to sell, is now beginning to enter into negotiations.

Then came the disclosure of a second NDA that has been agreed with a private company to come in and operate the airport on behalf of the mayor.

Although there are many slips twixt cup and lip ahead, it is understandable that the mayor was said to be “cock-a-hoop” at his progress.

But no one really knows what “cock-a-hoop” really means. A chap writing a column similar to this one in 1670 said that a “cock” was a “spigot” – a wooden peg that was used as a stop in a vent-hole in a barrel. When the cock was removed and attached to the metal hoop that went round the barrel, so it didn’t get lost, the beer flowed without restraint, and everyone was able to drink as much as they wanted.

With the cock on the hoop, the good times really rolled. Everyone was cock-a-hoop.

This is a plausible explanation, but it has the whiff of invention about it.

So other, older, derivations suggest that if a cockerel manages to get itself up onto the hoop around the top of a barrel full of corn, he will be the happiest cockerel alive. He will be pecking madly at an endless supply of food and then he will be throwing his head back and crowing about his success. A cock on the hoop would indeed be cock-a-hoop.

And which, apparently, described the Mayor of the Tees Valley as he told of his anniversary success.

  •  An erudite discussion about whether or not the mayor should be cock-a-hoop at his airport adventure can be heard on a podcast on the BBC Tees website. Taking part are Rachel Anderson of the North-East Chamber of Commerce, Anna Round of the IPPR thinktank, David Macmillan of BBC Tees and myself. Somehow we veer off topic and debate the merits of large Chupa chups lollies that you only find for sale at airports.

WHEN a human skull was dug up in Haughton this week, people immediately assumed that skulduggery had been afoot.

“Skulduggery” means underhand dealing or roguish intrigue, but it seems originally to come from a Scottish word, “sculdudderie”.

If someone came before an ecclesiastical court charged with sculdudderie, it meant they were accused of “breach of chastity” – some back stairs creeping, some underhand dealing had led to adultery.

Would even a non-disclosure agreement prevent details of such skulduggery seeping out?