IT used to be the case that there was as much chance of rival editors collaborating as there was of the Durham miners sharing thoughts on Conservative Party policy with Margaret Thatcher.

Thankfully, those days are gone and there was a healthy example of editors working together last week in an attempt to make sure the north of England is treated fairly following the Scottish referendum.

With Scotland guaranteed of extra powers, whatever the referendum verdict, the northern regions of England face the threat of an economic pincer movement, from the more prosperous south of England and a strengthened Scotland.

The world of news is highly competitive but here were the editors of The Northern Echo, The Journal and Evening Chronicle in Newcastle, The Yorkshire Post, Manchester Evening News, and Evening Gazette on Teesside joining up to send a resounding message to the party leaders that the north needs a stronger voice in Government and greater control over its own affairs.

Meat must now be put on the bones of that united call in the Friday editions of those papers. But at a time when Scotland was considering separation, it is good to see newspapers from competing companies coming together for the greater good.

THURSDAY night was one of those when the editor doesn't go to bed. Historic news was being made and, in the age of live blogging, it was an all-night job.

A few hours before polling closed on Thursday, I happened to be preparing for the night ahead with an hour's session in the gym at Darlington's Dolphin Centre.

Getting changed afterwards I got chatting with a man who was about to start his workout. He had a Scottish accent so I asked him what he thought would happen.

I should have known I'd done the wrong thing when he replied: "Don't get me started."

From there, he launched into a tirade about how it was an utter disgrace that he'd lived in Scotland for the first 30 years of his life yet didn't have a say in what happened to his country, how he had a friend from Poland who'd recently moved to Scotland and phoned to ask him which way to vote, and how his son was at Edinburgh University and he had to pay fees.

He got so worked up, he needed a shower before he'd got anywhere near the treadmill.

MY thanks to the ladies of the Cestrian Flower Club, in Chester-le-Street, for their warm welcome when I was speak at an anniversary dinner in the unbeatable setting of Lumley Castle last week.

The club was formed 45 years ago by Nancy Wilkinson, who used to run gardening classes in Chester-le-Street before deciding there was a need for a club. In those days, membership was one guinea and it was 12/6d

The idea blossomed and the club is going strong nearly have a century later, meeting monthly in Park View School.

Apart from enjoyable company, a nice meal, a £100 cheque for the Butterwick Children's Hospice, I got to watch my first flower-arranging demonstration by the splendid Vivian Bolton, a Chelsea Flower Show gold medallist.

As she went through her wonderful demonstration, she told a story which I didn't quite grasp about going to the doctor's, her sample going missing, and then bumping into the vicar in the car park.

Never mind, she's a magician when it comes to chrysanths.

WE'VE all have bad experiences with technology from time to time and felt our frustrations boiling over. But I couldn't help feeling a bit alarmed when I read a story in the Echo last week about a chap called Shame Thompson.

Mr Thompson, from Malton, worked for a bakery in North Yorkshire and got so frustrated that he head-butted a sausage roll machine.

He ended up in court on a charge of criminal damage and was ordered to pay £720 compensation, as well as being given a 12-month conditional discharge.

The bit of the story which worried me most was the paragraph: "Since the incident in July, Thompson has found a new job as a ride operator at the nearby Flamingo Land theme park.

Put him in charge of the hook-a-duck by all means, but I'm not so sure about letting him near any roller-coasters.