This article reflects on my 35 years of friendship and collaboration with Ray Hudson. It focusses on his studies of the north east of England and the processes of state-regulated deindustrialisation that have threatened to transform its social and political fabric. The area was once identified with the heartland of “Labourism” – a commitment to the gradual reform of capitalism through local and national government intervention. Hudson’s work has tracked the failure of this approach and now reflects on the consequences as seen inter alia in the vote for Brexit and the growing support for the UK Independence Party.
BeynonHHudsonRSadlerD (1994) A Place Called Teesside: A Locality in a Global Economy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
2.
British Coal Enterprise (BCE) (1988) Annual Review: 1987/8. Eastwood, Nottinghamshire.
3.
EnnisFHudsonR (1989) British coal (enterprise), enterprise agencies and local economic regeneration. Report to the Nuffield Foundation, Durham University: Durham.
4.
HudsonR (1986) Producing an industrial wasteland: Capital labour and the state in north east England. In: MartinRRowthorneB (eds) The Geography of De-Industrialisation. Basingstoke: Macmillan, pp.169–213.
5.
HudsonR (1989) Wrecking a Region: State Policies, Political Parties and regional Change. London: Prion.
6.
HudsonR (1999) The learning economy, the learning firm and the learning region: A sympathetic critique of the limits to learning. European Urban and Regional Studies6(1): 59–72.
7.
HudsonRPeckFSadlerD (1984) Undermining Easington: Who’ll pay the price of pit closures? Report for Easington District Council, Durham University: Durham.
8.
SillitoeA (1959) The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. London: Virgin Books.
