Good, punchy interview with Mayor Jamie Driscoll by Sienna Rodgers politicshome.com/thehouse/artic…
I went to see him speak in Shildon with a woman who'd previously voted for Boris Johnson and now distrusted all politicians. No more voting. By the end of his talk, she was minded to give Jamie a go.

Aditya Chakrabortty Daniel Dylan Wray It’s a great interview. In case you weren’t aware, there’s a new authorised Vini Reilly/Durutti Column biography coming out next month (with full cooperation from Vini, Bruce Mitchell, family and friends):

x.com/burningshednew…

Just chanced across this rare and moving interview with the genius that is Vini Reilly, by Daniel Dylan Wray

theguardian.com/music/2023/jul…

The war in Sudan is not 'just another African country succumbing to intractable conflict', writes Nesrine Malik, but shows 'a new configuration of political and economic entrepreneurs' with no experience of or interest in government. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

The correction below says it all

Very sharp piece from Kenan Malik on how whiteness went from dominance to another (faux-beleaguered) identity in a politics of identity theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

#ThePerilsofUniversalCredit with a Q&A at #Vibast #Community Centre 27th April 2024…. ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/167-o…

Excellent piece.

A great article here 👇 . I experienced growing up in a ‘Category D’ village not a million miles away from Shildon and this piece resonated strongly.

‘ Starmer and his ministerial team offered those in attendance an “exclusive dive” into the launch of its financial services policy.’

Important and useful piece from Prem Sikka

Many 'places that no longer matter' are refusing to die.
Very interesting article by Aditya Chakrabortty in The Guardian about #Shildon , an old mining town starved of investment since 1951 but that survives against all odds.
doi.org/10.1093/cjres/…
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

'For all Margaret Thatcher and Blair talked of upskilling or a knowledge economy, Shildon already had a workforce of artisans – and they were condemned to unemployment'

Shildon is a town that was abandoned by those who should have supported it after they shut down Shildon Shops. Aditya Chakrabortty captures the history and the current mood perfectly. The future is about jobs, transport and opportunity, not divisive politics.

A very moving piece on the evisceration of towns bled dry and abandoned by state and capital and working class struggles to sustain them. Shildon poses 'perhaps the central political issue of our time: how do people live when money has discarded them'?

This is a very perceptive article about Shildon as an example of a place which feels ‘left behind’. It accords with the findings of our Economic and Social Research Council Beyond "Left Behind Places" study in which we’ve interviewed dozens of households. Aditya nails what is old and what is new the situation in Shildon.

A thoughtful piece that I think folk from many of the former industrial communities right across the north-east will find they can relate to.

I can't believe I'm 50 now and our best cities have been declining or stagnant the whole time I've been alive (with occasional bursts of regen investment)

Superb, poignant piece which describes how vital the railways have been and can be to lives and communities. Direct reference to Derby and Newton Aycliffe. Meanwhile Shildon should be celebrated for #Rail200 and supported long term.

Aditya Chakrabortty Superb Aditya. I look at places like Easington Colliery and Horden in my next book. There is very little holding them together. Places like these need to be taken seriously before darker paths are trod