The Labour leadership’s narrow definition of ‘working people’ leads to distorted and unjust Budget calculations, where the unearned income of the super-wealthy doesn’t factor in at all, argues JON TRICKETT MP
“SOME things just stick in your mind,” as Vashti Bunyan sang all those years ago.
As I packed my bags yesterday for Durham, where I’ll be spending the weekend at the Big Meeting, I couldn’t help but think of a speech I heard there four years ago, when I was attending the Miners’ Gala for the first time.
Tosh McDonald, then president of train drivers’ union Aslef, spoke of the historic connection between the railways and the coal industry.
Two-hundred years ago, on September 27 1825, the world’s first passenger railway line was opened between Stockton and Darlington. MICK WHELAN, general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, reflects on the history – and the future – of Britain’s railway industry
The Home Secretary’s recent letter suggests the Labour government may finally deliver on its nine-year manifesto commitment, writes KATE FLANNERY, but we must move quickly: as recently as 2024 Northumbria police destroyed miners’ strike documents
Durham Miners’ Association general secretary ALAN MARDGHUM speaks to Ben Chacko ahead of Gala Day 2025



