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The Northern Agenda podcast is changing - and our editor Rob Parsons shares the details!
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For the last five days the eyes of the political world have been focusing on Liverpool's waterfront for Labour party conference, its first in power for 15 years.
Thousands of people have piled into venues around the city, from party members and MPs to business leaders, metro mayors and of course senior Cabinet members - many of whom are from the North - and their teams.
Rob Parsons spent two days ducking in and out of fringe events and drinks receptions, as did Jo Timan of the Manchester Evening News and Ethan Davies, Local Democracy Reporter for Manchester.
They chat about the rain-soaked conference vibes, Keir Starmer's personal speech, money worries for the Manchester to Liverpool train line and Lisa Nandy's love of Britney Spears.
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If you're into politics it's likely you'll be heading to, or at the very least reading about, one of the big party conferences happening this autumn. By far the biggest is Labour's annual get-together in Liverpool, their first as a new government.
And anyone who's interested in the future direction of the Labour party will want to Rob Parsons' interview with one of its most interesting new MPs, Josh Simons, MP for Makerfield in Greater Manchester. He's a former advisor to Jeremy Corbyn and used to run the influential think-tank Labour Together, which has extremely close links to the current Keir Starmer government.
The loyal 'Starmtrooper' been earmarked by a lot of observers as one to watch in the new intake of MPs. And on the podcast he talks about a fundamental shift in the way politics is done under the new government and his thoughts on the levelling up agenda and what Labour does to replace it.
And Iisteners will certainly have a view on his defence of Rachel Reeves over the first big controversy of the new Labour government, the cutting of the winter fuel allowance so it only goes to the poorest pensioners.
A year on from Rishi Sunak's decision to axe the Northern leg of HS2 to Manchester, while giving a conference speech in Manchester, Rob speaks to a transport expert who's helped put together a report on what we can learn from the cancellation of the high speed rail project in the North.
Jonathan Spruce of the Institution of Civil Engineers talks about how we need to take the politics out of these huge infrastructure projects if they're ever going to succeed.
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Only a few weeks ago the big story in many of our Northern communities was the rioting and disorder we saw this summer, seemingly sparked by the horrific killing in Southport.
We saw violence break out across the country but it seemed like much of it was in the North, places like Sunderland and Darlington, Blackpool, Hull, Preston and Liverpool.
Since then we've seen a steady stream of the perpetrators hauled before the courts and in some instances handed hefty prison sentences. But with the dust now settled, how much do we understand about why the rioting spread so easily and why so many people - often with no previous history of criminal activity - decided to get involved?
Rob Parsons speaks to Chris Read - council leader in Rotherham, where a hotel housing asylum seekers came under attack - and Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner Matt Storey about how the violence unfolded in their patch, what they think caused it and whether we can stop it happening again.
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There's a definite 'back to school' feeling in the air in politics this week. The news agenda is already being dominated by the issues that we're going to be hearing about again and again in the coming months - small boats, the housing crisis and the ravaged state of the public finances.
It's back to school for the North's politicians too, and with Westminster resuming after the summer break this week a new Labour MP, Hexham's Joe Morris, is leading not one but two debates in the Commons and has been telling his fellow MPs about the banking deserts that are worrying locals in his huge Northumberland constituency. He explains to Rob Parsons how he's been trying to fight for voters in an area that voted Tory for 100 years.
Up in York this week, the North's political leaders have their own big event, launching the so-called manifesto for the North, a document setting out how the likes of Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and other elected leaders can work together to help our region thrive.
And with perfect timing, a new report put together by Northern academics and experts sets out all too clearly just how badly half of our population is being let down by just how unequal our country is, from the moment they're born to the day they die.
Rob speaks to Professor Kate Pickett, one of the authors of a new very hard-hitting report ‘Woman of the North: Inequality, health and work’, which finds that women in the North of England live shorter lives, work more hours for less pay, are more likely to be an unpaid carer, and more likely to live in poverty than women in other regions of England.
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The Northern Agenda tries to think outside of the box when it comes to both our newsletter and podcast, and in this week’s episode, our guest does exactly that.
Tina Catling is a renowned innovation consultant, author, and speaker, who advises organisations and people around the world on how to unlock creative potential and innovation.
She has been running her Leeds-based business ThinkOTB with her partner Mark Davies for 30 years.
She tells The Northern Agenda's Dan McLaughlin about her diagnosis of ADHD at the age of 61, and why she believes neurodiversity is a "superpower".
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We all know there's a big North-South divide when it comes to pay, but which part of the North of England has the highest average wage? Here's a clue, it's not Manchester or Leeds.
With an average median annual full-time wage of nearly £42,000, Ribble Valley in Lancashire is the highest-paid local authority area in Northern England. Its residents earn an average of £14,000 a year more than those in Tameside, not too far away in Greater Manchester.
The Ribble Valley is a beautiful district to the east of Preston, described as boasting "picturesque villages, soul-soothing countryside and warm-hearted inhabitants". And for foodies, it boasts several gastro pubs that are officially rated the very best the UK has to offer.
Rob Parsons has never been and wants to put that right in this special episode. He heads to its main town Clitheroe to chat to locals about why the area's doing so well, the one thing that's worrying locals and intriguingly, why, if everything's so great, the area has just booted out its two Conservative MPs in favour of Labour politicians at the last General Election.
The Northern Agenda is a Reach Studio production, produced and edited by Daniel J. McLaughlin.
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Politicians and pubs are a combination as old as the hills, with even the likes of teetotal ex-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak turning up for photo shoots at local watering holes on the election trail this year.
But if our decision-makers stuck about after the cameras disappeared and observed the conversations ordinary pub-goers were having, would they be better informed about their lives and what makes them tick?
That's what Ed Shackle and Bertie Wnek, two researchers from policy, research, opinion and strategy consultancy Public First, have done, spending five days in pubs in Bolton to hear what kind of things punters talk about.
They tell Rob Parsons why this kind of research brought them insights they'd never get from an opinion poll - and the surprising activity they found in virtually every Bolton pub no matter what time of day it was.
Rob also speaks to David Skaith, the first elected metro mayor of York and North Yorkshire, about his 'whirlwind' first 100 days in the job. Find out what he's doing on buses and transport, housing and whether he'll challenge his own Labour government.
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So if you look at the biggest jobs in local government in the North of England, undoubtedly near the top of the list are the chief executives of the city councils of Manchester and Leeds.
They're roles that come with responsibility for vital services in our region's two biggest cities, leading thousands of employees and overseeing annual budgets into the hundreds of millions.
So with both Tom Riordan, chief executive of Leeds city council, and Joanne Roney, his counterpart in Manchester, set to leave their positions this year, it's a great opportunity to talk about the time in charge, what they've learned and what the future holds for our town halls after a turbulent and challenging last decade or so.
Find out why they're expecting this year to be the toughest yet for setting town hall budgets, how our national housing crisis could be solved if the rest of the country was like Leeds and Manchester, and how the North keeps the lights on in London. Plus: Tom drops some hints about what job he's doing next...
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Just over a year ago, TransPennine Express, which runs intercity services across the North of England, became the latest to come under government control due to its dire performance that had infuriated political leaders and customers.
Installed not long after as managing director was Chris Jackson, faced with some formidable hurdles to overcome if TransPennine was to get back on track, not least the refusal of unions to allow their staff to work on their days off and large number of their staff lacking the training for all its routes and trains.
It's been a challenging year - and last autumn the company had to cut the number of trains it runs on its core Leeds-Manchester service and take part of its fleet out of service to ensure there were enough trained drivers to go round.
But since then, it looks like TransPennine is on the road to recovery. But what does the future hold at a time when political leaders are keener than ever to get us out of our cars and onto public transport?
On the Northern Agenda this week, Chris tells Rob Parsons how work is going on giving the North's rail passengers the service they need and deserve, plus exciting news on the UK’s first intercity battery train.
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On a brutal General Election night for the Conservatives, there were a few bright spots where their MPs managed to defy the swing to Labour and hang onto their seats.
In the North East of England - where Labour otherwise swept the board - just one Conservative MP now remains, Matt Vickers, who won in the new seat of Stockton West despite pre-election polling which suggested it would turn red.
He speaks to Rob Parsons about how he managed to defy the odds, what it's been like as a Tory MP since returning to Parliament and what the near Tory wipeout means for Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen.
Meanwhile, Rob hears from the journalists behind a brilliant new podcast called Everything But a Beach, telling the fascinating hidden stories of Manchester you won't have learned about at school.
Find out about 'God's copper' James Anderton, Manchester's scuttling gangs with names like the Bengal Tigers and the Meadow Lads, and where local words like ‘ticklebutt’ and ‘arsewood’ came from.
You can listen to Everything But a Beach at https://everythingbutabeach.podbean.com/
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Doesn't it seem a long time ago that a victorious Boris Johnson took in the applause from Conservatives in Tony Blair's old seat of Sedgefield after winning a host of North East seats in Labour strongholds like Darlington, Redcar and Bishop Auckland in the 2019 General Election?
Five years later, the Tories have been all but wiped out in the North East, reduced to just one seat. How did things go so badly wrong and is there a way back for the party in time for the next election? And was Rishi Sunak the right person to lead the party into the 2024 election?
Rob Parsons speaks to Miranda Jupp, who up until a few days ago was chief of staff to Sir Simon Clarke, former Levelling Up Secretary and Conservative MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, who lost to Labour's Luke Myer by just 200 votes.
And Rob takes a look under the bonnet of the North East of England, a region with so much going for it but with issues like poverty, economic inactivity and bad health continuing to plague it for decades.
A new series of reports called Vital Signs single out the role civil society and the generosity of philanthropy can play in bridging the divide between the North East and the rest of the country.
Rob Williamson, CEO of the Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland, tells us more about the work. And you can read them for yourself at https://www.communityfoundation.org.uk/vital-signs/
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This week's there's an induction like no other going on in Westminster's corridors of power, as dozens of newly-elected MPs from across the North are introduced to the bewildering intricacies and traditions of life in the epicentre of British democracy.
But what's it been like for someone who a week ago was battling to be elected and now finds themselves rubbing shoulders with the nation's political leaders, hundreds of miles from home?
Rob Parsons finds out from Lewis Atkinson, who last week was elected as the new Labour MP for Sunderland Central. He tells us about the white envelope with secret instructions that all new MPs get and how one aspect of life at Westminster pleasantly surprised him.
And with the General Election already feeling like a distant memory in a frenetic first week for the Labour government, Rob chats to Jo Timan from the Manchester Evening News about Andy Burnham and Ben Houchen's trip to Downing Street and why it matters that Keir Starmer's Cabinet is filled with Northern MPs.
Plus: Is Reform UK now the main opposition to Labour in Greater Manchester and the North East?
Northern Agenda is a Laudable production for Reach. This week's episode is presented by Rob Parsons and produced by Celeste Adams.
You can subscribe to the daily Northern Agenda newsletter here: http://www.thenorthernagenda.co.uk/
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It's General Election night and Rob Parsons has got himself a front row seat for one of the highest-profile counts in the North: Rishi Sunak's Richmond and Northallerton constituency in North Yorkshire.
With Sunak's Conservatives facing near certain defeat to Labour in the polls, the media is waiting for the Prime Minister to show his face in the early hours of the morning - and that's if he can hold onto what used to be a safe seat.
Hear Rob's dispatch from election night, where he speaks to some of the quirkier candidates including an intergalactic space traveller called Count Binface and the hopefuls from Labour and Reform UK.
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This week voters across the North will be going to the polls for the General Election with all the national polling pointing to a big Labour victory.
But Rob Parsons wants to hear what's happening at local level across the North of England and has reassembled a panel of top political journalists, Liam Thorp from the Liverpool Echo, Joseph Timan from the Manchester Evening News and Graeme Whitfield from the Journal in the North East.
They discuss why voters in the North are so disillusioned, what Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak have been saying on their trips to our region...and perhaps most importantly their go-to snacks to keep them awake through a long election night.
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In the run-up to the General Election, we've heard so much from the likes of Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak, Nigel Farage and Ed Davey - wouldn't it be interesting to put the local candidates bidding for voters in the North in the spotlight for a change?
This week on the Northern Agenda podcast, election rivals in the North East are taken to task over how they would combat soaring child poverty rates, the future of the NHS, pollution in our waterways, and more.
Candidates from the five main parties contesting seats at the July 4 election took part in a special hustings hosted by ChronicleLive in Newcastle, two weeks before the UK goes to the polls.
Clashing over issues including the two-child benefit cap and Tory plans for a new national service scheme were candidates Catherine McKinnell (Labour, Newcastle North), Nick Oliver (Conservative, Gateshead Central and Whickham), Natalie Younes (Liberal Democrat, North Northumberland), David Francis (Green, South Shields), and Lynn Murphy (Reform UK, Easington).
As well as taking questions sent in by Chronicle readers during the debate, chaired by Journal editor Graeme Whitfield, a group of students from St Joseph’s Academy in Hebburn also challenged the candidates on key issues affecting young people.
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Northern Agenda is a Laudable production for Reach. This week's episode is presented by Rob Parsons and produced by Celeste Adams.
You can subscribe to the daily Northern Agenda newsletter here: http://www.thenorthernagenda.co.uk/
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We're 40 years on from the so-called Battle of Orgreave, when thousands of picketing miners were attacked by riot police in South Yorkshire in what has been described as one of the most violent clashes in British industrial history, with police using ‘paramilitary’ tactics.
And to mark the occasion a new report, chronicling what campaigners say is decades of multi-agency cover up of state-orchestrated violence, has just been delivered to the leaders of the UK’s main political parties and the Home Office.
With Labour promising a new investigation if they get into power on July 4, will we finally learn the truth about what happened on June 18,1984? Rob Parsons spoke to Chris Peace from the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign.
And after visiting Richmond in North Yorkshire last week, Rob goes about 100 miles south west to the seaside resort of Southport.
It's the only area of Merseyside that doesn't have a Labour MP - but could that be about to change? And what, if anything, can politicians do to restore the fortunes of seaside resorts who are trying to reinvent themselves?
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Northern Agenda is a Laudable production for Reach. This week's episode is presented by Rob Parsons and produced by Celeste Adams.
You can subscribe to the daily Northern Agenda newsletter here: http://www.thenorthernagenda.co.uk/
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We're three weeks into the General Election campaign and Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives are staring down the barrel of an historic defeat that will see them reduced to just a handful of seats in the North of England and potentially scrapping with the Lib Dems and Reform UK to be the opposition to the next Labour government.
It's been a torrid week for the Prime Minister - who's been hammered from all sides for skipping out of the D-Day 80th anniversary events early. So where better to get the view of voters than his own North Yorkshire constituency, home to the country's biggest Army base?
That's what Rob Parsons did - before the big D-Day row kicked off - to hear from voters in the market town of Richmond and find out about the hidden poverty in what most people consider a safe and leafy Tory seat.
He also speaks to Jim Blagden, Associate Director for Research and Insights at More in Common, the think-tank founded after the murder of Yorkshire MP Jo Cox in 2016, about Labour's manifesto launch in Manchester, why the Tories lost the red wall and who exactly is 'Whitby Woman'.
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Northern Agenda is a Laudable production for Reach. This week's episode is presented by Rob Parsons and produced by Celeste Adams.
You can subscribe to the daily Northern Agenda newsletter here: http://www.thenorthernagenda.co.uk/
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For the next few weeks there's really only one story in town politics-wise and that's the 2024 General Election - the one that seems to have been on the horizon for months but in the end came quite unexpectedly with an announcement by Rishi Sunak in a rain-drenched Downing Street.
Since then it's been a non-stop flurry of campaign stops, photo opportunities, social media blitzes and behind-closed-doors selections as political activists go hell-for-leather to boost their prospects ahead of the big day on July 4.
There's no shortage of great analysis of the election but Rob Parsons wanted to get a really Northern perspective on what's happening and find out about some of the contests you might not be hearing about in the national media.
He's joined by three of Reach Plc colleagues keeping an eye on politics across the North: Liam Thorp from the Liverpool Echo, Joseph Timan from the Manchester Evening News and Graeme Whitfield, editor for the Journal in the North East.
Find out why the ITV debate from Salford was massively frustrating, the seats to watch in Northern England and why there should be ice cream for hungry journalists on all campaign stops. And can we make some dad jokes about Taylor Swift?
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Northern Agenda is a Laudable production for Reach. This week's episode is presented by Rob Parsons, and produced by Celeste Adams.
You can subscribe to the daily Northern Agenda newsletter here: http://www.thenorthernagenda.co.uk/
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Ahead of the General Election on July 4th, we’re taking a look at one of the key policies from the 2019 Conservative manifesto.
Levelling up promised to boost Britain’s “left behind” areas, and helped Boris Johnson storm to victory as voters in former Labour heartlands turned to the Tories in droves.
You can find out more by listening to our episode from April 2022, titled “Levelling up: what it really means for the north”
But have the Conservatives actually managed to deliver on their promise since then? The North in Numbers takes over the podcast this week, with Annie Gouk speaking to local leaders, policy experts and academics to find out how it’s going.
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