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Regional secretary with the National Education Union
Labour must act swiftly to lift children out of poverty
As she returns to Westminster, REBECCA LONG BAILEY MP calls on the new government to scrap the two-child benefit cap immediately to ease families’ financial strain that she sees in Salford
STATING THE OBVIOUS: Russell Trust CEO Emma Revie (left) and Warrington Foodbank volunteer Ben Pennell pull a giant receipt from a billboard installation near Finsbury Park Tube station in London, commissioned by the Trussell Trust and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation as part of their ‘It Doesn’t Add Up Campaign’, aiming to highlight issues following the launch of the new Universal Credit, April 2023

I WAS honoured and humbled to continue to have the opportunity to represent the great people of Salford, and as I busily packed my bag this week to begin a new term in Parliament, I listened, as I regularly do, to one of the rare songs that always brings a lump to my throat, a fire in my belly and gets me ready to champion the city I love.

It is a story about love, hardship and strength. A haunting melodic tribute to a city and its people, and a burning hope for their future.

The city is Salford and the song is Dirty Old Town, written by legendary Salford-born folk singer Ewan MacColl 75 years ago. It charts the confusion and loneliness of a young man walking through the nighttime streets of industrial Salford where life was hard, poverty was rife but pride was in abundance.

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