While slashing welfare and public services, Labour’s spring statement delivers a bonanza for death-dealing bomb merchants. We now see the true and terrible face of austerity 2.0, writes MICHAEL BURKE
Labour must give communities a voice - and real investment - to stop the far right
Durham Miners' Association president STEPHEN GUY speaks to Ben Chacko about the miners’ strikes consequences today, his hopes for the new Labour government — and the sorry saga of Luke Akehurst

A LABOUR government can deliver a step change in relations with the labour movement and deliver much-needed investment in working-class communities, Durham Miners’ Association president Stephen Guy believes — but it needs to be much more ambitious to achieve that.
“Ministers have been inviting trade union leaders in for discussions within a matter of days, so that’s welcome. But it’s not at the point where we want it to be.”
We meet in the County Hotel on the morning of the Miners’ Gala, in a special year given it is the 40th anniversary of the miners’ strike.
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