Transparency records reveal senior trade officials held dinners and strategy meetings with the notorious lobbying firm even as controversy over its Epstein links deepened, says SOLOMON HUGHES
DURHAM Miners’ Association secretary Alan Mardghum says there is one theme to this year’s Big Meeting: celebrating the key workers whose sacrifices got us through the pandemic.
“It’s about saying thanks for the dangers workers faced, for the work they put in. We’re giving them the biggest platform in the working-class calendar.”
For the first time in its 152-year history, there will be no politicians addressing the Gala field nor on the balcony saluting the silver bands as they march past.
The Big Meeting isn’t simply nostalgia, it’s a happy day and a day to show resistance. HEATHER WOOD explains why
Incoming Usdaw general secretary JOANNE THOMAS talks to Ben Chacko about workers’ rights, Labour and how to arrest the decline of the high street
Durham Miners’ Association general secretary ALAN MARDGHUM speaks to Ben Chacko ahead of Gala Day 2025
MOLLIE BROWN reports on this year’s festival in honour of the ‘seven men of Jarrow’ deported to Australia for union activity 193 years ago



