I listened earlier this week to a very moving piece on Radio 4 which amounted to a retrospective on the Miners’ Strike of 1984-5 by a handful of resident of Easington in County Durham.
Their commitment to their town and their dignity in the face of the adversity the community has faced was remarkable. It was thrown into horrible relief by their almost unanimous lack of hope for the future.
Hitachi’s decision will not change all that by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a step in the right direction: no “branch” relocation this, but the establishment of a European centre of operations to challenge the giants of the rail industry on their own patch.
There is much still to do, but successes like this need to be applauded and built on.
