More than 20 years after its last cotton mill closed, the hard reality of what that quietly spelt out for a town like Oldham is now loudly front and centre of the national political stage.
In 2021, both main parties are now vying to be the go-to choice for places that were economically battered through the 1980s and the 1990s, before being walloped in 2008 and never really making it out the other side.
Michael Gove spoke of the town at Conservative Party conference in Manchester this week, stressing that he wanted to look at ‘specific solutions’ tailored to the decline Oldham has experienced. “It's part of my mission to better understand which towns around Manchester are succeeding and why,” he added of his new ‘levelling up’ brief. READ
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