Knock Knock

Actually, don’t knock. There isn’t a door knocker and the instruction is to phone from the outside to be let in.

A quick trip to Leigh to collect documents. The front door has always looked like this in my memory (I am talking years). And behind it is shabby not so chic. The priority is providing a service, not the outward appearance.

I walked to the nearby Market Place before heading home. The town hall (now the home of Wigan Borough’s Archive Service) is a fine building (extra). People had left flowers outside for the Queen. Around the corner is a new mural adorning a gable commemorating Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks. They do mind the Buzzcocks in this town.

Remarkably, Leigh has had a Conservative MP since 2019, after 97 years of always having a Labour MP. It doesn’t look like a Conservative sort of place at all, indeed local council wards are still held by Labour councillors. Brexit (most people voted out), a liking for Boris Johnson’s persona, a dislike for the then Labour leader, a feeling of being always let down, and maybe a bit of “down with the lot of you” may account for it. It is going to be interesting to see how the fallen “red wall” seats will react to the government’s actions when normal service resumes next week. The mini budget next Thursday and it’s aftermath will offer one of the first clues.