Ilkeston

And I remember us pitching up on a Sunday night.

What we'd do is we'd do church on a Sunday morning in Ilkeston, and then we'd go to Field Mill on a Sunday night.

We'd set up.

We'd walk into, I think it was a Sandy Pate suite, I think.

As Arena Mansfield, if you call yourself a member, a part of Arena Church, we have a huge opportunity to steward the transformation of this town.

This town and surrounding areas, Arena Church has a mandate for the M1 corridor, up and down the M1.

Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Ilkeston, Mansfield, Belper, wherever else we're called to, even Toulouse, France, that's not on the M1 corridor.

But God has called us and given us an opportunity to reach this town, to see it transformed by the power of God.

It comes after Burnham avoided Scotland on his so-called listening tour of Britain, despite pledging to visit all of the UK's nations.

He visited Ilkeston in Derbyshire, Sheffield in South Yorkshire, Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, Port Talbot in Wales and Belfast in Northern Ireland, meaning Scotland was the only one of four UK nations not to be included.

Since becoming Prime Minister, Burnham has visited Scotland to attend the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on July 23rd, before the listening tour took place.

The King and Queen were also in attendance at the opening ceremony, which means that Burnham has now met with the King in Scotland more times than he has spoken with any of the Scottish public.

Too many British high streets tell the story of this decline.

People yearn to see them restored to what they once were, as the Community Secretary and I heard on our visit to Ilkeston in the summer.

But they see no hope if we continue on the same path, with a failed economic model which does not trickle down much to places like theirs and instead allows wealth to be extracted and siphoned out.

Britain's water industry stands as a leaking monument to that approach.

Too many British high streets tell the story of this decline.

People yearn to see them restored to what they once were, as the community secretary and I heard on our visit to Ilkeston in the summer.

But they see no hope if we continue on the same path, with a failed economic model which does not trickle down much to places like theirs and instead allows wealth to be extracted and siphoned out.

That was just one part of a statement that took an apparently record-breaking three and a half hours.

Too many British high streets tell the story of this decline.

People yearn to see them restored to what they once were, as the Community Secretary and I heard on our visit to Ilkeston in the summer.

but they see no hope if we continue on the same path, with a failed economic model which does not trickle down much to places like theirs and instead allows wealth to be extracted and siphoned out.

Britain's water industry stands as a leaking monument to that approach, a country run in the private rather than public interest, and that is now abundantly clear to voters of all parties, including the party opposite.

So I thought I'd go and have a look and see for myself what they were like.

I remember driving out, it was in Ilkeston, not that far from Norringham.

Yes, yeah, yeah,

Ilkeston, yeah.

I went there and when I got there, I met an old friend that I've known all my life, a fellow called Jackie Welsh.

Black Jackie, and his wife, Sylvia.

I've always noticed that.

And people from more affluent areas, they're always like, oh yeah, you can just tell doctors, no doctors, right? And they're like normal for Ilkeston or whatever, right? Really disparaging the people.

But I'm like, these people were made like this.

Before I even switched on to everything, I was like, something's going on.