How small must a story be before it no longer warrants your attention? I suspect I’m about to test that question but hope, in the process, to make a bigger point that might be worth your consideration. This might be a tiny detail in life’s grand scheme but, listen, the details do matter because they speak to a larger problem, that takes in central government and its treatment of the regions and the failure of the market to deliver public services.
Earlestown is a small town with few claims to fame but we sit on the world’s oldest passenger line, the Liverpool to Manchester Railway. We also have the world’s oldest railway building that’s still in use, though that’s a bit of a stretch since it’s the old booking office, long since abandoned, and its roof still shelters passengers from the rain.
