‘10p for the first one to see the Tower...’

More of us are facing up to a domestic holiday this year. Just don’t call these time-honoured North West destinations 'staycations'

Good morning members — today we have a lovely social history of trips to Blackpool, Morecambe and all the other domestic holidays traditionally taken by families in the North West.

It’s by David Barnett, who wrote our Wigan Casino piece recently and is on brilliant form. He was the first freelance writer we published and has been a big part of The Mill ever since. If you weren’t around in September, check out that debut piece about his two decades as a local journalist here.

If you missed last night’s newsletter, it was about Andy Burnham’s plans for his second term. You can read that here. And in answer to a question written in the comments: Yes, we will absolutely be covering other candidates — in fact, one of them is coming to meet us for an interview today. You can expect lots of variety in our political coverage between now and polling day.