Hear from the woman with a ringside seat during a decade of political chaos
The UK’s politics used to be rather sensible – dull, even. But in the last decade, the country has lurched into instability, rattling through seven prime ministers while failing to grapple with many of the biggest issues we face.
How has it come to this? And what can be done? If anyone has answers, it’s Laura Kuenssberg, who was the BBC’s political editor between 2015 and 2022. Next Thursday (5 November) she’ll be interviewed at Stoller Hall by Nina Warhurst to analyse the wild political decade just gone, and discuss whether the next ten years will be any more stable. Don’t miss your chance to get an unvarnished view from the woman who has seen it all up close.
The howling wind blows a stray tackle shield through guzzling rain and into the bonnet of a parked hatchback. The organisers of today’s day of rugby league at the stadium in Salford have already had to cancel the pyrotechnics; the wind speeds are too high.
I’m here to watch a gilded amateur rugby league tradition brought back to life, and I’ll soon be joined by more than a thousand people. It’ll take more than a yellow warning to stop the people of Salford celebrating their finest sporting occasion.
The Valentine Cup was a local prize for teams in an area that was described as Manchester and district, but seeing as rugby league was mostly played in Salford, most of the teams and therefore cup winners, came from there. The first club to lift the trophy was Egerton in 1903. Since then it's been lifted by various Salford clubs; Pendlebury Cromwell, Radcliffe Rangers, Swinton St Peters, Seedley Rangers, Chloride Recreation (great name), Irlam Hornets and Kearsley. All those clubs are now defunct. The sport has been whittled down to four amateur clubs in Salford and the cup hasn’t been played between them since 2013.
Salford City Council, under its “rugby league strategy” is trying to lift the sport back to prominence in the city. Bringing back the Valentine Cup is a vital part of that.
“We can't have a city of haves and have-nots." Says Jack Youd, former deputy mayor of Salford and the driving force behind the return of the cup to his hometown. Youd believes rugby league can be the glue that holds a shifting city together, and that councils can't just be vehicles for regeneration. "I think sport and rugby league is a way that you can [bring communities together] culturally.”
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