Last Friday was a day of loss for Gateshead, my former home town, opposite Newcastle on the southern banks of the Tyne. On the very last day of the school year, right at the beginning of the long summer holidays and therefore at the very moment it is most needed by low-income families, the local leisure centre was closed.
On our family WhatsApp group, a photograph showing the familiar building, with its windows now covered by screens of plywood, began to circulate, sparking a week of childhood memories and family discussions. While this might sound like a local news story, behind it is a bigger conversation about real-world consequences and short-term thinking and profound unfairness.
