Happy Friday! We're rapidly approaching the end of February, and half-term (well it has been in the North of England went by rapidly). Each Friday we'll bring you our picks from what we've published each week as The Lead's week that was digest for the week ending Friday 21 February 2025.
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We had a big focus on Ukraine this week - given the global posturing. Westminster Editor Zoe Grunewald reflected on how it was crucial Labour and Starmer did not try and jump on the Trump train.
And in The Lead Untangles, our weekly dig into a topic which has been in the news agenda but is perhaps not the easiest to understand, then Lauren Crosby-Medlicott looked at what the future holds for the tens of thousands of Ukranians who are in the UK on temporary visas as a result of the war.
Away from Ukraine and Kevin Gopal looked at the impact the household benefit cap is having in keeping children, and families, locked in poverty. Much of the focus is on the two-child benefit cap, which we are campaigning to see scrapped, but Kevin's piece lifts the lid on how the household benefit cap is just as severe.
While Charlie Duffield explored the growing trend of Gen Z using cash, over digital payment methods, as they try to re-connect with the emotional value of money.
Plus there was a quirky story of how one former MP has been collecting Private Eye since the late 1960s but can't find anyone to take the magazine archives off his hands...
In The Lead North, and we'll highlight our investigation into the councillor in Pendle who hasn't been paying his council. Jamie Lopez exposed the hypocrisy in The Lancashire Lead and by the end of the week Tory councillor Tom Ormerod had stood down.
Some The Lead parish notices too:
- Next week we'll be at Convention of the North during Friday 28 February, in The Lead North's spiritual home of Preston. The conference brings together political leaders from across the North of England, we'll have plenty of insights from Zoe, Ed and Jamie.
- We're exciting for Natalie Morris returning to our editing team and helping to steer our National edition alongside Zoe, Ed and Luke. We got together in real life in London this week (rather than a virtual meeting!) and it was nice. Here's a pic of us all looking smiley and happy. You can see Natalie's recent writing where she examined the inequality of air pollution in our cities.
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