Happy Friday! We reached the end of February and before we march off into March then 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 28 February 2025.
A reminder we're publishing over on Substack now so this site acts as an archive and we'll publish this digest each Friday. Our email newsletter lands in tens of thousands of inboxes each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday with in-depth storytelling, incisive writing on topics not always making the headlines, our commitment to news and features across the North of England and more. It's free to receive the emails, and if you can please do support us with a paid subscription to ensure we can keep bringing you news and features on topics you might not see covered in the same depth elsewhere.
We spent Friday at the Convention of the North in Preston, where many of the North's Metro Mayors presented a united front as Angela Rayner made it clear there's more money and powers coming down the track for them. Zoë Grünewald reports and there's an exclusive mini podcast from Ed and Zoe at the conference to enjoy too (for paid subscribers).
We also went deep into the Common Law Court conspiracy theory which is leading to misinformation spreading across the UK. Katherine Denkinson reported on how online forums and posts are leading to people not paying their council tax among other troubling matters.
And we spoke with Maggie Oliver, who exposed the Rochdale grooming scandal, to get her thoughts following the Home secretary's announcement of localised enquiries. Maggie didn't pull her punches about her frustration over the Jay reports findings not being enacted.
The energy price cap rise saw the heat rise in households across the country. Bills are going up and Zoë Grünewald warns while Labour may enjoy operating on the world stage at present given the focus on Ukraine it must not forget the challenge many people's budgets are facing.
And in our latest edition of The Lead Untangles we take you through the Apple data protection changes coming into force in the UK, Kevin Gopal takes you underneath the headlines on it.
While in The Lead North, in Blackpool we report on the museum planning job cuts less than a year after opening, what role sustainable aviation fuel has in Teesside and the darts club in Southport booming thanks to Luke Littler.
Some The Lead parish notices too:
- We're excited for Natalie Morris returning to our editing team and helping to steer our National edition alongside Zoe, Ed and Luke. You can see Natalie's recent writing where she examined the inequality of air pollution in our cities.
- We're on Bluesky, as well as X, so do give us a follow to be notified of new stories going live. Our piece about why we're staying on X, despite everything, is a good read.
- If you're a freelance journalist, or have a story tip, our pitching guidelines have all been updated and are over on our Substack.
Useful links
- See all our newsletters on Substack and read the full archive of them
- Our local titles are The Blackpool Lead, The Lancashire Lead, The Southport Lead, The Calderdale Lead and The Teesside Lead - all on Substack and providing in-depth news and features every Wednesday and Sunday, direct to thousands of inboxes.
- If you're able to support us with a subscription, you can do so via Substack. There's monthly, annual and founder options available. It helps ensure we can keep covering stories beyond the usual headlines, going deep into topics you care about and may be surprised to see covered too.
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