Author Archives: JimfromOldham

Greater Manchester Transport Museum has an open day tomorrow (Saturday) which includes bus rides out and behind the scenes tours too. It’s a great museum and of course is home to the Oldham Corporation buses and many others. The museum is based at the Queens Road depot at Cheetham Hill, with heritage bus pick upsContinue reading “Open day this weekend at the GM Transport Museum”

I spoke in Parliament and representations to the government over many months about issues with the current disjointed system of supporting school leavers into apprenticeships. It’s reassuring to see that the Milburn Review initial findings have been published this week. Here is my piece for for LabourList about the findings and why changes to theContinue reading “Respect and invest in apprenticeships”

The footage shown of 18-year-old Henry Nowak has had an impact on many of us for exactly this reason; that could have been any one of our sons walking home, and he deserved better than the brutal murder he endured. Worse still, in his final moments, his cries for help were not acted upon byContinue reading “Death of Henry Nowak”

it was great to sit down with Gill Morris from the Devo Agency Podcast in Chadderton Town Hall to talk about all things devolution and how we can power-up our regions. Look out tomorrow on Spotify and YouTube with the full episode. To see a preview from the episode, head to 

This is an important read from Oldham Labour Group Leader Cllr Arooj Shah. For too long, too many people have tried to divide communities. When politics becomes a competition of grievance, communities lose. When misinformation and division take hold, extremists of all stripes benefit. The answer isn’t to retreat into our separate corners. It’s toContinue reading “Cllr Arooj Shah’s piece for The Guardian”

Great to see buying British being championed at the highest level of government. Every government department, police force, council and the NHS that buys vehicles with public money should back British industry where possible. Good for jobs, good for the economy and good for communities built on manufacturing, while still delivering value for taxpayers. I’veContinue reading “Labour government contracts backing British jobs”

It is never good to see the town you love in the news for the wrong reasons, but we also have to face the fact that communities are deliberately being divided and set against one another. In a borough like ours cohesion isn’t a passive act, it requires a lot of hard work to confrontContinue reading “Oldham Politics”

The government is determined to turn the tide on the scandal of youth unemployment, recognising that the system itself must change, a message repeated in the government-commissioned Young People and Work report led by Alan Milburn. The report makes for sobering reading, with almost a million young people left in limbo. It outlines how dysfunctionalContinue reading “The scandal of youth unemployment”