Beyond the flags - grief, polarisation and the work of repair

Summary

Two JRF staff read the flags and hotel protests of the North East as “the surface ripples of something that goes much deeper”: grief at deindustrialisation, “deliberately redirected away from the systems that created it”. Their answer is “deep work concerned with identities, stories and trust”, led locally and unhurried: “the times are urgent; so slow down”.

Rationale

What it backs in the North East reads like the one-place inquiry we imagine: many practices, from a revived pitmen’s parliament to spaces for grief and stories of pride.