As Labour takes power for the first time in 14 years, the Guardian asked three writers to describe how their home towns had changed under Conservative rule – and the challenges now facing Keir Starmer. Here, Benjamin Myers describes what has happened to Durham.
Durham is an ancient city. It wears its stories for all to see – in the medieval market place, the world-renowned Norman cathedral (est 1093), the monstrous municipal buildings that have been and gone in just six decades, two notorious prisons, and the swish new university properties built to accommodate a boom that has made this Russell Group seat of learning the sixth highest-ranked university in Britain.
