Tina talks to... Today's Britons

This is a conversation with John Greenslade who was born, brought up and lives in Middlesbrough. But like so many other Teesside men, John works away and has done so for most of his adult life. John and I first met in a London pub one Saturday night in 1986, when he told me he had travelled on the so-called “Tebbit Express” to London in search of work. We learn how he’s prospered since, the community-spirit of Teesside’s men even when they are dispersed and away from home, and why a sense of community and belonging is also important when working in the middle of the North Sea on an oilrig. John also tells us about Teesside’s decline as one of the UK’s thriving industrial heartlands, his hopes for the revival of his much loved home-town – and why this life-long Labour-voter feels more optimistic since the election of Teesside’s Conservative Mayor (though he still voted Labour at the General Election in 2019). We hear politicians talk a lot about the so-called Red-Wall: this is the perspective of someone who lives there. And by listening to what John has to say and the distinction he draws between national and local politics – we get a sense of why the political landscape has changed, and may yet change further.