Anna Girolami

People of a certain age will know the name of Flixborough for all the wrong reasons. Fifty years ago, at tea time on a Saturday in June, the Nypro chemical plant near the North Lincolnshire village suffered an explosion that killed 28 of the 72 people on site and seriously injured a further 36. Had it been a weekday, many more people would probably have died. The village had a . At the time, the plant made chemicals used in the manufacture of nylon.

Derbyshire contains the Peak District National Park, the Derbyshire Dales, a World Heritage Site and several Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). The National Grid proposes to connect a new substation at Chesterfield with the existing one at Willington. 180 pylons supporting 60km of overhead electricity line will snake down the east side of the county, passing through the constituencies of North East Derbyshire, Amber Valley and Erewash.

Wednesday 26 June saw the Buxton hustings in High Peak. The constituency has a lot of such events. Each of the five biggest towns gets a go, plus there is a special NFU hustings for farmers only. In 2019, these could be rowdy, divisive affairs which would set the tone, had we only known it, for the next five years. In Hayfield, Edwina Currie, former health minister and High Peak’s most prominent Conservative, came close to being escorted from the premises for disorderly behaviour.