Review of Protest, Politics and Work in Rural England, 1700-1850 by Carl J Griffin

Protest, Politics and Work in Rural England, 1700-1850

Carl J Griffin 

Palgrave Macmillan.

In 2012, Carl J Griffin’s book The Rural War: Captain Swing and the Politics of Protest superbly revealed that England’s biggest rural uprising was more organised, widespread and politically motivated than previously thought. 

Starting in August 1830, riots swept England. The rural poor smashed threshing machines, torched farm buildings, assembled in large numbers and sent threatening letters from the mythical Captain Swing. Demands for higher wages were bloodily suppressed, hundreds were transported and nineteen executed.

In his second highly informative book, Griffin, shows Swing was part of an extensive range of resistances that were deployed by rural labourers to defend their livelihoods and communities against rapid social change. 

Between 1700 and 1851 the percentage of England’s workforce engaged in agriculture dropped from 55 to 30. Simultaneously, whilst output per acre rose remarkably real wages fell as food prices soared. Meanwhile the landed gentry had, by enclosing common land for such as grazing livestock, swept away a second income stream for labourers. 

Previously the rural poor could assert, often by bread riots, Christian principles that the rich had a responsibility to them. This forced magistrates to regulate the food market. Now though the economic philosophy of Adam Smith was that interfering in the market was unnecessary. This was ideal for landowners who had seen the cost of poor relief quadruple from 1776 to 1813. The 1834 Poor Law discouraged the public provision of relief to anyone refusing to enter workhouses.

In response to such major changes, the rural dispossessed sought other income streams including poaching, smuggling, wrecking and coastal plunder. Enclosures were levelled with even football games utilised to trample crops. The brutal suppression of food riots in 1795 demonstrated that traditional ways of highlighting demands were impossible. When protests resumed it was through machine breaking and incendiarism, with the latter reaching epidemic proportions in the 1840s. 

Landlords and farmers, blamed for poor wages, were the main targets but Poor Law administrators, including magistrates, many of them pastors, were also picked out. 

Whilst none of these acts represented a revolutionary challenge they demonstrated a breakdown in social relations. They were thus a challenge to the emerging capitalist state’s primary motive of defending private property. The response was a vicious series of property laws and by 1819 there were 223 capital crimes in this field. Although many people were executed, imprisoned and transported these deterrents failed to prevent new, impoverished volunteers coming forward. 

It was only when rural constituencies analysed that their actions were not producing results – because the landowners simply no longer believed they had a duty to the poor - that they switched track. 

This meant that starting in the 1830s there began more direct challenges for power through the organising of political and workplace unions that combined demands for greater Parliamentary representation with collective organisation at work. The book thus ends by looking at the Chartist Movement and the Tolpuddle Martyrs.

New study 'vindicates' Hebden Bridge residents fears

Residents of a West Yorkshire market town believe a new University study  ‘vindicates’ their belief that burning of wet, peaty blanket bog by grouse shooters is facilitating flooding of local properties.

Situated in the Upper Calder Valley, Hebden Bridge has been hit hard by flooding in recent years. Businesses have been destroyed and jobs lost. 

Local businessman Richard Bannister though has been doing well. In 2012 he obtained £2.5 million of public money towards his upland Walshaw Moor Estate (WME) where to facilitate grouse shooting for pleasure there is regular burning of blanket bog. This is despite Natural England (NE) having earlier declared ‘blanket bog can reduce flood risk downstream.’ 

Funds were awarded after NE’s planned prosecution of WME on 43 grounds of unconsented damage were dropped, a decision that has caused a dissatisfied RSPB to submit a formal complaint to the European Commission. The Moorland Association (MA), mainly grouse shooting owners, had lobbied hard to block restrictions on moorland burning that generates young heather growth for shelter and food for grouse. 

Campaigning to prevent further burning, Hebden Bridge residents formed Ban the Burn and have monitored activities on WME since. The group has also surveyed the water catchment area locally and found many field drains, pathways and tracks need improving if water flow is to be reduced. With only 5% of the area wooded a map showing how tree planting could quadruple the figure has been constructed. New woodlands would help mitigate flooding and by capturing carbon dioxide help counteract pollution.

The Effects of Moorland Burning on the Ecohydrology of River basins project, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, is the first authoritative study on the subject. Leeds University geography department examined ten Pennine moors and found that burning lowers the water table. This causes peat to dry out, thereby releasing carbon and stored pollutants such as heavy metals. Peatlands are the UK’s largest natural carbon land store. 

Although the study qualified its conclusion by stating some ‘catchments may be naturally flashier’ it overall found ‘river flow in catchments where burning has taken place appears to be slightly more prone to higher flow peaks during heavy rain.’

A Ban the Burn spokesperson said about the report, “It vindicates our views. There is major carbon loss and burning destroys the blanket bog that slows down water during heavy rain when even holding back a small amount might make the difference between a property being flooded or not. Burning blanket bog should be banned not subsidised.”  

Leeds University findings are similar to those by Making Space for Water researchers  who last summer presented evidence gathered over five years of monitoring peat stabilisation works. This concluded ‘Revegetation and gully blocking resulted in significantly slower stream run, and for larger storms peak flow was reduced by approximately 30%.’ 

www.wateratleeds.org/ember/ 

www.moorsforthefuture.org.uk/node/662

BREADLINE BRITAIN book review

BREADLINE BRITAIN 

The rise of mass poverty

Stewart Lansley and Joanna Mack 

Oneworld publications 

This review is for the book of the month section of UNITE
Education. 

This highly readable book is a devastating critique of how poverty levels that have increased right across the UK since the 1980s are the result of successive governments political choices that urgently need reversing.

Breadline Britain was the title for a 1983 TV series. By measuring the public’s perception of contemporary needs then for the first time public opinion was established as the central determinant of minimum living standards across the nation. This approach was refined in subsequent surveys in 1990, 1999 and two in 2012. The findings showed that the public accept that minimum living standards need to reflect present not past standards of living. 

Needs are seen as extending beyond basics such as food and shelter. People are poverty-stricken when their income falls so far beyond that of their community that they cannot participate in it. As such, the percentage of households lacking three or more items or activities rated as necessities has doubled to 30 in 2012 from 14 in 1983. The latter was the year in which Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told Norman Tebbit “we should neglect no opportunity to erode union membership,” as she fully understood that organised labour was the primary obstacle blocking her economic objectives that included allowing inequality to grow. 

The likes of Thatcher contended that greater inequality had become a drag on economic dynamism and that poverty could not be eradicated by a narrower gap between rich and poor but by growth. What counts is the size of the cake not how it is distributed. 

The worldwide experiments ever since of deregulated, unequal capitalism and greater inequality, boosted by massive tax cuts for the wealthy, have though miserably failed to bring, except for a modest number of people, the promise of a bigger cake. 

In truth it never was going or intended to. The International Labour Organization has shown how nearly all large economies are ‘wage’ not ‘profit’ led and they experience slower growth when an excessive share of output is colonised by profits and how with less going to wages then purchasing power inevitably drops. The political solution adapted to this was to allow private debt to rocket, rising from 45 per cent of incomes in 1981 to a staggering 157 per cent in 2008. Meanwhile, the UK’s corporate cash piles stood at £166 billion in 2013, up a third in just five years. Internationally, wealth held offshore and hidden from the authorities is believed to be between $7.6 and $21 trillion. The rich are hoarding the money they’ve made from lower wages rather re-investing it in productive enterprises. 

Poverty levels have thus leaped, especially amongst those at work. In 1983, one-third of those in poverty were in a household where the ‘head’ was working full or part time. Today it is 60 per cent. Bad jobs, zero hours contracts is currently further squeezing pay. Meanwhile, with the Tories dropping the human face they paraded when out of government, benefit levels have been cut and made even more restrictive. The New Policy Institute has identified that 63 per cent of families affected by the coalition’s cuts were already below the poverty level. 

The result has been an increasing reliance by many people on borrowing from high interest loan companies and food banks, with the latter increasingly becoming a substitute for a uniform system of decent state support. 

According to Lansley and Mack, a radical government programme is needed to prevent poverty rising further. With no advanced economy achieving a low rate of poverty without social investment in education, training and the provision of universal childcare then paying for all these will require boosting tax receipts by, amongst other initiatives, increasing the current 45% top rate of tax paid on annual earnings over £150,000. 

Although the post-war welfare state was introduced on the assumption that there was a commitment to full employment and decent pay it has become the case that the benefits system has been used to step in to compensate for market failures to deliver decent livelihoods and housing opportunities. The growing housing benefit bill that has jumped from six to 22 billion £s in 20 years is the result of runaway house prices and a lack of affordable, socially provided housing. 

Increasing the minimum wage and upping the numbers on the living wage should be part of policy objectives that include a commitment to full employment. Upping women's pay in order to cut the 19 per cent pay gap between men and women is required. 

Cutting the 19 per cent gap in pay between men and women
would reduce poverty levels 

Restoring the bargaining power in favour of the workforce back towards the 80 per cent covered by collective bargaining in 1979 rather than the current 25 per cent would be highly effective. Evidence consistently shows that the higher the level of trade union membership in a society the lower the degree of inequality. The erosion of trade union strength has also encouraged British employers to move down a low pay and productivity road with few incentives to improve workers skills, invest in research and development and introduce more productive processes. 

With record corporate cash balances being held by large companies then a wage rise across many parts of the British economy is certainly feasible and it would have the effect of further boosting spending. 

Many UNITE members reading this would undoubtedly agree with Lansley and Mack’s analysis and their objectives of slashing poverty as part of an economic package that will boost the economy as a whole. What the book lacks though is some understanding of how this might be achieved. They point to how the number of employers agreeing to pay the living wage has risen and how all the main political parties favour a modest hike in the national minimum wage. They illustrate how grass-roots pressure groups such as the Living Wage Campaign have launched high profile campaigns. They show how even the IMF head Christine Lagarde has warned that economic stability relies on a “more equal distribution of income.”

What is sadly ignored is the need to encourage all workers to become active trade unionists. No one pretends that this will be easy. But it is really only when workers are organised within their workplaces that they can achieve decent pay and conditions, not forgetting exerting greater power on politicians for radical economic and social changes.

These criticisms aside this book is very definitely worth reading. Lansley and Mack are to be congratulated in assembling in relatively few pages a wealth of information. It is to be hoped that their work helps encourage a debate on poverty at the forthcoming general election. 

Sunderland's record victory was 120 years today

2^nd  February 1895                                                                         English Cup 1^st Round

                      SUNDERLAND   11                                    FAIRFIELD    1                             

      (Millar 15,18,38,75.??,Hannah 35,??,??,                            (Allan 70)

          Gillespie 37,Scott 44,McCreadie,)                                                               

Referee Mr S Kemp of Middlesbrough                                                   Attendance 1,000 

Sunderland:-- Doig, McNeil, Johnstone, Dunlop, McCreadie, Wilson, Gillespie, Millar, Campbell, Hannah, Scott.

Fairfield.:- Mackay, Postles, Shipley, Carson, Spiers, Elson, Mattieson, Allan, Clarke, Heys, Hodgett.

Sunderland already hot favourites for the league began their English Cup campaign at Newcastle Rd against Fairfield. They are an unknown side from the Manchester area but are held in high regard in local and district circles. During the week the lads are employed in the local bleaching works the proprietors of which are right proud of their team. When one considers the vast sums the country’s big clubs spend it is refreshing to come across a side that is run so economically with a reported wage bill of less than £14 a week. They are top of the Lancashire league and are in the 2^nd round of the County Cup.

Many thought that they would decline the contest and scratch but they travelled North determined to put on a good show. The team and a few committee members arrived in Sunderland at 11pm on Friday putting up at the Roker Temperance Hotel. Matchday was dark and the ground was in a filthy condition with pools of water all over the pitch. The sudden thaw seemed to have done its worst and those parts of the pitch not under water were slippery and the liberal sprinkling of sand was almost useless. Rain fell until just before the kick off and there was little to tempt people from their firesides.

Prospects for a good game were poor and this was reflected in the attendance. The receipts of less than £70 suggest a crowd of only a little over 1,000 people. As far as football was concerned the game was a complete farce with the visitors being totally outclassed. They floundered about in the mud and water in a manner that had the crowd roaring with laughter though the Sunderland players were little better in this respect. Fairfield won the toss and Sunderland were set to attack the Southwick goal with the wind behind them.

Hannah and Scott took the ball straight down and the visitor’s goal had a narrow escape in the first minute. The players were slipping in all directions on the treacherous surface but the home sides superiority was apparent and Fairfield struggled to get over the halfway line for some time. A throw in by Wilson landed the ball right into the visitor’s goalmouth and Millar got in a rasping shot that smacked against the crossbar and came back into play. The ball was scrambled out for a corner that was not improved upon.

Hannah and Campbell put shots wide from close range before Sunderland finally opened the scoring in the 15^th minute when Millar found the net with a low shot after Mackay had cleared weakly. Sunderland pressed again straight from the restart and Mackay saved splendidly in quick succession from Wilson and Scott. Barely 3 minutes after his earlier goal Millar gave Mackay no chance with number 2 from an almost identical position. The visitors mounted their first attack when Mattieson got past Johnstone but McNeill rushed across to clear his lines.

Fairfield came more into the game and Mattieson got well into home territory again but he was dispossessed by Johnstone only a few yards from goal. The visitors were showing a good deal of tenacity and determination and Heys sent in a shot that saw Doig in action for the first time. Play quickly switched to the other end and Campbell was bundled off the ball by Postles to save a certain goal. Sunderland continued to press though the goals were slow in coming. Then Millar got in a shot that Mackay pushed out and the rebound was accepted by Hannah who steered in Sunderland's 3^rd goal in the 35^th minute.

The visitors who had defended with commendable pluck wilted visibly after this and within 2 minutes Gillespie had scored a 4^th goal. A minute later and Sunderland won a free kick for a foul by Elson on Gillespie. Millar took it and simply hammered a tremendous shot into the net for goal number 5. Although Mackay got a foot to the ball he had no hope of keeping of out. All the interest had gone out of the game and it was no surprise when Scott made it a round half dozen just before the interval.

The crowd had grown slightly for the 2^nd half and the wind had freshened in Fairfield’s favour. In the 1^st half it had been a case of Sunderland first and Fairfield nowhere and in the 2^nd Sunderland quickly settled in their opponents half and neither persuasion nor brute force could shift them. McCreadie and Wilson tried shots without success but then an agreeable freshness set in about the visitors as they took play into the Sunderland half. Hodgetts failed to take advantage of a grand opening by sending a weak shot yards wide.

Play moved from end to end with little of a striking nature talking place as Sunderland coasted and regarded the game as little more than a farce. The contest was terribly disappointing and with the pools of water ruling out accurate passing the home players did very much as they pleased. This was marked by the propensity of the home halfbacks to shoot at goal and McCreadie and Wilson made several attempts that were wide of the mark. Sunderland toyed with Fairfield and provided the entertainment at their expense.

The crowd enjoyed this immensely and chortled continuously none more than when Campbell went to centre half and McCreadie moved to centre forward. Remarkably McCreadie achieved his ambition when he fired in Sunderland's 7^th goal and with about 15 minutes left Millar took a neat pass to add the 8^th from only a few yards out. Leading 8-0 Sunderland could afford a little frivolity but it was still a shock when Allan got past Dunlop and beat Doig with a flying shot to give Fairfield a goal. 

This provoked immediate retaliation and a few minutes later Hannah scored his sides 9^th goal. There was little more of note as Sunderland continued to run rings round their opponents who never had a look in. Towards the close Millar got away from Wilsons pass and crossed for Hannah to score the 10^th goal and then Millar himself slotted in the 11^th to end one of the most one sided games ever seen at the Newcastle Road enclosure.

                                                                                                                 (Newc Dly Chron)

Rededicating Jack Jones House as struggle against apartheid also honoured

Unite members, officials, dignitaries, politicians, family and friends today celebrated the re-dedication of the Unite building in Liverpool in honour of Jack Jones, a man who dedicated his life to improving ordinary working people’s lives. 

 

The occasion was also marked by the unveiling of a plaque paying tribute to Merseyside seamen and trade unionists involved in the fight against apartheid in South Africa. Meanwhile, Jack Jones House is now fully occupied after the TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady opened new TUC offices in the building. 

 

Born 1913, Jones followed his father into Liverpool docks. He quickly became a Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) shop steward. Later, as an official in Coventry, Jones organised the motor industry workforce before becoming regional secretary and promoting the shop steward movement and industrial democracy. 

 

Jones was elected TGWU general secretary in 1968. During his tenure the union became the largest and most important grouping of workers in the world with over two million members. Yet Jones sought power only so he could promote the interests of his class. He was a decent, generous individual who lived in a council flat. 

 

Tony Woodley, former Unite general secretary, undertook the re-dedication by unveiling a plaque. “It’s a privilege to remember possibly the greatest trade union leader of our times. Jack never forgot his roots and practised what he preached – workers first.”

 

Twelve members of the great man’s family were in attendance. Granddaughter Jane Jones said “We are really proud of granddad and thrilled Unite continues to remember him.” 

 

Whilst serving with the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, Jones was seriously injured at the 1938 Battle of Ebro. Other Merseyside men did not though survive Spain. Jack Jones House entrance bears witness to their sacrifices with a plaque honouring their names.

 

This will now be accompanied by a plaque dedicated to Merseysiders whose spirit of international solidarity saw them risk their lives in the fight against racial segregation in South Africa. Internal resistance there in the form of demonstrations, strikes and acts of sabotage encouraged international solidarity.

 

Seafarers are uniquely placed to improve people’s lives. Gerry Wan, a Liverpool-born black seaman sailed regularly to Durban and secretly left documents and large sums of money for the African National Congress (ANC). George Cartwright, Eric Caddick, Pat Newman and Billy McCaig, who was present today, assisted 20 young freedom fighters to join the ANC armed wing. 

 

All five men are named on the Liverpool City Council plaque unveiled by Unite general secretary Len McCluskey who said, “I was an anti-apartheid movement member. All praise for the comrades who risked their lives supporting our ANC comrades.”

 

Obed Mlaba, the South African High Commissioner and ANC member, also praised the men. “We will never forget the overseas friends of our struggle. We thank them for the wonderful, vital job they did during the hard times we experienced. We look forward to continuing to work with British trade unionists.”

 

To round off events, the TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady officially opened the TUC’s North West (NW) offices on the entire fourth floor of Jack Jones House. The building is now full, attractively decorated and completely accessible.

 

Mick Whitley, Unite NW regional secretary, was highly delighted. “This has been a momentous day.” 

 

 

League of their own

Taken from Big Issue in the North magazine. Please buy a copy when you see a seller. 

The rugby league season kicks off this week. Leeds Rhinos star Kevin Sinfield tells Mark Metcalf why he believes a new structure will improve the game for fans and help it compete with other sports. Plus a team by team rundown of their chances this year

A reformatted Rugby Super League begins this week with all 12 teams in action. That’stwo less than previously as rugby league seeks to compete for spectators against wealthier sports
by ensuring every game is competitive while also rewarding those teams that finish highest in the table and reintroducing the threat of relegation.

The play-offs to decide the eventual Super League champions have been revised, with the top eight teams now retaining the points they have earned from 23 league games and then playing each other again once. The four ending up with the highest points then enter the play-off series in which topplays fourth and second plays third at home, the winners meeting in the Grand Final. It’s complicated, but no more so than previous systems.

With Bradford Bulls and London Broncos dropping down this season, the top four in the championship will be given the opportunity to win promotion by playing against the bottom four in the Super League at the end of the season. After a period in which a Super League place has not just been based on a club’s on-the-field performances, the changes have been welcomed by traditionalists.

Last season, St Helens beat favourites Wigan Warriors in the Super League final at Old Trafford. They were helped by an early moment of madness from Wigan’s Ben Flower who walloped an already prostrate Lance Hohaia and was rightly dismissed.

Flower’s 12 team mates battled on bravely but were eventually beaten 14-6 with Saints skipper Paul Wellens, the longest serving player in Super League, collecting the trophy before 70,102 fans. This was a sell-out crowd but rugby league is finding it hard to compete against other sports. The money Sky Sports pays to transmit games live is essential but it means the sport rarely features on terrestrial television and thus needs to work extra hard in promoting itself, both in its M62 corridor heartlands – roughly corresponding to The Big Issue in the North’s patch – and outside.

Premiership rugby union crowds tend to be higher and the numbers that watch international rugby union games dwarf those of league.

Rugby union’s top clubs can thus pay players considerably more. Rugby league salary caps are much lower than rugby union or Australian rugby league, limiting the amount the top players can earn.

Leeds Rhinos captain Kevin Sinfield, whose many achievements for club and country since 1997 were recently recognised with an MBE, believes the new format has “the potential to make it the finest Super League yet”.

He says: “It should make every game important whilst also increasing the number of sides that can win it. Combined with the return of promotion and relegation there is the potential for some great games.

“As champions, St Helens, who played very well in the Grand Final, are the side to beat, but Wigan are also very strong.

“Warrington nearly made the 2014 final and Huddersfield frequently go close.

“Salford have again recruited very well, Castleford will be a hard side to crack and Catalans are becoming difficult to beat.

“For Rhinos, I am optimistic that just as in the late 1990s, when young players like me progressed to form a core group in a successful team, the same will happen again as the older pros like myself retire.”

The number of younger players being nurtured through their local clubs generally heartens Sinfield. “Home-grown players are getting a chance as money is being spent on their training before they are integrated into professional rugby. That’s great for our sport, especially compared to football where very few top class juniors are emerging.”

Sinfield is though worried about competition from Australasia and rugby union and hopes the current salary cap can be increased. That may be difficult as the money coming in from the TV deal with Sky Sports has already been agreed until the end of 2021.

“I do think that for Super League to continue progressing we need to increase salaries in order to keep our best talents.”

Castleford Tigers

Surprise side of 2014, making the play-offs and finishing runners-up in the Challenge Cup. This earned Daryl Powell the coach of the year award after he refashioned the side following the departure of star man Rangi Chase to Salford Red Devils. Cas have not won a major trophy since 1986 and the loss of 21-year-old hooker Daryl Clark, who collected the Man of Steel award for being the outstanding Super League performer last season, is a major blow for their chances of ending the long drought. Off the pitch, Castleford continue to inch towards a new stadium with plans to lay the first brick near Glasshoughton shortly.

Catalans Dragons

The only French side in Super League, Catalan, based in Perpignan, came within one game last season of getting to the Grand Final. They have chosen to largely retain the same squad with just three top quality additions in Remi Casty from World Club Champions Sydney Roosters, Willie Tonga from Parramatta Eels and talented half-back Todd Carney, who was sacked last season by Cronulla Sharks for off-field misdemeanours. If he can stay out of trouble then Catalan could win a trophy.

Huddersfield Giants

The Giants ground-share with the local football club. In recent years they have regularly reached the play-
offs but have not won a major trophy since 1962. The side contains Scots international’s Danny Brough, Man of Steel in 2013, and Joe Wardle, voted player of the season in 2014 for his club. The Giants will largely line up as they finished last season and are likely, once again, to make the play-offs. Don’t bet on them making the final though.

Hull FC 

One of the founding members in 1895 of the Northern Rugby Football Union and another to ground-share
with the local football club. Finished last season in eleventh place and have signed experienced Leon Pryce to partner Marc Sneyd at half-back. Hull won the Challenge Cup in 2005 but you have to go back to 1990-91 when they last won the Championship. Difficult to see Hull, who made the 2006 Grand Final, winning the Super League.

Hull Kingston Rovers

Rugby league’s finest side in the mid-1980s but then dropped alarmingly. It was not until 2006 that the Robins won a Super League place and since then have struggled to make an impact, finishing ninth last season. The close season has brought a bewildering switch in personnel, with head coach Chris Chester bringing in 13 new players with a similar number leaving or retiring. Six newcomers are from the Australian NRL, plus experienced former Leeds Rhinos prop Ryan Bailey.

Leeds Rhinos

This is likely to be a transitional season for the 2014 Challenge Cup winners and five times winners of the Super League in the last eight seasons. The side will again include winger Ryan Hall, the only British player playing at home to feature in the 2014 World XIII team selected by Rugby League World magazine. Kevin Sinfield has retired from international rugby in order to prolong his club career but the Rhinos squad is an ageing one, with the only addition being experienced prop Adam Cuthbertson from Newcastle Knights. Leeds will need their academy players to step up quickly if they are to have any success.

Salford Red Devils

Widely tipped last season to make the play-offs, Salford, founded in 1873, finished tenth, only just
survived a winding-up petition the year before being taken over by horserace owner Marwan Koukash. He oversaw a major recruitment drive and following last season’s disappointing finish another one has taken place this winter with the pick of the bunch likely to be scrum-half Michael Dobson from Newcastle Knights. They still have Rangi Chase and New Zealand international full-back Kevin Locke but will do well to equal their highest Super League fifth place in 2006.

St Helens

Six times winners of the Super League, Saints have kept faith with the players who won it last season
with just two new signings – stand-off Travis Burns from Hull KR and Atelea Vea from London Broncos. New head coach Keiron Cunningham has lost to Canberra Raiders’ Samoan Iosia Soliola, whose Grand Final try put his side back into the game against Wigan. James Roby, a Saint since 2004, can again expect to feature prominently in a side that many pundits predict will retain the Super League trophy.

Wakefield Wildcats

Wildcats have signed a host of players with Super League experience, including Tim Smith and Matty
Ashurst from Salford Red Devils. Prop Ian Kirke has also arrived from Leeds Rhinos. Wakefield only just survived in the top flight three years ago but the expected withdrawal of their Rugby League license was forgotten after Welsh side Crusaders unexpectedly dropped out and disbanded. Don’t be surprised if the Wildcats again face another battle to survive the drop at the end of this season.

Warrington Wolves

The only side to have played every season in rugby league’s top flight, Warrington will miss Australian Michael Monaghan, who has retired. The arrival of Daryl Clark as his replacement seems a shrewd investment, even at a cost of £185,000 – a big sum for rugby league. Warrington made the Grand Final of Super League in 2013 and are one of the favourites to do so again.

Widnes Vikings

Eighth last season and would probably be pleased to manage that again in 2015. They were left out of the inaugural Super League in the mid-1990s but since getting a Super League license in 2012 the club has made steady, unspectacular progress by signing experienced professionals. This season that includes 31-year-old Aaron Heremaia from Hull FC, Manase Manuokafoa from Bradford Bulls and Chris Clarkson on loan from Leeds Rhinos.

Wigan Warriors 

May well have been the reigning Super League Champions if Ben Flower, now set to serve a lengthy
ban, had held his temper in the Grand Final against St Helens. Warriors won both the Super League and Challenge Cup in 2013 under the direction of head coach Shaun Wane. He will be looking to full-back Matty Bowen to reproduce the impressive form he showed in his first season in England – after a very shaky start. After a season away, accomplished prop Lee Mossop is back from Parramatta but the loss of stand-off Blake Green to Melbourne Giants is a blow to Wigan’s chances of returning to top spot.

Let's get physical, urge education experts

From Big Issue in the North magazine issued dated Jan 26 - 1 Feb 2015. Please buy a copy when you see a seller. 

Government plans to radically alter the teaching of PE in secondary schools should
be scrapped, according to a headteacher and an experienced sports organiser, who both fear the latest changes indicate an increasingly bleak future for school sport.

Currently the assessment in GCSE PE is 60 per cent practical and 40 per cent theory.

From 2016 ministers want to reduce the practical element to 30 per cent. The increased theory element, they argue, will “place greater emphasis on students’ understanding of the physical, scientific and socio- cultural factors that can impact on physical performance”.

Tony Gavin, head teacher at Laurence Jackson School in Guisborough, North Yorkshire, believes the outcome will be radical. “I estimate once students realise it is mainly theory then there will be a 50 per cent reduction in the 250 currently doing GCSE PE,” he said. “Sadly, practically motivated and less academically able children are being hit hard as many schools have also cut art, drama and music lessons. There are also ever- increasing standards required to obtain BTEC qualifications
in vocational subjects and which are consequently seeing students dropping them.

Children’s health

“Sports-wise the changes deal a further blow to a subject increasingly marginalised within schools where funding is tied to academic achievements. I know that in some schools, PE may be listed on the timetable but can be cancelled as schools prioritise English and mathematics.”

Alan Walsh, a governor at a London primary school who runs school sports projects, shares Gavin’s concerns.

“A decade ago, PE was a priority as it was recognised that it stimulated intellectual capacity and addressed health and obesity agendas,” he said. “There was a five-hour weekly target of two hours in school, two hours after school and one- hour engagement at the likes of the local swimming baths.

“Where I am a governor and PE sport lead only 90 minutes is allocated to PE. Governors elsewhere tell me the subject is being cut back in secondary schools. This cannot be good for children’s health.”

Both Gavin and Walsh want the government to retain PE GCSE in its current format.

Compulsory

Pressure group 38 Degrees has drawn up a petition proposing that “at least 50 per cent should be practically assessed”.

A spokesperson for the Department for Education (DfE) defended the changes, stating: “GCSEs need to be robust to match the best education systems in the world and to keep pace with universities’ and employers’ demands.”

The spokesperson claimed primary school pupils spend 122 minutes doing PE each week and that the subject remains compulsory for all ages but with an “increasing focus on competitive sport in our new world class curriculum”.

Stop press - the Government has announced that the practical element of GCSE PE will now be 40 per cent.