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Opinions
Welcome to our opinons page, here you will find columns from well known locals such as Chrissy Dawson, MP Dan Jarvis, Ian McMillan, Milly Johnson, Ronnie Steele, MP Stephanie Peacock and Jenson Young.
As always we like to encourage our readers to get in touch with issues that matter to them.
If you'd like to send in a letter to our Editor based on something you have read today, or on another topic you can do so via email here.
Chrissy Dawson: I love a trip to the seaside
There’s something lovely about the seaside and I just love Bridlington.
The smell of candy floss, fish and chips and the sea takes me back to when I was a kid.
Back then, so many years ago, me, my brother, sister and my mum and dad used to go for two weeks – once a year – to Brid and we always stayed in the same chalet.
Back then families didn’t have holidays...
Ronnie Steele: Come on you Reds!
I FIRST met Graham Curry and Kevin Bacon (no, not that one) in 1975, when we were student-teachers at Eaton Hall, Retford. We were good mates because we shared similar backgrounds, studied History as a main subject, and were close politically.
In 2015, through the magic of social media, we re-established our friendship and I asked: “What have you guys been up to all these years?”
Kevin replied, “For my sins, I became...
MP Dan Jarvis: GP appointments are a high priority
‘A mess’ - that’s how the British Medical Association described the state of the NHS that Labour inherited after our general election win in July 2024.
Of course, many people knew that already. The Conservatives let waiting lists soar to a record level of nearly eight million, with 300,000 people waiting longer than a year for treatment.
The number of people waiting over two weeks for a GP appointment also increased by one...
Milly Johnson: Sad demise of complimentary hotel toiletries
WHEN I had to choose a London hotel to stay in recently I found that the one I picked was slightly further away than another I liked, but it had much better stationery – and that stationery is now sitting on my office desk.
I’ve worked in enough hotels over the years to know that there are certain things you are allowed to legally ‘nick’ – ie I wouldn’t try and walk off with...
Milly Johnson: Criminals should clear up their own mess...
I WAS so sorry to see that the Parkway had been broken into. Rob Younger must feel he’s being kicked while they’re down there after trying to survive a hard season.
I saw he had posted that one of the perps had bled all over the place (good – that means he got hurt) so I’m hoping that the two men responsible can eventually be dealt with and punished.
In an ideal world, they’d...
MP Stephanie Peacock: Buses simply aren’t good enough
FOR too long, transport services across the country have been left to deteriorate.
Whether you take the bus, the train, or drive, people in communities like Barnsley simply have not been able to rely on our transport links for far too long.
This government is committed to getting Britain moving, delivering the change that we need so that we can be confident that we can get where we need to go.
Across Barnsley,...
Jenson Young: Belgian race exceeded my expectations
I’m Jenson Young, a professional cyclist, living in Hemingfield.
I’m racing on gravel all over the world and over the coming months I will be writing about the adventures for the Chronicle.
Turnhout, Belgium
Last weekend was my first race with my new team Ribble Outliers and only my second ever gravel race.
It was two x 72km laps on flat Belgian gravel, at the UCI World Series gravel race starting and finishing...
Ronnie Steele: 40th anniversary of the miners’ return to work
WEDNESDAY marked the 40th anniversary of the miners’ return to work after 12 months on strike.
That day, in 1985, the defeated Barrow colliery pit men, defiantly march through the village of Worsbrough.
The procession is led by the colliery band and Arthur Scargill, as they make their way down Sheffield Road, past Corah’s clothing factory.
Hard at work inside the factory, that day, are many women who’re determined to leave their...
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Milly Johnson: Sometimes we get squeezed out of our own lives
IT only seems two minutes since I was 60. I turned 61 last weekend, but I feel in a better state that I have for years.
For the past twenty, I’ve been caring for kids or parents and only now it seems I have a bit of time for myself and that’s invigorating.
Sometimes we just get squeezed out of our own lives and that’s not good because we wouldn’t expect a car...
Milly Johnson Couple giving back – a decade on from drama
IT is hard to believe that this year will mark the 10th anniversary of the terrible accident at Alton Towers in which one of our local lasses, only a teenager, Leah Washington lost her leg when ‘The Smiler’ ride crashed.
She was ‘lucky’ – though an odd use of the word, I grant you – that she didn’t lose her life.
I imagine at the time she felt anything but that. Her boyfriend at...
Milly Johnson: Visitors surprised by changing face of our town
I’VE been very much enjoying the letters page politics over the last couple of weeks, puncturing holes in the balloons of those who believe a socialist society is the only way forward.
‘A more capitalist society causes inequality of wealth?’ No sh** Sherlock. Maybe that’s because some people work harder to earn more.
Not everyone was put on the planet to be a Peter Jones but we all have the right to build up...
Ian McMillan: The shame of claiming I’m from ‘near Doncaster...’
PICTURE me as a fresh-faced (well, not that fresh-faced actually as I had a bushy beard that made me look like I was in ZZ Top) youth on my first day at North Staffordshire Polytechnic in 1975.
There I was, in my old army greatcoat and my jeans and my trainers with the Stars and Stripes on, trying to look casual and worldly in front of all these people from all over the country...
Ronnie Steele: Defences may stop normal men, they can’t stop Denis Law
HAVE you noticed how the significant events in your life remain etched on your memory forever? I’m not talking about something you’ve seen on TV that is replayed over and over. I’m referring to real-life, never-to-be-forgotten, incidents that have not been recorded on camera.
This happened to me when Denis Law came to town in February 1964. I wanted to describe it last year when I wrote about Barnsley’s FA Cup tie against Manchester...
Milly Johnson: Callum’s sister was the angel on his shoulder
AS we all know from the news, child sexual exploitation in this country is beyond rife and the figures are staggering.
One in eight children are abused before they are eighteen – yep, you heard that right.
Children who are abused are three times more likely to attempt suicide when they grow up. Many never truly escape the horror of what happened to them and it impacts on their mental health, on their prospects,...
MP Dan Jarvis: Key churches are invaluable to communities
As we welcome the new year, it is worth recognising that the end of the festive season can often bring hardship for folk - and supporting people through these difficult times are our local churches.
Over the past few months, I've had the privilege of visiting a number of exceptional churches here in Barnsley, including in Grimethorpe, Wilthorpe and the town centre.
These visits highlighted to me the incredible work being done for local...
MP Dan Jarvis: Next year brings reason for optimism
THIS year hasn’t been plain-sailing - the world remains a volatile and unpredictable place, marked by crisis after crisis and conflict continues to rage in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, plunging us into uncharted territory.
Meanwhile, at home the path forward has not been without obstacles. However, unlike in previous years, I believe there are reasons for optimism.
Slowly but surely, we are finding our way through the darkness, and there is a...
Ian McMillan: My secret formula to having the perfect day
SOMETIMES, in the midst of all the hurly and indeed the burly of these pre-Christmas days, I decide that I’m going to have a reading, writing, contemplating and strolling day.
It’s the equivalent of an ‘out of office’ email, I guess, or one of those notes on a shop door that says ‘back in five mins’.
I realise, of course, that I’m lucky enough to be able to do this because I’m at...
Ronnie Steele: It was the Glover’s gym and no outsider could have a pop
A FEW months after England’s 1966 World Cup victory, Alan Newsam (Nuds), Rob Rookledge and I, trained regularly at the Junction Gymnasium.
It occupied upstairs rooms behind the old Junction Inn, which used to stand in Measborough Dike, where Doncaster Road meets Cemetery Road.
It was owned by Charlie Glover, wrestler and father of our History teacher, Brian. As far as we knew it was the only gymnasium in town, and was where all...
Chrissy Dawson: The snow brings out the inner child in us…
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
I’ve been singing this to myself for over a week now, and to be quite honest with you it’s beginning to get right on my nerves
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I’d like to be all grown up about the white stuff, and say things like ‘I wonder how bad the roads are’ and ‘I hope it doesn’t last for too long’, but the truth is I just can’t.
I...
Stephanie Peacock: Ex-miners remain key to our manifesto
The first budget of the new Labour government included the announcement that we will deliver on our manifesto pledge, and finally deliver justice for the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme.
Our community was built on coal and for decades mining sustained tens of thousands of jobs in Barnsley as our community powered a nation.
It was a dirty, dangerous job, where men risked their lives and health. Thousands were killed in pit disasters and many...
