内容摘要："We're in a mess when you consider this problem has been getting steadily worse since Covid and nothing has been done about it. It's been coming and the system is going to come to a grinding halt."

"We're in a mess when you consider this problem has been getting steadily worse since Covid and nothing has been done about it. It's been coming and the system is going to come to a grinding halt."

He remembers a collective attitude of "Can we get through Christmas?", despite sensing the fatigue of nine months without regular income for mining families."It was quite extraordinary," says Keith, who later co-authored a book about the strike in Easington with The Damned United author David Peace.

"There was a buzz and a party atmosphere. But in some of the pictures I took there's a resigned weariness and a sense of 'How do we keep cheerful?'"There was a determination that no-one would be starved back to work."Back in South Yorkshire, while Aggie might have been reconciled to no presents, Christmas without a Christmas tree proved a bridge too far.

"I was absolutely gutted my kids weren't going to have one", she recalls."I went upstairs so the kids wouldn't see me crying and I looked out the window and saw my neighbours had a nice fern tree in the middle of the garden.

"At 02:00 GMT I went and cut it down and brought it back and that was the tree.

"I'm sure the neighbours knew it was me but they never said anything.""We've had a really, really great year and summer... and that's proof that if you've got the right recipe, people will come.”

However, some restaurants told the ONS the football tournament had had a negative impact on footfall.Despite some travel agents seeing an increase in bookings because of the Paris Olympics, overall bookings fell month on month, the ONS said.

Business owners are worried a sinkhole which appeared in a Dorking road is damaging trade.It first appeared in West Street - home to many of the Surrey town's antique shops - on 30 August, and has since been investigated by Thames Water.