More harm than good

A small ex-mining town in North-East Derbyshire has recently garnered an unprecedented media interest. With specific reference to two recent articles weaving stories of racial and cultural division; between the townsfolk and ‘feckless’, ‘beer swilling’, ‘criminal’ migrants from Eastern Europe. This article analyses and subsequently rejects these trajectories. It attests throughout that these publications have inflicted their political and social agendas; promoting racism, division, and tension within fragmented communities under a guise of objective reportage. Drawing upon interviews with three local people – Rachel*, Stephen,* and Tracy* – it unpacks the socio-economic problems in Shirebrook, arguing that deprivation and tension, stemming from the histories of industry, pride, and class struggle, are inexorably embedded and woven into the fabric of today’s Shirebrook.