By Labour Councillor Sam Wheeler The decision by the planning committee last week to approve the Salboy’s development on Shudehill is incomprehensible. It must be fought. Last year Salboy, the construction arm of billionaire bookie Fred Done’s empire, put in a bid to build a 13 storey development in the Northern Quarter, one of the […]
What should Labour’s immigration policy look like?
What should Labour’s immigration policy look like? Manchester Momentum are hosting an event in Manchester tomorrow evening to interrogate this question. New Labour’s record on immigration is poor. Following Tony Blair’s election in 1997, the Home Office introduced increasingly restrictive policies towards immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees. Deterrence underpinned a tightening up of the asylum […]
The Peterloo Memorial shows a shameful lack of solidarity with the disabled community
This year is the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre. Around 70,000 people gathered peacefully in St Peter’s Field, Manchester, calling for the right to vote so that marginalised communities across England could have a say in who represented them in parliament. Representatives that could fight for the rights of the marginalised and reduce the […]
It’s time for Manchester Museum to decolonise
Imagine that news emerged of 18,000 undiscovered historical artefacts relating to Manchester were illegally taken out the country by a museum in North Africa. We can only think what the response in the city would be in such circumstances. Political leaders would demand the return of the stolen goods, public protests would break out and […]
Boycott Puma to stop its sponsorship of the Israeli apartheid regime
Global sportswear manufacturer Puma is involved in violations of international law and human rights, due to its sponsorship of the Israeli Football Association (IFA). Puma is the main sponsor of the IFA, which includes teams in Israel’s illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land. Manchester Palestine Action demonstrated last Saturday at the Puma department of Sports […]
Bus companies should be forced to provide a fleet that does not harm us
Pascale Robinson from The Better Buses for Greater Manchester campaign argues that re-regulating our bus services would improve our health, environment and economy. Better Buses are putting on a film and Q&A session at Bolton Socialist Club, Friday 22 March, 8 till 10pm. “The public ownership of rail, better control of bus services and investment […]
Victims of an unjust housing system must not be targeted by Public Space Protection Orders
The councils is holding a consultation which could result in the implementation of a PSPO that adversely affect the homeless (see previous report here), including prohibitions on begging and sleeping in tents. The consultation is open to accept public statements until 8 April 2019: Recent proposals from Manchester City Council to bring in a […]
10 reasons why the bus companies’ partnership proposals will not ‘revolutionise’ our buses: we need regulation
Why do passengers and staff want a regulated network when £100 million has been offered for the alternative – partnerships? The fact that bus companies are suddenly offering a £100 million partnership package as an alternative to regulation shows just how great re-regulation of our buses is, and how much bus companies will do to […]
Developers are turning our heritage into profit, and we’re paying them for the pleasure of it
Flats at Crusader Works, one of the largest surviving textile mills and new luxury property venture by Capital & Centric where one bedroom apartments are going for heady sums upwards of £189,000, are on sale again. Since the project began the MEN has released a slew of articles gushing about how the development, on Chapeltown […]
Cities are recognising the dangers of speculation and big capital: what will Manchester’s politicians do next?
With thousands of housing units being built in across wards including Deansgate, Piccadilly and Ancoats, central areas of Manchester have now become a key investment ‘hot-spot’ for profit-seeking finance that cares little for local communities. This rampant speculation, surge in international investment and links to rising rents, displacement, homelessness and destruction of heritage and culture […]