The Meteor media co-operative was launched on Thursday 4 July, a date we have adopted as Manchester’s media Independence Day. Manchester’s citizens and community organisations gathered at the Methodist Central Hall for an evening of performance, celebration and active discussion on the current state of our local media and how together, through a co-operative model of […]
Peterloo graphic novel published as witness to a massacre
Amongst all the Peterloo 200th anniversary events happening this year, a new paperback graphic history, with stunning artwork and verbatim quotes from those who were there, shines out…. “We decided to just get out of the way and let the voices of the time speak for themselves” say the authors. This August sees the 200th […]
A democratic media for Manchester
Traditional media is in crisis. A shrinking number of corporations control more and more of our media, as they try to survive the Digital Revolution destroying the advertising-based business model they relied on. Journalists are laid off and titles closed, as the media corporations protect their bottom line and shareholder pay-outs. This relentless attrition of […]
Who is representing you on Greater Manchester’s local councils?
Three weeks ago, Greater Manchester elected one-third of its councillors to local government. Seats were contested in all ten boroughs, but with a turnout of just 31% across the region, which is typical for local elections, few of us actually had a say in who represents us on the local council. Bolton went to the […]
European elections: find out who your local candidates are and where you can vote for them
The unexpected and ill prepared for European elections are fast approaching on Thursday 23 May. Theresa May repeatedly insisted that we would not take part in these elections because we would have left the European Union by now. But here we are still in the EU, Brexit has not yet occurred, and the European elections […]
Podcast Review of One at HOME Manchester
“Nasi is on a ladder. Heʼs not coming down any time soon”. As we file into the theatre Nasi is there in front of us, standing high up on the very tall ladder. His demeanor is casual and relaxed but unconvincing. This tense sight amplified by the sense that we had intruded midway through a […]
Peterloo and Protest at the People’s History Museum
A new exhibition opened last Saturday at the People’s History Museum in Manchester to mark two hundred years since the Peterloo Massacre. Featuring artefacts never displayed before, as well as a short film giving the whole history, Peterloo is brought up to date with a Protest Lab, where people from Salford and beyond can put […]
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 […]
Greater Manchester plan for jobs, homes…and the environment?
After several delays the Greater Manchester Combined Authority has published the new draft of its Spatial Framework. The previous version, published in late 2016 met considerable criticism, especially from groups campaigning on green space but also from other quarters, including our own critique of its assumptions of accelerated “economic growth”. On the other side the […]
Philosophy Café: ‘Should democracy tolerate those who wish to destroy it?’
In what feels like a time of increasing social and political uncertainty, I have found myself employing a few strategies to keep my mind from imploding. They include thinking about the ‘big’ questions, as they tend to withstand the relentless plot twists of the theatre of current affairs, paying more attention to the questions posed, […]