A school climate strike, a call to action against the climate crisis started by one young Swedish girl, is set to hit Manchester tomorrow as well as more than 50 other towns and cities in the UK. The action has received the backing of 224 academics, 12 of whom are from the University of Manchester, […]
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 […]
76% in favour of re-regulating bus services in Greater Manchester poll results show
As the Greater Manchester mayoral office deliberates on how best to organise bus services across the region a poll has shown that 76% of those questioned would prefer bus services to be re-regulated, on a model similar to London’s. The poll also showed that 82% agreed that local authorities “should have more control over bus […]
Rough sleeping increases 34% across Manchester in a year
Despite the well publicised efforts of the Greater Manchester mayor and Manchester City Council to reduce rough sleeping, the Manchester street count in 2018 has seen a 34% rise compared to 2017. The street count is a single night snapshot, carried out between 1 October and 30 November, of people sleeping rough in a local […]
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, […]
Is Burnham’s A Bed Every Night scheme enough?
On the first day in his role as mayor of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Andy Burnham pledged 15% of his £110,00 salary (£16,500) to his newly created Mayor’s homelessness fund. He had soared to victory in the election with 63% of the vote on the back of a pledge to end rough sleeping in Greater […]
Bus franchising: a route to cleaner air for Greater Manchester
“Levels of air pollution in Greater Manchester(GM) are lethal and illegal”, states a new analysis by King’s College London, estimating that 1.6 million life years will be lost in GM in the next century due to poisonous air. The equivalent is reducing the life expectancy of all current residents by six months. A recent World […]
Low income families in Manchester face a £1,000 ‘poverty premium’
Low income families in Greater Manchester could be paying over £1000 a year more for goods and services such as energy, credit and insurance compared to those on middle and higher incomes, according to new research by Greater Manchester Poverty Action. This higher cost for poor people is known as the ‘poverty premium’, where low […]
Review: Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism
Mary Quaile, a Manchester Irish trade unionist and one of the first women to be elected onto the Trades Union Congress, led a women-only delegation to the Soviet Union in 1925. Their objective was to investigate the lives of women and children in the new socialist state. Mary left school at 12, like most working […]
Show your face and go home: asylum seekers and migrants forced to travel from Stoke to Salford for two-minute appointments
People living in Stoke-on-Trent with pending asylum and immigration claims have been told by the Home Office that they have to report at Dallas Court in Salford – an 80 to 90-mile round trip. Over 80,000 people per year have to report at their local Home Office reporting centre or a police station. In the […]