Manchester
The man at the heart of punk: the late Pete Shelley recalls his Buzzcocks years
Manchester, in the words of the artist Linder Sterling, is a ‘tiny little world’. Nearly three million people live in…
The Marcus Rashford mural – an anatomy of a moral panic
Late on Sunday night, less than an hour after England lost on penalties to Italy in the European championship final,…
Portrait of the week: A Manchester stand-off, a Presidential showdown and a Brexit culture clash
Home After ten days spent trying to persuade Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, to accede to the city…
Angry Burnham takes on No. 10
Keir Starmer has made life difficult for Boris Johnson this week with his demand for a circuit-breaker lockdown. But the…
How strict will the new Covid restrictions be?
I have a few points to make about the new three tier system to be announced today for restricting our…
My dazzling chum: Mayflies, by Andrew O’Hagan, reviewed
Presumably because a small part of it takes place in Salford, the epigraph to Andrew O’Hagan’s latest novel consists of…
Takes us deep into an unknown world: Channel 4’s Inside Missguided reviewed
If it’s a test of a good documentary series that it takes us deep into an unknown, even unimaginable world,…
The antidote to virus panic is in the hands of entrepreneurs
It’s a ghost town,’ said the officer manning the body scanner at Manchester airport — Manchester, New Hampshire, that is,…
No presidency for old men
What a thrill! Last night, I was dining with a friend in Piccola Italia, a charming restaurant in Manchester, New…
It’s like being trapped in an episode of Poldark: Peterloo reviewed
Mike Leigh’s Peterloo is one of those films where you keep waiting for it to get good, and waiting and…
The Bilbao effect
Twenty years ago I wrote of the otherwise slaveringly praised Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao: I’m in a minority of, apparently,…
Northern rock
A fortnight ago, the debut album by a young British guitar band entered the chart at No. 6. You might…
Manchester isn’t oppressed, Andy Burnham – it’s wildly overrated
Manchester isn’t downtrodden, whatever Andy Burnham says. Quite the opposite, in fact
Nick Robinson’s diary: What dog will donate its vocal cords to me?
Scientists are experimenting with growing replacement vocal cords in the lab, as well as transplanting them from dogs. That was…
Spittle is the only thing Labour has left
I have started salivating excessively at night. I wake each morning in a pillowed swamp of my own effluvium, a…
Manchester has marvellous wines, and it’s not finished yet
It will seem an ungrateful comment after the lunch which I am about to describe, but Manchester has some way…
On Jim O’Neill, the new ‘Northern Powerhouse’ supremo
A doff of my flat cap to Jim O’Neill, the former Goldman Sachs economist who has been made a peer,…
George Osborne interview: smaller government is not enough
George Osborne on his love affair with Greater Manchester, and his party’s need for ‘a bit of the Heseltine’
Say no to devolution without democracy
Imagine if, in one of her first acts as First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon announced that, in spite of…
If the idea of disturbing kraut-punk sung by a troll appeals, you'll love The Fall
I had a fair idea of what I was in for when I went to see The Fall at Brixton’s…
Marriage and foreplay Sharia-style
Needless to say, it’s not uncommon to hear single British women in their thirties and forties saying that all the…
From Burma — or maybe Saigon — to Manchester via Calcutta
England We dropped off our daughter Eve at her new school in the Midlands and started the long journey…
Your starter for ten: why do we Brits so love University Challenge?
‘Fingers on buzzers!’ says Jeremy Paxman on University Challenge. But technically this is inaccurate. Only one of the teams actually…
Sam Neill’s diary: Back in Blighty, remembering drinking binges of yore
I am back in the UK for work. Great time to turn up — after the grim, grey grind of…
The Morrissey myth
The sad end of the Morrissey myth
