Dear readers — almost exactly a year on from the rioting that swept the country in the wake of the Southport stabbings, Manchester city centre was again the scene of far-right protesting this weekend. Around 1,500 people joined a protest against the government’s continued use of hotels to house asylum seekers. Organised by Britain First, the protesters marched from Piccadilly Station to St Peter’s Square, where a long video about the wonders of Stone Henge was played on a big screen for the crowd.
The Mill was present on Saturday and we’ve got a short report on what went down in today’s briefing (which will be followed by a longer report later in the week). Also today, we've got early challenges for Manchester United’s grand Old Trafford regeneration plans, mysterious rumours of a Richard Madeley lookalike contest in Alexandra Park and a lamp-maker paying homage to the city’s finest building: Arndale House. Something for everyone.
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Catch up and coming up
- Last Wednesday James Gilmour followed his hugely successful piece about Manchester’s startling economic growth by asking a key question: who is actually benefitting? You can read that here.
- Then at the weekend Jack Dulhanty found out what Manchester is made of — quite literally. He spoke to experts about Andy Burnham’s proposed new underground rail network, and how the materials lurking beneath the city’s surface could complicate things.
Jack Dulhanty
- Coming up this Wednesday we’ve got Jack Walton’s dispatch from the Britain First protest in the city centre on Saturday.
- And over the weekend we’ve got a piece about Andrea Ashworth, the Mancunian novelist who was feted as a literary star in the mid-90s when her debut became a bestseller, before she suddenly disappeared from the public eye.
🌦️ This week’s weather
Tuesday 🌦️ Windy with sunny spells & heavy showers. 45mph wind gusts. Max 18°c.
Wednesday 🌤️ Dry, warmer & calmer with sunny spells. Max 22°c.
Thursday 🌦️ Breezy with bright spells & showers. Max 20°C.
Friday ⛅️ Mostly dry & breezy with bright spells. Max 20°c.
Weekend ⛅️ Seasonably warm & mostly dry with variable amounts of sunshine.
Your briefing
⚽ Manchester United’s plan to build its new 100,000 seat stadium by 2030 has met its first challenge. The club wants to buy land currently used as a rail freight terminal next to Old Trafford stadium to complete its broader regeneration project, but can’t agree on a price. Haulage company Freightliner, which owns the land, says it is worth £400m, but United says it’s worth 10% of that. Negotiations are now believed to be at an impasse, reports this Guardian exclusive, with insiders saying that Freightliner has the upper hand. All of this delays the start date for the work, which Jim Ratcliffe — United’s part-owner who has said the club is unwilling to accept Freightliner’s asking price — wants finished by 2030. It leaves United in a sticky situation: increase its offer, wait for Freightliner to blink, or rein in its project to not include the land in question.
A fourth option would be for the Old Trafford Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC), which has expanded powers granted to it by the mayor, to buy the land compulsorily. But this would likely spark legal wranglings, meaning more delays. “Discussions are also ongoing with local authorities, land owners and potential funding partners with a view to securing the land and the finance we need to proceed with the project,” the club said at a forum in June. More recently, during United’s US tour as part of the Club World Cup, MDC chair Lord Sebastian Coe pitched the stadium rebuild to New York investors but gave no big updates to the press. BBC Sport reported that this “suggests strongly nothing significant has changed and the feeling is growing United will not meet an initial five-year timeline minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe spoke of in March.”
🌃 Until recently, we thought we were alone in thinking the Arndale House is the best building in Manchester. Then at the weekend we came across the work of Cal Cole — a young artist from Prestwich who makes lamps in the likeness of Manchester's most photogenic tower blocks. Cal started this project in 2023, while studying an art foundation course at Manchester Met — a friend of his lived in student accommodation across from Salford Precinct, and he was inspired by the building and by the work of Russian artist Nikita Anokhin to make a lamp-version of the shopping city, also known as Briar Hill Court. “We had a seven week project where we could basically just do whatever we wanted,” Cal told us earlier today. “I messed around with a laser cutter, and got a bulb from IKEA. I’d never done anything like it before, but it all came together nicely.” These days he’s studying at Glasgow School of Art, and has racked up over 200,000 followers on Instagram — but his lamp ambitions haven’t ceased, and you can pre-order his designs here.
Briar Hill Court and Arndale House lamps in their full glory. Photo: Cal Cole
🪧 On Saturday, The Mill was present as Britain First, the far-right group founded by Paul Golding in 2011, led a march of 1,500 people from Piccadilly Station to St Peter’s Square. Upon arrival, a large screen played a video of Golding outside the Central Library, in which he paid tribute to the rich history of our isle, including an extended segment about Stone Henge, described poetically as “a remarkable Lego-style system of joints”. Police say the protest, and the 250-strong counter-protest, passed largely peacefully. However, one year on from the massive UK-wide rioting following the Southport stabbings, far-right protests are again becoming more common. The Home Office says the number of hotels housing asylum seekers has almost halved since summer 2023 and will end altogether by 2029. Last week we reported from Altrincham, where some 150 people gathered outside the Cresta Court hotel which has been housing asylum seekers since November, holding placards urging “British men and women” to “remember who the fuck you are”. A number of similar protests have been held in London in recent weeks — including on Saturday. Meanwhile River View Primary, a school in Salford, held a rally “against racism” at the weekend after graffiti that read “British kids frist [sic]” appeared outside the school gates. The Mill will have a full report on the Britain First protest out later in the week — including a cameo from one man urging Donald Trump to “buy England”. Stay tuned.
Quick hits
👮♂️ Greater Manchester Police have said that the investigation into the murder of Keith Bennett by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley remains active, after a BBC documentary about the Moors Murders aired last Wednesday. The most recent search was carried out in 2022, after amateur sleuth Russell Edwards claimed to have found Bennett’s jawbone while digging on the moors.
🗼In Heywood, Rochdale, a resident has managed to get a 15m tall telecommunications mast removed from their street. These masts, often put up by a company called IX Wireless, have drawn ire across the city region, with others taken down in Bolton and Cheadle.
⛓️In Bury, a third teenager has been arrested in connection to the murder of a 19-year-old who was stabbed last Friday. The teenager, who is also 19, was arrested at Manchester Airport in the early hours of yesterday morning.
🤔 And in Stockport, a mystery is afoot: who is trying to host a Richard Madeley lookalike contest at Alexandra Park? Flyers have appeared across the borough advertising the competition, set to take place at 11:30am on 17 August, with prizes for the top-three most convincing Madeleys.
Home of the week
If you’re a fan of a tastefully-tiled floor, check out this 3-bed terraced house in Ladybarn. £275,000.
Our favourite reads
What the far-right Homeland Party is really like, by an ex-member — The Times
The Homeland Party, the group behind anti-immigration protests in Epping, is no normal party. The Times spoke to Alex Bramham, who joined the party after running as a Conservative candidate for Manchester Council (which ended when he compared trans activists to Nazis). He was originally drawn to some of the party’s ideas, but “he began to suspect that the party’s outward image was a front for more extreme views.”
'A person not like you is still a person just like you' — Manchester Evening News
Last week, the MEN spoke to Rabbi Dovid Lewis and former Imam Dr Nasser Kurdy — two old friends who have set out to educate Manchester’s schools on the value of peace during the ongoing war in Gaza. "Quarrels, conflicts and divisions are all about I, I, I," says Nasser. "Peace, embracing the other is about we, we, we. The essence of conflict is somebody saying I is more important than we."
Our to do list
Tuesday
🐖 It's the Summer Holidays, so we’ve got a few kids events for you this week. Tomorrow you can take your three-to-eight-year-olds to the Lowry to watch a musical adaptation of the children’s book A Squash and a Squeeze.
✏️ And the Crooked Man in Prestwich are hosting their monthly poetry night: Crooked Poets.
Wednesday
🛝 It’s Play Day in North Manchester’s parks. Crumpsall Park will have activities from 11-3pm, and Brookdale and Collyhurst Parks are both putting on crafting stations.
🕊️ And as it’s the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima, there will be a guided peace trail across Manchester, exploring the nuclear timeline of the city. Get your tickets here.
Thursday
🎭 The Royal Exchange’s mobile theatre is returning this week, with local musicians, a cabaret show, and family play about a shipwrecked princess. More info here.
🥐 And over at Manchester Jewish Museum you can learn how to make rugelach pastries, while hearing about Polish-Jewish histories. Tickets are £7.
Got a To-Do that you’d like us to list? Tell us about it here.
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