Dear readers — when the pope speaks, we listen. So when the pope happened to say what we were already thinking: that good journalism “requires competence, courage and a sense of ethics” we couldn’t help but feel like God was speaking directly through him to us. Today’s newsletter demonstrates all of these qualities. We report on the outlandish spate of Manchester flytipping with competence; we have the sense of ethics to give you a number of updates from last week’s tour guides — disgruntled or otherwise; and we have the courage to ask our readers: ‘What was it really like moving up to Media City?’. We hope you enjoy it.
The Manchester Building Society throws open its doors
It’s the news we’ve been building up to all year — Manchester Building Society’s city centre branch is now open! Pop into their new branch on King Street (map) to see what they’ve done with the gorgeous Grade II listed building.
The Society’s ethos is all about working with local people to deliver face-to-face financial services for the whole community, with a commitment to the people and places that make up Greater Manchester.
Manchester Building Society is a trading name of Newcastle Building Society
Walking it back
It’s not often that the people from our articles make their way into the comment section, but hey, it happens. In fact, Ophira’s article about Tour Guide Turf Wars had tour guides in our comments, tour guides in our emails, tour guides in our texts and Whatsapp, tour guides patrolling outside the windows of our offices at the Royal Exchange (ok, they were probably just giving tours). Responses were varied. Of the article's four main guides, Josh Martin was the most enthusiastic, stating that our article “brilliantly captures” the tour guiding world, and describing the interview process as “strangely cathartic.” Jonathan Schofield – who we frankly thought came away from the article relatively unscathed – was less impressed. Shortly after we received a number of angry texts from him, we also received a number of very positive comments about his Green Badge course.
Meanwhile, Ed Glinert emailed in to say that he was incredibly angry about a comment a reader left on our piece that makes reference to him, and that he would like to sue us. “This is not an idle threat,” he said. “I have the money to do so.” He asked that we publish a full statement of his in response to the comment, but as it’s nearly 1,000 words long we have chosen not to do so – however the email ends with him accusing the commenter of being an undercover member of staff, and asking if they’re willing to “meet [him] face to face” or if they’re a “coward”. We haven’t received any response at all from our fourth guide Joe Feeley, so we assume he either likes the article, or hasn’t read it. You can read the piece, and the comments, below.
Ophira Gottlieb
Who’s buying for Burnham?
Over the last two years, Andy Burnham accepted £12,000 in gifts from a variety of donors including prominent Manchester developer Chris Oglesby, the businessman Brian Kennedy and the office of Manchester City Council leader Bev Craig. The freebies range from Glastonbury tickets (where, in fairness he was speaking) to “gardening outerwear” (who among us could say no?). A spokesperson for Burnham said “as Mayor of one of the country’s biggest city regions, it is right that he represents Greater Manchester at the events that bring major benefit to the local economy”. You know, like the Euros 2024 final in Berlin?
All this is on the heels of Burnham launching a shadow challenge for the Labour leadership before climbing down, and is also an echo of Sir Keir Starmer’s own freebie controversy last year (although far smaller-scale), in which he accepted over £100,000 worth of gifts. “The tricky thing they’ve got is Labour came in saying they were going to stop sleaze and corruption,” says local Lib Dem councillor and member of the GMCA’s overview and scrutiny committee Shaun Ennis. “And this freebie rubbish looks like sleaze and corruption.”
Mission Mars; luxurious fly-tipping; and the anti-sensationalist religious leader just a 3 hour flight away from Manchester
⛪ Pope Leo XIV has at long last weighed in on the topic of tacky newspaper headlines, after six months of deafening silence. In a talk given last Thursday at the Vatican, Pope Leo condemned “the degrading practice of so-called clickbait,” stating that “[c]ommunication must be freed from the misguided thinking that corrupts it”. But that’s not all. In fact, the papal leader went on to say that an important form of active citizenship is to “value and support… agencies that demonstrate seriousness and true freedom in their work,” describing this as “a virtuous circle that benefits society as a whole”. With that in mind, if there are any Catholics (or non-Catholics) on our free list who want to join our virtuous circle of members, there’s never been a better time.
🛋️ In a bizarre series of events, we’ve been hearing that a number of royal purple Chesterfields have been sprouting up in alleys around Rusholme. The sofas and armchairs are noticeably similar (identical, even) to ones that used to form the furnishings of the nearby Huqqa Lounge — the lavish shisha bar on the Curry Mile — and have since been spotted on Parkfield Street, Arnside Street, and in an alley on Horton Road. What could the mystery mean? It’s hard to say for sure, but if you’ve been thinking about re-theming your living room to look like a Victorian brothel then today may well be your lucky day.
🍕 And finally, one of Manchester's biggest hospitality groups — which owns Rudy’s Pizza, Albert’s Schloss and Albert Hall — is looking to sell up. Mission Mars has hired advisors to test the ground for potential buyers, reports the Times. The company could go for over £100m.
Open newsroom
We’re working on a story about the 2007 relocation of BBC staff from London to Salford and its offices at the then-newly Christened Media City. We want to hear from the London transplants about what that time was like, did they resent having to move up north? Did they end up loving it? And have local creatives and people who wouldn’t have normally accessed jobs in the media outside of London felt the benefit? If you have the answers, or know someone who might, email Jack. He is currently flu-stricken, so don’t take a late reply to heart.
This week’s weather
For those of you that are tired of all the cyclonic gloom we’ve been having recently, our guerrilla weatherman Martin Myles has some welcome news: “We’ve got a week of anticyclonic gloom on the way. Sunshine will be at a premium.”
Tuesday ☁️ Overcast and cool with light winds. Max 15°c.
Wednesday ⛅ Mostly cloudy with infrequent bright spells. Max 14°c.
Thursday ☁️ Cloudy with very little wind but feeling chilly. Max 13°c.
Friday ⛅️ Dry and calm with occasional sunny intervals. Max 14°c.
Weekend ☁️ Remaining mostly dry and settled but skies will often be cloudy. Temperatures will be seasonal, peaking around 14°c.
Home of the week
We’re not sure what to say about this house. It’s nice, it’s in Ladybarn, it’s £275,000.
Reads
‘I was groomed, and I feel the pain and guilt every day’ Jack Mason reveals all — TheBusinessDesk.com
This is the latest in the saga that is Inc & Co, a Manchester-based private equity firm that imploded after three years of investigation by TheBusinessDesk.com, led by longtime Miller Michael Taylor. Taylor and his team exposed how the company broke rules, rinsed businesses of their cash and made the lives of their clients a misery. Its owners — Dave Antrobus, Scott Dylan and Jack Mason — were also alleged to have misappropriated £13.7m from Barclays. Last year they were sentenced to two years in prison for contempt of court. Dylan served 11 months and has since been released, while Antrobus and Mason skipped the country. Now, Mason (from Barcelona) has said he was groomed by Dylan into taking part in his schemes. “He groomed me, slowly, deliberately, offering praise, friendship, wealth, and purpose. And then he manipulated that trust to orchestrate one of the biggest deceptions I’ve ever seen.”
Manchester Metropolitan University — The 3rd Degree
This is actually a ‘listen’: BBC Radio 4 Extra’s quiz show The 3rd Degree made its sole visit to the north yesterday, for an episode recorded at Man Met. The show, which is recorded at a different uni each week, pits three undergrads against three of their professors on a number of subjects — this week they include Mental Health Nursing, Epigenetic Development Theory, drains, and Kanye West.
Writers recommend
🥐 Jack Dulhanty was recently over at Hive Bakehouse, in Bolton. It’s on Market Street in Westhoughton and is, in a word, great. They’ve got classic viennoserie staples and also slightly more leftfield options like danishes with pucks of sticky toffee pudding baked into them and cruffins stuffed with pistachio creme and topped with Italian meringue. More here.
🎻Joshi is incredibly excited for the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra’s visit to The Bridgewater Hall tomorrow night — Brno being the city in the south Moravian region of the Czech Republic where his ancestors are from. In fact, he lived there for a little bit before the pandemic, before returning home to start the newsletter you’re currently reading. Anyway, the Brno Philharmonic are going to be playing Czech classics by Janáček and Dvořák. Tickets here.
🍃 And Ophira is scarpering off to Wales this week to go spend some time among the slate, but if she wasn’t she’d be taking full advantage of the anticyclonic gloom promised to us with a wet wander around Boggart Hole Clough.
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