Has Elon Musk chosen Greater Manchester for his new gigafactory?

Plus: Joshi chats to Mike Emmerich about whether academics are doing the city down - and the Portico announces some exciting news

Dear members — welcome to our midweek members-only newsletter. For the first time in a few months, Joshi has written an editor’s edition, covering festive shopping, some great news from the Portico Library, the pressure on council finances and his conversation with economist and longtime Mill member Mike Emmerich. 

We like these editions because they allow our team to write in a more casual way about the things they are eating, reading and hearing on the grapevine — and we especially love the comments they tend to spark off. So please do take a second to chat in the comments after reading this. 

Before that, we round up a handful of big stories this week, including Andy Burnham’s evidence to the Covid inquiry and some informed speculation about whether Elon Musk might be about to make a very large investment in Greater Manchester.

A very warm welcome to all of our new members who have joined in the past week. We were having a bit of a slow November and then lots of newbies have come floo…