Has Manchester Pride got its mojo back?
Plus, Manchester United U-turn on Mason Greenwood and Lucy Letby sentenced at Manchester Crown Court
Dear readers — we hope you had a lovely weekend and enjoyed your Mill-free week last week, if that’s possible. We’re now back with renewed energy and vigour, and we have some great stories lined up this week, including:
What’s it like to live in Manchester’s most hated tower block?
And the heated question of Lancashire versus Greater Manchester identities in Bolton (please do drop us a line if you have strong views on that).
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It’s been a very big news day in Manchester already, with Lucy Letby sentenced to a whole-life term at Manchester Crown Court and Manchester United star Mason Greenwood on his way out of the club after what looks like a major U-turn from the Old Trafford hierarchy (which may or may not have been prompted by some excellent journalism by longtime Mill member Adam Crafton). More on those stories below, plus our look at Manchester Pride, which kicks off this weekend, and some great recommendations.
🌦️ This week’s weather
Our local weatherman Martin Miles says this week is a mixed bag, starting off with warm sunshine with spells of rain and turning cooler later in the week.
Tuesday 🌦️ Warm with showery rain clearing to sunny spells. Max 22C.
Wednesday 🌦️ Humid with bright spells and a few showers. Max 21C.
Thursday ☁️ Mostly cloudy and muggy with light rain arriving later in the afternoon. Max 19C.
Friday 🌦️ Breezy, fresh and showery. Max 18C.
Bank Holiday Weekend ☁️ Cool and changeable. Temperatures will peak in the range 16-18C.
You can find the latest forecast at Manchester Weather on Facebook — daily forecasts are published at 6.15am.
The big story: The reinvention of Manchester Pride
Top line: Huge crowds will descend on the city centre this weekend to celebrate Manchester Pride. But what kind of festival will they be taking part in?
Context: In recent years, organisers of the festival have been accused of “commercialisation and gentrification” after advertising weekend tickets for £71 a pop and moving away from Pride’s activist focus. In August 2021, over a thousand people protested after a BBC Radio Manchester investigation found that Manchester Pride cut ties with two local charities, the George House Trust and the LGBT Foundation, who promote safer sex — and handed them a £10,000 grant instead. Manchester Pride’s CEO Mark Fletcher said this was due to “an 80% loss in revenue in 2020” and being “struck down by the pandemic”.
However, the BBC also revealed that Fletcher had taken a £20,000 pay rise and invested £1 million more in event production than the previous year. Fletcher argued that this wasn’t a pay rise but a “change to pay structure” and also defended rising event production costs, saying “that’s what it costs to produce an event of this scale. If people no longer want the event in this format, we’ll absolutely do that, we’ll change everything.” Go deeper with our podcast episode: ‘It all went horribly wrong for Manchester Pride’.
After the protests, Manchester Pride launched a six-month consultation in a bid to fix things. Paul Wheeler, the chair of the board of trustees, said that Pride had listened to their community’s recommendations and promised to “refocus the efforts back towards activism”. They also promised greater transparency around the charity’s activities. You can read the report in full here.
So what’s changed?
Organisers say this is their most diverse line-up to date: 96% of performers are queer, 54% are women, 51% are people of colour and 42% are trans or non-binary.
Organisers have specifically asked Greater Manchester Police not to wear uniforms at the parade after members of the LGBTQ+ community expressed “lack of trust in the police force, fear when amongst police in uniform, and discomfort in police presence” and the “urgent need to prioritise and elevate the voices and experiences of our QTIPOC [Queer, Trans, or Intersex, Person of Colour] and Trans communities”.
In 2022, Manchester Pride scrapped its high-profile live music festival and decided to focus most of the action around parties in the Gay Village.
Perspective: Mill reader and Pride enthusiast Cat Clegg says Pride weekend always felt “very very special” to her when she was growing up, but the modern incarnation feels “very much just a money-making event that’s dull in comparison”. She says she is “really hopeful that this year will have the same feel as former years, just with a bit less stress on money making and the commercial side.”
Community focus: “We have worked closely with our communities to offer a line-up that is for the community, by the community,” Mark Fletcher has told the Gay Times. “As a world-leading city and an organisation that is spearheading the global Pride movement, our aim is to provide a platform which elevates and showcases local queer performers alongside renowned international LGBTQ+ talent, with a little support from our allies.”
What’s on:
The weekend’s celebrations start on Friday with a performance from RuPaul’s Drag Race royalty Bimini, plenty of live DJs, drag shows and comedy in the Gay Village.
On Saturday, Conchita Wurst of Eurovision fame, electronic pop artist Alison Goldfrapp and performance artist Danny Beard are headlining, alongside the Queer Asian takeover, which spotlights LGBTQ+ Asian and Middle Eastern communities.
Natasha Bedingfield, local drag queen Cheddar Gorgeous and Scissor Sisters lead singer Jake Shears are headlining on Sunday.
Get involved: Most events are free, but you can buy tickets for the day parties in the Gay Village on Ticketmaster. Prices start at £15 and a weekend ticket is £41.
Your Mill briefing
A big story that just broke this afternoon: Mason Greenwood is leaving Manchester United, the club has announced. It looks like a major U-turn — reports last week indicated that the young striker Greenwood was going to return to playing at Old Trafford after rape charges against him were dropped earlier this year. Longtime Miller Adam Crafton, a Mancunian sports journalist who has led the way on reporting this story, writes for The Athletic today: “As of Wednesday of last week, United’s plan was to bring Greenwood back… By Friday late afternoon, a backlash across season-ticket holders, fans, supporters’ groups, members of parliament and even charities that support female victims of abuse had combined to force a rethink.” It seems likely that Crafton’s dogged reporting on the Greenwood situation has played a decisive role in today’s decision. In its statement, the club says: “All those involved, including Mason, recognise the difficulties with him recommencing his career at Manchester United. It has therefore been mutually agreed that it would be most appropriate for him to do so away from Old Trafford, and we will now work with Mason to achieve that outcome.”
Lucy Letby was sentenced to a whole-life jail term at Manchester Crown Court today. Last week, she was found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six more on a neonatal ward at Countess of Chester Hospital where she worked as a nurse. Letby is the fourth woman in British history to get a whole life order, meaning she will spend the rest of her life in prison, with no chance of parole. “This was a cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children,” said Justice Goss.
Five men in Rochdale have been found guilty of sexually exploiting two girls between 2002 and 2006. Known only as Girl A and Girl B, the women are now both 33 and the case is the biggest child sexual exploitation case involving Rochdale men since 2012. The abuse first came to light after Girl A spoke at her parenting course about being “abused daily for six years” and forced to drink alcohol and take drugs, prompting her shocked course leader to call the police. Girl A told the court that she had previously approached Greater Manchester Police and Rochdale Borough Council, but they had turned her away “like I was a naughty child”.
Rebuild Rehope, a charity that helps people who have experienced modern slavery and human trafficking, has opened a shop in the former Debenham’s building in Wigan town centre. The unit has been empty since the retailer went bust in 2021. It’s thought to be the biggest charity shop in the UK and sells clothing, homeware and gifts at discounts of up to 70%.
And finally: Queer Lit, an independent bookshop in the Northern Quarter specialising in LGBTQ+ literature, is expanding. The new building has 7,000 sq ft of space, with a bookshop, coffee shop, bar, event space and workspace and will open the first week of October.
Home of the week
An 1860s church in Rochdale, with potential to be developed into a home, just came on the market for £250,000. It has beautiful stained glass windows, high ceilings and vast gardens.
Our favourite reads
Why wasn’t Lucy Letby stopped as months of murder went by? — The Guardian
Lucy Letby’s crimes were revealed over the course of a ten month trial at Manchester Crown Court; it’s been called one of the most harrowing trials in modern Britain. This long read details the extensive failings of Countess of Chester Hospital executives, who were not required to give evidence at the trial but will be expected to cooperate with an inquiry into the circumstances of the babies’ deaths. They will also be asked why no investigation was launched until July 2016, two years after senior doctors had raised concerns. Senior doctors believe that if hospital executives had taken more urgent action, they could have saved the lives of four or five babies. There is also a brilliant Sunday Times long read about the case.
The return of tough policing — The Spectator
An interesting piece from the Spectator’s political editor explores the “Greater Manchester model” of policing and how chief constable Stephen Watson became the Home Secretary’s favourite police boss. Watson’s idea for GMP — “investigate every crime” – may sound rather obvious, but given that many forces have “largely given up on low-level crime”, this mantra represents a major change of tack, argues this piece. Plus: Andy Burnham reveals that one of his questions to Watson when he hired him as the new police chief was “do you believe in the broken windows theory of policing?”
How the Writer and Critic Jacqueline Rose Puts the World on the Couch — The New Yorker
Jacqueline Rose, the Jewish feminist writer and critic who is described as “constitutionally guarded and private”, gives a rare, revealing interview in the New Yorker. She talks about her closeness with her philosopher sister Gillian and her cousin Braham, a former artistic director of the Royal Exchange, who often found themselves pulled in similar artistic directions. In the 1980s, as Jacqueline became drawn to Holocaust stories, Braham put on a production of Macbeth set in a Nazi death camp. “I realise now that the three of us had been brought to this topic as a way of engaging a mostly unspoken part of our family history—on this, the lines that were running, strangely and unconsciously, between the three of us were clear,” Jacqueline says.
A start-up’s wild plan to resurrect the mammoth — The Financial Times
Can a Texan biosciences startup resurrect the long-extinct woolly mammoth? George Church, the founder of Colossal Biosciences, is well-known for his “outlandish” ideas like creating pig organs to be used in human transplants. Now, with funding from venture capitalist Peter Thiel and socialite Paris Hilton, he is attempting to bring back the mammoth to help restore the arctic tundra. Matthew Cobb, a professor of zoology at the University of Manchester, says the project is basically impossible and would require at least several hundred animals to ensure the future survival of the species.
Our to do list
Tuesday
🎶 Mabe Fratti creates ethereal, experimental classical music that makes you feel as though you’re “carried away in streams of promise by a sound”. She’s performing at the White Hotel from 7.30pm, get tickets here.
🎨 British Pakistani artist Kay Shah presents a new exhibition at HOME that explores their relationship with culture, identity and transformation, using brightly-coloured motifs of architecture and art from Islamic history. It’s free to visit.
Wednesday
🍕 Common, the casual dining spot in the Northern Quarter that serves oversized slices of pizza and quirky craft beers, is hosting a weekly pub quiz. The winner gets a £120 bar tab. It starts at 7pm, and places must be booked.
🏳️🌈 Aviva Studios is putting on a series of free live music events to celebrate Pride week. On Wednesday evening, we recommend heading to their outdoor space to hear Scapa, an electronic music producer and video game composer, who will be performing an energetic grime and techno set. More details here.
Thursday
🎸 John Cale, the 80-year-old art rock legend best known for his downtempo, eerie compositions and stint with The Velvet Underground, is performing at the Albert Hall. Tickets here.
💃 There’s going to be salsa, bachata dancing and plenty of rum at Ramona on Thursday evening, as Salsa de Cuba, a high-energy Latin band formed in Havana’s concert halls over 20 years ago, hit the stage from 8pm. It’s free!
Looking further ahead? Members get our unmissable weekend to do list in their inboxes every Thursday morning.
I came to the comments section to lavish praise on Adam Crafton who without his efforts the club may have stuck with it's original decision, I give the Athletic (and sometimes Adam) a bit of stick but credit where it's due here, it would have been far, far easier for him to sit on his hands and do nothing like other prominent journalists do that cover the club but he did whatever the opposite of the path of least resistance is here, superb work *clapping hand emoji x3*
I was on the protest march in 2021, carrying a sign that said "take back Pride." Under Fletcher's control, Manchester Pride became hollowed out; a ring-fenced experience where vast sums of money are thrown into producing a music festival, and more goes on staff costs than is donated to LGBT charities in the city. Ariana Grande came before supporting the community - infamously, in 2019, one of the Pride Ambassadors (who lived in London) said that she couldn't "turn up wearing bin bags" to justify the cost of getting her to come to Pride.
I'm deeply sceptical that, with the same leadership as before, Manchester Pride will be about more than getting the largest number of people drunk in the shortest time possible, whilst shunting everything else to the side. Last year I tried to get into the vigil, and was turned away for not having a wristband; the idea that we need to pay Manchester Pride to get onto a public street to go to a vigil for members of the community who we've lost is, simply, vile.
Pride needs a wholesale house cleaning. I was lucky enough to go to Seattle Pride earlier this year; there were no ticketed gates, no wristbands. Instead there was a gay village full of community groups and local businesses offering all sorts of ways to join in and be part of a community; alongside bars and clubbing and the rest. It was an expression of a range of possible ways to be queer and happy and part of something. And this, of course, in a country with a fair share of hate and violence. Pride could be so much in Manchester; with the Gay Village, we have an amazing possible space to do lots with. Instead, it is run as a music festival, by people who think that it is all it needs to be.