The unsung changemakers of Longsight

Plus: An 18th century circus master's tragic time in Manchester

Dear members — welcome, welcome. Rishi Sunak has now, finally, confirmed that HS2 plans will be scrapped beyond Birmingham. The prime minister says “the facts have changed” and has promised to “reinvest every single penny" saved from HS2 in other transport projects.

You might have heard Joshi talking about HS2 on Jeremy Vine's Radio 2 show yesterday and also on Sky News. In a piece for UnHerd today, he writes about how this moment marks a dramatic severing of a decades-old pragmatic relationship between Manchester and the Conservative party, and reveals that Sunak has been taking advice from a certain Dominic Cummings.

We’ve got the latest on the HS2 saga, extracts from a brilliant new photobook documenting the people making a difference in Longsight, and the story of an American circus master who arrived in Manchester in 1889 and whose time here was riven by tragedy. All that’s below. But first, a roundup of today’s news.