Dear readers — some say you’re only supposed to start thinking about Christmas on Advent Sunday. Others say any time after Halloween is fine.
We at The Mill have our own, Manchester specific rules.
If the smell of shop-bought mulled wine wafts up from St Ann’s to our office windows; if the big wheel is spinning outside No.10; if we can barely make it to Victoria for giant Yorkshire puddings and ten pound pint punters, then it’s as good as Christmas day.
And that’s good, cause it means we can roll out the all-time greatest Christmas present for the (Greater) Mancunians in your life: our brand new gift subscriptions.
Here’s how they work — and this is all very exciting. From now on, you can buy your loved ones a virtual gift card for The Mill, which looks like this:
Who is a gift sub the perfect present for? It’s for your mate who’s just moved to Manchester and is trying to get to grips with all the weird stuff on Market Street. It’s for your sister who loves American mags and always knows what’s happening in international politics — but has some blind spots about what’s going on next door. It’s for your parents who are still on Facebook, looking for the next bit of neighbourhood gossip, or a bit of nostalgia about what Manchester was like in their time.
The cards are available in three different subscription lengths: three months (£26.95), six months (£53.70) or the whole year (£89). Regardless of when you buy it, you can choose when to give it to them, and you can write a wee message on it too.
If that’s got you interested, you can get one here, or on the ‘gifts’ tab on our homepage.
Anyway, enough advertising copy. Onto our briefing, which today includes, among other things: a dispatch from behind the fog; not one but two theatre reviews, and an update on our weekend read…
Our scoop goes national
Our weekend exclusive – reporting on inaccurate claims made in an application for public funding by a company chaired by top Burnham donor Sacha Lord – was included in this morning’s London Playbook, Politico’s influential Westminster newsletter.
The story outlined how the Night Life Industries Association, which Lord directs and chairs, claimed to have support “in principle” from two major companies, who it said could provide the mandatory match-funding required to access the grant. After we checked this with the two companies in question and found one had no knowledge of the project and the other made no commitment, the NTIA withdrew its application.
“Another important piece revealing unethical practices. We’d doubtless never have found this out without the Mill. Great work,” commented one reader. “This is appalling on so many levels,” said another. Comments from leader of the Greens Zack Polanski and an unnamed Conservative source, both comparing Burnham’s relationship with Lord to that of Keir Starmer’s with Peter Mandelson, drew criticism. “The comments from Green and Conservative parties seem overblown and out of line with the scale of the supposed offence. It's obvious they are still just playing the same old politics.”
You can read the full story below, and become a member of The Mill here to join the debate.
Jack Dulhanty
Citizen journalist arrested in HMO investigation
This story is free to read - you just need to join our mailing list. And why wouldn't you? By becoming a Mill subscriber, you'll get our scoops, features, and insights into Manchester, in your inbox, the second we hit publish. No card details required.
Already have an account? Sign In
