Dear readers — after five years of loyalty to the long-read, last week we published a listicle. And frankly, we can now see why everyone else does it. Our ranking of Manchester’s top seven viral food spots drew quite a reaction. Some said it was “A great piece of public service journalism for people sucked in by influencers that lie for money”. Others said: “this is beneath you”.
It was an interesting response. The very point the list was making was that these were places or people with an enormous following on social media – but that the reality of the businesses didn’t always live up to their online reputation. Manchester has an incredible food scene — but it suffers from the effects of social media marketing: ridiculous boosterism from influencers and paid promoters. Many cafes and restaurants are made to pay to get any kind of coverage at all. So, for the less listicle-averse who have ideas as to how we can step into the honesty-void and cover the city’s food and drink scene more effectively, please get in touch.
And good news! We gave ourselves one month to find 500 people in Leeds who wanted to back us to launch a new newspaper. Amazingly, 350 people have signed up, but there's only one week left to find the missing 150! Please share this link with anyone you know with a Leeds or West Yorkshire connection. And if you'd like to support the local journalism revolution sweeping the UK, then pledge your support to help get us there. Pledge your support through the link below.
Md Nurullah
‘Hannah won’t be silenced’
Hannah Spencer – the new Green MP for Gorton and Denton, as we’re sure you’ll know – was ushered into a police car yesterday to avoid verbal onslaught from an angry crowd. Spencer had been giving a speech at an anti-far-right event at Piccadilly Gardens, after which she was pursued by a YouTube auditor wearing a sandwich board with the words ‘Trans women are men’ on it. Said auditor repeatedly asked Hannah if trans women are women, and if women can “have a penis”. Punches were thrown between two separate men, and police intervened. A statement from the Green party highlights the “bitter irony” of “[a] few angry men” attempting to silence a woman on International Women’s Day. “Hannah won’t be silenced,” reads the statement, “and will continue to speak up for the communities that she has been elected to represent."
A generation of bullies
Rene Redzepi, the world-famous chef and founder of Noma in Copenhagen — rated the best restaurant in the world for years running — has been found by the New York Times to have viciously and methodically abused his staff. He punched one chef hard enough to send her falling to the ground, and psychologically tormented chefs with group shaming sessions, which his senior employees emulated. “René raised a generation of bullies, and they bullied us,” one chef told NYT. In 2022 we wrote about Simon Martin, the Noma alumni who opened Manchester’s only Michelin star restaurant, Mana, in Ancoats in 2018. We found Martin abused and bullied his staff, pouring liquid nitrogen down one chef’s back and punching another. He used his Noma bona fides to generate buzz for his own restaurant, but it turned out they weren’t so bona fide. He claimed to have risen to sous chef at the restaurant when he was actually only ever the second lowest rank of cook.
Nevertheless, Martin was often desperate — as many chefs have been over the last 15 years — to appear close to the famed Redzepi. One night while drinking with his staff Simon took a call from him, walking around the restaurant for about an hour on the phone. “After a while,” we wrote at the time, “one of the staff members noticed that Martin’s phone was showing its home screen. Not only was Martin not speaking to the greatest chef in the world — he wasn’t speaking to anyone.” Redzepi has long accepted his poor behavior, and in a statement said: “to those who have suffered under my leadership, my bad judgment, or my anger, I am deeply sorry and I have worked to change.” A spokesperson for Mana told us in 2022 that the allegations against Martin were unsubstantiated and “categorically untrue”.
‘I’m just dancing’
This lovely BBC piece takes us to a Moss Side classroom 20 or so years ago, when Nahum McLean was unwittingly subjected to the sort of humiliation from which an 11-year-old boy suspects he’ll never recover: his teacher telling the class they’d seen him doing ballet on the news. “Everyone erupted in laughter,” he recalls. “It was awful”. Now, aged 30, McLean is returning to Manchester in triumph. His ballet career has taken him around the world, to New York and Cuba, but this month he’s performing at the Manchester Opera House. “There's all these questions about your sexuality because you're a man who does ballet,” he says, although the days of mockery and lost friends have long passed. “I just thought, 'Why? I'm just dancing'.”
Wigan’s ‘national hero’
For seven years, an anonymous source has been leaking information to environmental campaigners and journalists about the scandal of Britain’s polluted rivers. Now, the identity of the whistleblower has been revealed: Wigan resident Robert Forrester, an Environmental Agency worker who left the organisation just two months ago. Forrester spent over 20 years regulating rivers in parts of Lancashire from his Preston-based office. He began submitting freedom of information requests to the agency via a pseudonym, documenting how his employer allegedly chose wilful ignorance over decisive action as pollution was dumped in rivers and seas across the country. A series dramatising the events, Dirty Business, aired on Channel 4 last month and, according to The Times, its writer and director describes Forrester as a “national hero”.
Hello! - Jack Dulhanty here, thanks for joining us for today’s Monday briefing. We have been sending these newsletters out, for free, since July 2020. Back then The Mill was a one-man-band working out of a cafe sending local news to a few dozen people. Today’s briefing has been sent to 60,000 Millers.
We can only afford to send these free newsletters thanks to our paying subscribers, who support our in-depth journalism covering Greater Manchester and its people. Those readers get two extra newsletters a week, can leave comments on our work and get access to our exclusive events. But more than that, their support has meant my three colleagues and I have been able to come aboard and work as journalists in the North of England, not move to London — which, we all agree, would have been a nightmare. If you’d like to join their ranks, so that more young reporters in the city can make their start here, hit the button below.
Daytime attack in West Didsbury
A woman has been charged with attempted murder after attacking another woman at West Didsbury tram stop last Wednesday. The incident happened at around 11:45am and the victim, who’s in her 30s, suffered a head laceration, GMP reports. 25-year-old Keida Finlayson has been charged with attempted murder, as well as assault for a separate, unrelated attack. She appears at Manchester and Salford Magistrates’ Court today.
This week’s weather
Tuesday 🌦️ Early showers then mostly dry with a few bright spells. Turning breezy. Max 12°C.
Wednesday 🌤️ Breezy & mostly dry with plenty of sunny spells. Feeling colder. Max 10°C.
Thursday 🌧️ Cloudy with heavy rain setting in during the afternoon. Windy. Max 13°C.
Friday 🌦️ Sunny spells & scattered heavy showers, falling as sleet at times with hailstones. Breezy. Max 9°C.
Weekend 🌦️ Changeable with sunshine and showers. Temperatures will be a little below the average as well with a risk of frost by night
Home of the week
There is always a plethora of quaint 2-beds for sale in Northenden, and today is no exception. £260,000.
What our writers are up to this week
🎶 In the mood for a Renaissance-themed “magical journey through the night” with Manchester’s newest vocal sextet? Then look no further than Vivify Ensemble’s performance, who will be at St Ann’s Church on Thursday evening as part of a series of concerts to expand its musical outreach. We’ve been lucky enough to partner with the church for the event, and they’re offering entirely free entry to the first ten Millers who use the discount code TheMillVivifyOffer when they purchase a ticket.
🥿 Ballet Nights, featuring Moss Side’s Nahum McLean (if you’ve skipped to the end of this newsletter then you can read about Nahum’s journey by scrolling up) is on Wednesday at the Manchester Opera House. Prices vary, but the cheapest ones remaining are £42.
🎩 And over at the Peer Hat we’ve been promised “polyvocal landscapes” and “caustic pop hooks” from New York outfit Kelpy Cathedral on Tuesday night. Tickets are £5 but with no one turned away for lack of funds. Should be a good’un.
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