Manchester

The man at the heart of punk: the late Pete Shelley recalls his Buzzcocks years

17 July 2021 9:00 am

Manchester, in the words of the artist Linder Sterling, is a ‘tiny little world’. Nearly three million people live in…

The Marcus Rashford mural – an anatomy of a moral panic

16 July 2021 6:51 pm

Late on Sunday night, less than an hour after England lost on penalties to Italy in the European championship final,…

Portrait of the week: A Manchester stand-off, a Presidential showdown and a Brexit culture clash

24 October 2020 9:00 am

Home After ten days spent trying to persuade Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, to accede to the city…

Angry Burnham takes on No. 10

16 October 2020 6:42 am

Keir Starmer has made life difficult for Boris Johnson this week with his demand for a circuit-breaker lockdown. But the…

How strict will the new Covid restrictions be?

12 October 2020 6:14 pm

I have a few points to make about the new three tier system to be announced today for restricting our…

My dazzling chum: Mayflies, by Andrew O’Hagan, reviewed

29 August 2020 9:00 am

Presumably because a small part of it takes place in Salford, the epigraph to Andrew O’Hagan’s latest novel consists of…

Takes us deep into an unknown world: Channel 4’s Inside Missguided reviewed

15 August 2020 9:00 am

If it’s a test of a good documentary series that it takes us deep into an unknown, even unimaginable world,…

entrepreneurs

The antidote to virus panic is in the hands of entrepreneurs

13 March 2020 3:43 am

It’s a ghost town,’ said the officer manning the body scanner at Manchester airport — Manchester, New Hampshire, that is,…

old

No presidency for old men

10 February 2020 2:02 am

What a thrill! Last night, I was dining with a friend in Piccola Italia, a charming restaurant in Manchester, New…

A large cast is mostly led by shouty men, who lead shouty meetings: Mike Leigh’s Peterloo

It’s like being trapped in an episode of Poldark: Peterloo reviewed

3 November 2018 9:00 am

Mike Leigh’s Peterloo is one of those films where you keep waiting for it to get good, and waiting and…

The Factory (image: OMA/Factory)

The Bilbao effect

21 October 2017 9:00 am

Twenty years ago I wrote of the otherwise slaveringly praised Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao: I’m in a minority of, apparently,…

Northern rock

16 September 2017 9:00 am

A fortnight ago, the debut album by a young British guitar band entered the chart at No. 6. You might…

Manchester isn’t oppressed, Andy Burnham – it’s wildly overrated

28 May 2016 9:00 am

Manchester isn’t downtrodden, whatever Andy Burnham says. Quite the opposite, in fact

Nick Robinson’s diary: What dog will donate its vocal cords to me?

28 November 2015 9:00 am

Scientists are experimenting with growing replacement vocal cords in the lab, as well as transplanting them from dogs. That was…

Spittle is the only thing Labour has left

10 October 2015 9:00 am

I have started salivating excessively at night. I wake each morning in a pillowed swamp of my own effluvium, a…

Manchester has marvellous wines, and it’s not finished yet

10 October 2015 9:00 am

It will seem an ungrateful comment after the lunch which I am about to describe, but Manchester has some way…

On Jim O’Neill, the new ‘Northern Powerhouse’ supremo

23 May 2015 9:00 am

A doff of my flat cap to Jim O’Neill, the former Goldman Sachs economist who has been made a peer,…

George Osborne interview: smaller government is not enough

7 March 2015 9:00 am

George Osborne on his love affair with Greater Manchester, and his party’s need for ‘a bit of the Heseltine’

Say no to devolution without democracy

8 November 2014 9:00 am

Imagine if, in one of her first acts as First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon announced that, in spite of…

Consummately psychotic: Mark E. Smith of The Fall

If the idea of disturbing kraut-punk sung by a troll appeals, you'll love The Fall

4 October 2014 9:00 am

I had a fair idea of what I was in for when I went to see The Fall at Brixton’s…

Marriage and foreplay Sharia-style

27 September 2014 8:00 am

Needless to say, it’s not uncommon to hear single British women in their thirties and forties saying that all the…

From Burma — or maybe Saigon — to Manchester via Calcutta

27 September 2014 8:00 am

England   We dropped off our daughter Eve at her new school in the Midlands and started the long journey…

Your starter for ten: why do we Brits so love University Challenge?

12 July 2014 9:00 am

‘Fingers on buzzers!’ says Jeremy Paxman on University Challenge. But technically this is inaccurate. Only one of the teams actually…

Sam Neill’s diary: Back in Blighty, remembering drinking binges of yore

3 May 2014 9:00 am

I am back in the UK for work. Great time to turn up — after the grim, grey grind of…

The Morrissey myth

26 October 2013 9:00 am

The sad end of the Morrissey myth