On July 14, Councillor Mary Di Mauro sparked controversy in a City Council meeting by challenging Council Leader Richard Leese over comments he made after being arrested and cautioned for assaulting his teenage step-daughter. The incident enraged Labour councillors who demanded that Cllr Di Mauro apologise to “every victim of domestic abuse in the city” for exploiting the cause for political purposes. MULE spoke to Cllr Di Mauro exclusively to hear her side of the story… Read more
Britain’s Child Soldiers
Sixteen-year-olds are too young to drive a car, buy a drink in the pub, or place a bet in Britain. They are too young to have civil contracts enforced against them. They cannot vote. Yet they are old enough to join the army where, in the event of hostilities, they may become a legitimate [...]
Art Review: Contemporary Art Iraq
The decline of traditional culture, the position of women and perceptions of Iraqis in the wider world are amongst the themes cross-cutting the Contemporary Art Iraq exhibition, at Cornerhouse until 20 June. Sarah Irving reports.
Surveillance + detention = £Billions: How Labour’s friends are ‘securing your world’
At the bustling Counter Terror Expo in London’s Olympia this week they are giving top billing to the security industry’s favourite politician. “The most experienced cabinet minister of modern times”, they call him: Dr John Reid.
Inside United Utilities
United Utilities is the North West’s only FTSE 100 company, servicing seven million customers in the region and employing around 8,500 staff – 500 having been shed this year so far. It has 20 subsidiaries and is today the sixth largest water company in the world. Corporations rarely get to that position without ruthless business [...]
United Utilities’ record: not exactly watertight
United Utilities CEO Philip Green has pledged to continue the company’s “strong focus on operational performance and cost efficiency” as the financial year comes to an end – a year in which 500 jobs have been ‘lost’ in the past few months. While analysts predict profits approaching £500 million, MULE repubishes this article from the [...]
Welfare Reform: who will it affect?
As part of MULE’s feature on the Welfare Reform Bill, set to be trialled in Greater Manchester towards the end of 2010, Hazel Kent looks at who’s likely to be hit hardest by the Government’s latest welfare-cutting masterplan.
Asylum Seeking Playwright released from detention
MULE has been following the story of community campaigner and playwright Lydia Besong since December, when she was taken into detention just days after her debut play premiered at The Zion Centre in Hulme. Lydia arrived in the UK in 2006 with her husband, political campaigner Bernard Batey, after fleeing persecution in Cameroon, to claim [...]
Kick-starting Manchester’s regeneration game (again)
Public money is streaming into private property developers but despite the bail out companies are not required to build extra affordable housing. Andy Lockhart investigates the Northwest companies receiving funds, missing deadlines and continuing to sell at a premium.
Corporate power at its best: job losses and rising profits at United Utilities
In early November, Warrington based water giant United Utilities (UU) announced it was significantly restructuring its business. One staff member at the time said they were expecting the loss of 200-250 jobs. CEO Philip Green said a reassessment was necessary in anticipation of the five yearly price review by the industry regulator Ofwat, which came [...]
North West Development Agency celebrates 10 years
You might have noticed the name North West Development Agency appearing all over MULE recently – it’s under pretty much every public-private stone you overturn. It puts a lot of money into regeneration, and is part of the New East Manchester Ltd partnership. It’s been funding the National Football Museum, it’s given money to United [...]
Dispatches from Copenhagen IV: Good Cop/Bad Cop
In our final dispatch from the protests that took place on streets of Copenhagen last December, John Sandiford gives his account of the tactics employed by the Danish Politi (police force).
Dispatches from Copenhagen III: Gearing Up for New Politics
In another of our Copenhagen protest articles, Tom Jeffery recounts his experience of the practical side of radical politics: from the barricades to bicycle workshops…
Dispatches from Copenhagen II: Being a Protest Medic
The MULE continues its coverage of December’s Copenhagen Climate Change Summit (COP-15) with a dispatch from Manchester’s Sarah McCulloch, who acted as Medic for the Climate Camp group.
Dispatches from Copenhagen I: Manchester Climate Action
It may seem like a long time ago now, but the Copenhagen climate talks held in December last year continue to cast a shadow over the future of the planet. Monumental in their failure to achieve anything resembling the kind of agreements needed to tackle climate change, the talks showed how the current global political [...]
Conservatives 2.0
With the Tories still setting the political agenda in the run up to the election, Alex Nunns examines what a Cameron government might actually have in store for us.
Still working for a Nuclear Free City?
The University of Manchester’s Dalton Institute is to receive over £8 million of investment from the Government to support the civil nuclear industry, in a deal announced this week by Business Secretary Lord Mandelson as part of the government’s plans to create a low carbon economic area in the Northwest. Yet the development will [...]
Manchester Academies
Manchester’s education system is going through a dramatic period of change. Two new controversial academy schools opened in September with at least two more to follow in 2010. However, the recent track record of academy schools suggests that Manchester’s education revolution may not be all it’s cracked up to be.
Who's Afraid of the Swine Flu?
Media hype has infected many with swine flu fatigue. But the current pandemic poses a very real danger to human health, one which raises serious questions about the modern industrial farms that ‘fast track’ the evolution of viruses dangerous to people.
The EDL: The BNP’s Useful Idiots? (Part 2)
The second part of Ragnor Ironpants look into the links between the English Defence League (EDL) and the BNP…