When the other Miliband came to town

Article published: Thursday, December 17th 2009

Last week Ed Miliband came to Manchester for a chat. The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change dropped in for a discussion about the stakes of climate change and the government’s plans before jetting off to Copenhagen for this week’s highly-anticipated UN Conference. MULE was in attendance, and not that surprised to be […]

Party Business in Manchester

Article published: Friday, December 4th 2009

On Tuesday 1 December members of Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce got another chance to schmooze the government-in-waiting. Shadow Minister for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, John Penrose, was in the city to discuss the Conservative Party’s plans to “cut red tape”. A match made in heaven. But are the Tories business-friendly enough?

Would a council really serious on tackling climate change make this decision?

Article published: Wednesday, December 2nd 2009

On Thursday 19 November the Manchester City Council Planning Department approved the demolition of 200 year old cottages along with neighbouring environmental and historical oasis Hasty Lane in order to make way for additional extra airport hangers which will double Manchester Airport’s freight capacity.

It’s Xmas – Welcome to Manchester Plc

Article published: Friday, November 20th 2009

Businesses in the centre of Manchester must wish it could be Christmas every day. Or to be more precise, that the Christmas shopping period came more frequently. They got an early present of their own this week, when the Council proudly announced it will be providing city-centre shops with a free marketing campaign worth £600,000.

The EDL: The BNP’s Useful Idiots? (Part 2)

Article published: Wednesday, November 18th 2009

The second part of Ragnor Ironpants look into the links between the English Defence League (EDL) and the BNP…

The EDL: The BNP’s Useful Idiots? (Part 1)

Article published: Wednesday, November 11th 2009

With the EDL meeting up the road in Leeds a week back, Ragnor Ironpants digs below the surface to find what’s really behind this new phenomenon.

The EDL and Mainstream Society

Article published: Wednesday, November 4th 2009

With the EDL marching on our streets and the BNP on Question Time, it would be easy to dismiss this resurgence in extreme-right feeling as the product of a minority group on the fringes of our comfortably democratic, free-thinking, liberal society. But if we really want to “Smash the BNP” or the EDL, as the […]