Let the people speak

We've been working with the BBC on a brilliant new TV feature to promote the People's Property Award. We wanted to add something to our own Insider Property Awards that engaged the public.

What we came up with is a series of programmes featuring modern architecture around the North West and inviting viewers of BBC North West Tonight to vote on their favourite modern building in the region.

You can vote for your favourite and view any of the programmes here.

Where's the "service" in NHS?

I had the misfortune to waste this morning in Stepping Hill Hospital with Joe and his small fracture on his left arm. We had a good laugh last Saturday when he was looked at, x-rayed, put in a cast and sent away in quick order. Everyone was lovely. But this morning we returned for a check up and the morning was dreadful. We arrived really early for his 10.30 appointment, but they were running late. I asked how late and they said they didn't have to tell me until they were running half an hour late. So tell me anyway. No. Computer says no. By half past they could say it was now half an hour late.

By 11.00 they announced they were running an hour late. Which was too late for us, we both had things to do. The attitude of the staff was dreadful. Their body language suggested that they were the victims in all of this, not the people with broken bones. There was no apology, just a grimace and a weak attempt to blame the doctors. Joe didn't get seen, we'll have to try again next week and book out an entire day just in case.

Just not good enough.

So farewell then, Tony Blair

Those in the Labour Party baying for Tony Blair to quit over the last year will have seen what a statesman he was today with an honest account of a decade as prime minister, and a stark message about Iraq.

He leaves office with his head held high - not following a shock resignation or a palace coup. But I think he leaves with a heavy heart because he knows he wasn't able to really tackle those parts of the welfare state that needed even harder reform than just chucking money at the staff.

If he has a particular failing it is that he was sometimes too tolerant of weak and incompetant government departments. DEFRA and the DTI are a joke. The Home Office and the Civil Justice departments have swung from crisis to crisis. Don't get me started on the NHS. He has also allowed Gordon Brown too much power to increase the tax burden.

We have had a real leader for the last 10 years that has made the country stronger and more confident. It is also more tolerant. I think the country would have been even more successful had he really been able to govern as he wanted to, not within the limits of an ideologically shackled party and a nanny state machinery.

We'll all miss him when he's gone.

Look out for red five

I've never had the slightest interest in motor racing. The whole circus around Formula One has always passed me by. I don't think I even know anyone who has been to Silverstone for a F1 race, let alone where me and Matt found ourselves yesterday, watching a FIA GT race day at Silverstone.

It was very very noisy and very very exciting. Matt really enjoyed himself. Truth is, I did too. As we were hanging out with the Porsche racing team we were in a great box at the finish line and saw plenty of action. Jonny Lang, an up and coming young blade on the racing scene, took us around the car in the paddock and explained how it all works. Great experience. As you can see, Matt got to sit in the seat of Jonny's car.




We were lucky, great location, great bunch of people to be with from Aston Ventures in Manchester, but I still don't see the appeal of sitting on a grandstand at a far flung corner of the circuit. Like golf, it's one of those sporting events that TV actually enhances the experience.


Still, I think I better get used to it, I think Matt's hooked.

Look into my eyes, look into my eyes

We went to see Derren Brown on Thursday at the Lowry Centre in Salford Quays. I was mesmerised. I didn't really know what to expect having never watched his show on TV but he was a great showman.

The mind reading sessions were the highlight. Working out what people were thinking. Some of it was spooky - I hope Sean with the three knee operations doesn't have to change his locks - but people were shaking. How he does it, I don't know. There has to be an element of luck and sleight of hand, but it's great entertainment.

Watched his TV show last night as well. Amazing.

Kevin Roberts is blogging

I've added a link to the blog of Kevin Roberts, here. He went to the same school as me (many years earlier, I hasten to add) and has done incredibly well for himself as the chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide. He is also the best speaker I've ever booked for an event. Link to some thoughts on that is here.

He is an incredible bundle of ideas and energy. He's not short on confidence. But I find his enthusiasm infectious and his hybrid Lancaster/New York/New Zealand accent fascinating.

He also likes Monocle magazine. But while I enjoy reading about business trips to Seoul and Santiago, he lives it. Link to Monocle is here.

Ten thoughts on great speeches

The Guardian is currently running a series of great speeches of the 20th century. They haven't finished yet, but I've thought of ten that I think HAVE to be on any list, regardless of the century. I can't read the words of Churchill without a lump in my throat. My Grandfathers both gave their lives to the fight against Hitler. One in the RAF, who died in 1943, and the other as a Commando in Norway, Burma and North Africa who lived for another 40 years with the memories, the horrors but also the dignity of service as a Commando.

- the Sermon on the mount, as set out in Matthew 5 "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."

- Winston Churchill, May 1940 - “blood toil sweat and tears.”

- Winston Churchill, June 1940 - “We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."

- Winston Churchill, June 1940 - Later that month he once again reminded the country of the magnitude of the threat: “But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."

- Winston Churchill, August 1940 - In August following the defeat of the German Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain his tribute to the Royal Air Force was: “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.”

- John F Kennedy – January 1961 - "In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility -- I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it -- and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country."

- Martin Luther King, 1964 - "I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

- Nelson Mandela, 1964 - Facing charges of sabotage, high treason and conspiracy to overthrow the government he spoke powerfully (and at great length) from the dock. This is how it ends. "During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

Ronald Reagan – tear down this wall, Berlin 1987. President Ronald Raegan has been widely derided as an actor at the helm of an aggressive conservative administration and a cold war warrior intent to imperil the world with nuclear Armageddon. I've had the privilege of seeing him speak at a convention in Las Vegas in 1991 and he was a great orator. I think history will he kind to Reagan. His nerve never faltered and his strong messages to the reforming Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev hastened the demise of communism. He said in Berlin in 1987: “If you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
The speech ended: “As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner: 'This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality.' Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom. "

Col Tim Collins, Iraq, 2003 - "We go to liberate not to conquer. We will not fly our flags in their country. We are entering Iraq to free a people and the only flag which will be flown in that ancient land is their own. Show respect for them. There are some who are alive at this moment who will not be alive shortly. Those who do not wish to go on that journey, we will not send. As for the others I expect you to rock their world. Wipe them out if that is what they choose. But if you are ferocious in battle remember to be magnanimous in victory."
The fact our troops are still in Iraq and are hated by so many Iraqis is such a sad betrayal of an honourable and laudible ideal.

We'll support you evermore

There's a lot of talk around at the moment about who you should "support" in Europe when English clubs reach finals. I don't care. I'll be pleased if Liverpool win, just as I was pleased at their incredible fightback in 2005. I was impressed when Manchester United won in 1999 with the dramatic late goals, but I didn't leap off the sofa.

But equally, as those games unfolded I wasn't crestfallen that the game was being won by a foreign team. I won't be gutted if Liverpool lose in anything like the way it took me a week to get over Rovers losing to Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final, or lost the ability to speak for three hours when Liverpool equalised in the last minute in a cup tie in 1990.

I feel the same about England now as well. I want them to win, I just don't care that much if they don't. This thought came to me in Nuremberg during the World Cup as I watched England's underperforming galacticos stumble around against Trinidad and Tobago. I couldn't find it in me to utter "c'mon Becksy", "nice one Ashley Cole", or to sing some ditty about Peter Crouch. I'm glad I went to the World Cup, but would probably have enjoyed a spectacle like Australia v Brazil more than the general feeling of being slightly embarrassed in the company of the "no surrender" and "10 German bombers" brigade.

I'll say this as well, I'm slightly relieved that Manchester United won't be playing Liverpool in Athens in the final. It would have been horrible.



Here's a sympathetic picture to capture the sombre mood of the day.

Book review in a lift - Opus Dei by John Allen

As a recently confirmed Catholic I wanted to have a delve into this most controversial part of the Church. As a well respected journalist covering Vatican matters John Allen's book is a well written account. It scotches a number of myths and confirms a few truths. Is the Da Vinci Code (which I haven't read) correct? No, it's wrong. Do they wear a cilice? Yes. Do they whip? Yes. Until they bleed? No. Is Opus Dei a sinister and powerful force? No. In Britain? Ruth Kelly is one of 500 members of a heavily indebted organisation, out of 5 million Catholics in the UK. Did Josemaria Escriva, the father of the Work, support Franco? Well, yes, but so did the Catholic Church, they were scared of communism. It's a fair and balanced account that ultimately paints a far less exciting picture of Opus Dei than the conspiracy theories about them. As a result the book tails off a bit.

Overall: 7/10.

Contagious

Irish joke of the year 2006

A teacher asks her class to use the word "contagious". Roland the teacher's pet, gets up and says, "Last year I got the measles and my mum said it was contagious.""Well done, Roland," says the teacher."
Can anyone else try?" Katie, a sweet little girl with pigtails, says,"My grandma says there's a bug going round, and it's contagious."
"Well done, Katie," says the teacher. "Anyone else?"
Little Irish Sean jumps up and says in a broad Dublin accent, "Our next door neighbour is painting his house with a 2 inch brush, and my dad says it will take the contagious."

Hat tip: Brian Curran (b-i-l)

Charge of the light brigade

Plotting a route into Manchester from Marple sometimes feels a bit like organising the charge of the light brigade. You have to weigh up the path of least resistance, taking into account all likely obstacles. This is made all the more harder depending on which children need to be dropped off at which nursery, school, carer etc. It also depends hugely on which day it is and whether either of us needs to be in Manchester city centre, on a train, at Manchester Airport, at Rachel's place of work, in Cardiff, London, Birmingham or Dublin.

We were warned that Marple has one road in and one road out. Which is factually untrue. There are two and they're both horrific from 7.45 onwards. Tuesday is the busiest day of the week by far, then it gets gradually easier.

I'm about to make this even harder for myself and give my car back to the leasing company in two weeks time, without another car arranged. I'm going to see how long I last before sorting out a short term hire until my new one is delivered sometime in the summer. Which means relying on the train to get to work. I don't reckon I can do it, but I'm going to try.

I have been getting the train this week and it's been a mixed bag. Trains from Marple are reliable but crowded. Trains from Rose Hill are empty but slow and unpredictable. You can hedge both these options and park at Romiley, but the station car park is now being used by contractors, reducing the free places to about ten. It then costs £1.50.

Ten years on

It is ten years since I last cared about the outcome of an election. Any election. May the 1st 1997 was a great night. There was a great sense of optimism that the exhausted Conservative government was being swept away by a fresh broom.

It is also just over 15 years ago since I was genuinely disappointed over the outcome of an election. I was gutted that Labour lost the 1992 general election. The next day a colleague - Vince Stevenson, an anarchist - said that in my lifetime Labour would win an election, Blackburn Rovers would get promoted and that none of this really mattered.

He's right, and the main difference now is that being a high profile journalist means it's no longer practical to support a political party in the way that I support a football team.

I vote in every election, I think it is my duty to do so. Even when the stakes aren't anywhere near as high as they are in some places in the world today. When I see the lines and lines of people waiting to vote in Iraq and South Africa then I am reminded of that important obligation.

I'll be voting Labour in the Marple South election for Stockport council. On the face of it the Liberal Democrats do a decent job of running the council. The local councillors, all Liberals, seem to be the only ones making any kind of effort to ask people what they think or keep the voters informed. And they don't seem to be suggesting that we're going to have to have fortnightly rubbish collections.

Ten thoughts on...celebrity Rovers fans

We don't have many celebrity fans at Blackburn Rovers. We're not that sort of club, to be honest. We can't claim a celebrity fan base that includes James Nesbit and Curly Watts. I've thought about this because I'm told that one of the contestants in the new series of BBC TV's The Apprentice is a Rovers fan. The link to him is here. But this is a stab at a list for a bit of Friday fun.

Jim Bowen, presenter of Bullseye.

Steve Pinder, actor, used to be Max Fanham in Brookside.

Neil Arthur, former singer from 80s band Blancmange.

We sometimes claim Carl Fogarty, though he's really a Man Yoo supporter, but he pops up at Ewood rather a lot.

Wayne Hemingway, fashion designer, who occasionally appears on Soccer AM.

Jack Straw.

Jack Straw's son, Will.

And then there's only one Simon Garner. Who's famous for being a Rovers player. But he's a fan now.

We're really struggling now. Arthur Wainwright, the fell walking book bloke was a fan, but he's dead. As is Jack Rosenthal, a writer, and husband of Maureen Lipman. She must still hold a torch in north London for the mighty blues.

So to make up the numbers there's that Apprentice bloke. Adam Hosker.

Hard work that. But then, rather that lot than Alastair Campbell.

Go for gold

We were partners in a business conference today called Elevation held at New Century Hall in Manchester. One of the speakers was Sir Matthew Pinsent, the 4 times Olympic gold medal winning rower. What a great motivator and a speaker. The sheer physical regime he went through in order to win was enough to make your eyes water. He recounted how at the Athens Olympics in 2004 the unfancied British team came from nowhere to pip the Canadians at the very last 4 inches. As he looked over at his rivals he met the gaze of one of the Canadian team who he now knows well. At that exact moment they both thought exactly the same thing: "bloody hell he looks knackered, we're going to win".

His tips for successful teams:

1. Set goals
2. Excellent communications
3. division of responsibility
4. trust in team mates
5. hunger for success

Tinseltown in the Tower

At the Manchester International Festival event on Tuesday I committed one of those social faux pas you can only dream of. As I politely thanked festival director Alex Poots for the event I casually mentioned I was particularly looking forward to the rare chance to see The Blue Nile at the Bridgewater Hall. Knowing an artsy Glasweigan like him probably had an inside connection I'd already thought to say A Walk Across the Rooftops is still their best album. "Not Hats, then," replied Alex. "Nah, didn't quite reach the heights," I said. Replied Alex: "I played on that."

For the record, Hats is superb. And I've always been a huge fan of Craig Armstrong's piano version Hats track Let's Go Out Tonight on his first collection The Space Between Us. But no, Blue Nile's finest hour is the soaring string arrangement of Tinseltown in the Rain as Paul Buchanan stretches his vocal range.

On top of the world

You could not meet a nicer bloke than Ian Wolfendale. He can see everyone else's point of view. He shows kindness beyond words, bravery beyond sanity and is the epitome of reason.

The only exception to this is the Hilton Tower in Manchester. You know, the massive one. Made of glass. He hated the building with a passion. Loathed it, detested this blot on the landscape. It was crass. Didn't fit in. Like a bloody big triffid hanging over Deansgate and creeping over the skyline in the unlikeliest places.

We were involved in a party for the Manchester International Festival last night in architect Ian Simpson's apartment at the very top of the tower. I asked Wolfie to come along into the head of the enemy mothership.

He's happy to say he's flipped his view. "It's something we've all embraced as a symbol of the modern city and something we're actually very proud of," he says. The hillwalkers of Wolfie's circle now use it as a point of reference from the top of Kinder Scout.

The view from the tower was spectacular, but I didn't feel twice as high up as the punters in Cloud 23, some 23 floors below. But you could peer into Coronation Street, see our office, the hills beyond and in one sweep you could see Old Trafford and the snaking line of rear lights heading to the match and the City of Manchester stadium to the east. It was amazing to be there. Ian's apartment, under construction, was also something to behold. It'll be great when it's finished. Manchester, that is.

Running man

My colleague Jim Pendrill, aka Running Man, ran the London marathon in under 3 hours. He came in at 2hrs 54min (and 32 seconds!) and was 551st in the race overall. If you tap his name into the marathon website you can also see his 10k split times.

Quite a few of us promised to double our pledge if Jim came in under 3 hours so his effort pounding along the scorching Embankment in 70 degree heat is going to cost us! A rough estimate is that Jim will have made £2,000.

This was such a joy for the family of Luke Carthy, the boy who Jim's wife Julie has been looking after and who sparked Jim's interest in a trial to seek a cure for the deadly and hereditary disease that little Luke is suffering from.

If you want to give to the charity, The Myelin Trust, you can find out more here.

Cool running, JP.

The Literal Democrat

David Thame, one of the finest business writers around, has set up his own website. It's full of the wicked wit we have come to love so much. His Real Deals column in Insider is always a real treat. Sadly we don't have it on our website.

He offers marketing people some tips on dealing with him. And a few ground rules.

A flavour of it is here:

Congratulations. Oh please, please spare me quotes like this: Norman Halfwit, director at Idiot Developments, said: “I’m delighted to welcome Sh!t Marketing as our fourth tenant.” Suzy Blonde, director at Sh!t, said: “We’re so happy to bring our expanding business to an Idiot Developments scheme.” Not only is Sh!t a silly brand name I won’t use - but the quotes add nothing. The day the developer says: “This is a tawdry little scheme and we’re very surprised to see some one daft enough to pay our exorbitant rent” and the tenant says “Our overdraft is staggering and I have these terrible headaches all the time, so we thought what the hell,” is the day I start to use quotes like these….. If it’s just a little story then a little unpretentious (brief) press release will do nicely, thanks. Don’t fabricate daft self-congratulatory quotes.

A link to David's site is here.

Manchester goes to New York

I forgot to post the link reporting on the visit to New York by the Manchester International Festival people which was covered in the New Yorker magazine.

There's a link to it here.

And a flavour of it here:

To promote the gravitas of a city best known for one of its soccer squads, for the Madchester pop-music scene of yore, and for its tendency to be drenched in slow, steady rain, Poots had imported a team of seasoned professionals. “Manchester is the first city of the modern age,” Nick Johnson, the chairman of a company called Marketing Manchester, said. “It’s where Marx met Engels; it’s where Rolls met Royce. The industrial revolution started in Manchester. Manchester was the first city to invent the computer. I’ll have to get back to you on who that was, exactly.” (Arguably, the first computer was built in Philadelphia, though the first electronic stored-program computer can definitively be said to be a Mancunian invention. Marx made Engels’s acquaintance in Paris; however, the two did frequently convene in the North of England.)

It's not a particularly flattering piece, but the writer spots the fact that Manchester does run a genuine risk of believing its own hype a lot of the time. The festival should be good. I'm particularly looking forward to seeing Blue Nile in concert and seeing Anthony Wilson back to his best in a mass debate on whether London is bad for Britain.

Happy birthday Matt

Matt is celebrating his 5th birthday this week. He absolutely loves racing cars so I'm taking him to Silverstone in a couple of weeks to meet the Porsche racing team. He's had loads of presents from Cars, his favourite film, including a model of Radiator Springs which was a bugger to assemble with a hangover, some Cars pyjamas from Grandma, this brilliant helmet from his Aunty Joanne and Uncle Dave and more goodies from Grandad Stewart and Nana Hazel. The rest of the team have been great about all this attention lavished on one boy. Wonderful kids, we're so proud and so lucky.

"Going out", it's the new "staying in"

I did four nights out last week and strangely feel alright. I must be fitter and happier than I feared. They weren't just swift drinks after work, but full blown formal dinners with drinks at 7, carriages at midnight and in three cases they were black tie as well.

1. CBI dinner in Manchester on Tuesday was OK, met some good people, listened to a dreary speaker, got a good story lined up, but it felt like work.

2. Our property awards in Cardiff on Thursday was a triumph. We pulled a great crowd together and there was a great energy in the room. Our editor down there, Wyn Jenkins, is a top bloke with a good following in the business community. We found Wyn because my deputy editor Lisa Miles used to work with him and rates him - which is praise indeed! I wanted to put an ad in Press Gazette that said - "Patriotic Welsh bloke needed, must have an accent like Neil Kinnock, be mad on rugby and have ruddy cheeks. Ability to spell would be an advantage. " I got better than that, he's all of this and more. It was brilliant to watch him work on Thursday.

3. The Marple Athletic JFC fundraiser at Mellor Golf Club was a ripping night. Looks like the money raised should really help the club. One thing though. Jason Isaacs might be able to coach kids football teams with distinction, he may be able to make the kids idolise him. Fair enough. And yes, he can probably play football a bit himself. Obviously he can also play the guitar in his absolutely superb band, A Few Good Men. And he sings lead vocals. And yes, he's a good looking bloke. I just don't need to hear it from every other woman in Marple. Seriously, great night out!

4. All of that didn't leave much in the tank for the Hurstwood Charity Night at the Midland Hotel in Manchester on Saturday. But we soldiered on. Our friends Stephen and Nicola Ashworth have dug deep to support Derian House, a childen's hospice in Lancashire. The money they raised on Saturday was astounding. We were delighted to play our part by offering a special Insider prize for auction.

It was clear to us as we watched from our taxi on Saturday that we socialise in something of a rarified atmosphere. What we witnessed on the streets of Manchester made us grateful we don't have daughters, but we were also horrified at the spectacle of the human zoo all around us. Then, I get to see this, an account on the Manchester Confidential website about the aftermath of a fight outside one of Manchester's so-called upmarket bars.

And so, on it goes. It's another hectic one this week, but we are definitely chilling out this weekend with a takeaway, a nice bottle of wine and a DVD. Staying in will be the new going out for us and that's how we like it.

Top night out

We had an absolutely belting night out last night, the third of the week. It was a fund raising dinner dance for Marple Athletic JFC with a superb band - A Few Good Men who played a cracking set. Seems like we also raised a few quid for the club, but some of us are paying a heavy price today; there will be a few sore heads on the touchline at Brinnington this morning. Ouch.

This blog had an advert in the programme. If you've visited for the first time having seen it, then a very warm welcome to you.

And if you have raffle prizes to donate, please get in touch.

Marple Athletic win the league - foreigner whines

Don't you love a whiney foreign prima donna.

"The teams from the north of England are terrible. When we play them I have counted their centre-backs booting up to 30 long balls upfield per game. The weather over here is killing me. We'll get one day of sunshine for every 30 days of rain, and it is driving me to despair. My girlfriend and my mother are frightened about not seeing the sun in England. Premiership football is very hard. I am Brazilian and I enjoy playing the ball, making clever touches and taking bicycle kicks. Arsene Wenger does not forbid me from doing them, but the game is so fast I don't even have time to think about them. The moment you stop to think, someone has taken the ball off you and knocked you to the ground. Over here they value a corner kick more than a fancy flick" - Julio 'The Bleat' Baptista of Arsenal.

What a tit.

I can say with some pride that Marple Athletic Junior Football Club Under 8s have won the A and B divisions by some distance. Why? Because they are fitter, stronger, better organised and happier than other teams. They play through rain, mud, sleet and sunshine. The northern way. Love it.

Land of my father

I'm in Cardiff today. I do like Wales; my Dad was born in Wrexham and although I'm a proud Lancastrian I do always feel a touch of pride for Wales.

It's a bugger of a journey down here though. Even when you get to train stations with no vowels in the name you're still more than an hour from Cardiff.

We're off to the Wales Property Awards tonight which is a great do for us.

Borredar!

There is power in a union?

Long before I became a capitalist and had to do people's appraisals I've been dismayed about the infantile ultra leftism of the National Union of Journalists. I resigned over their stance on Northern Ireland and now I notice they are now advocating a boycott of Israel. Please.

One journalist has pointed out already that such resolutions seem to go against some of the core ethics of journalism that we are here to protect, such as balance and objectivity. I don't think any representative body of journalists should be taking a side.

See here and here for more of the same.

It also seems to clash with point 3 of the NUJ's code of conduct:

A journalist shall strive to ensure that the information he/she disseminates is fair and accurate, avoid the expression of comment and conjecture as established fact and falsification by distortion, selection or misrepresentation.

And in the midst of this terribly complex and often dangerous conflict I don't believe that it's the Israelis that have kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston.

Hat tip: Norm

The Magic of the Cup (spoiled)

Still disappointed about the football at the weekend, but will probably save a very small fortune from not now going to Wembley. There were no discounted tickets for our tribe for the semi. Hence we didn't go as a family. I was going to post some splenetic rant about the price of tickets for the semi-final, but this from an email called The Fiver says it all.

The FA, no doubt pleasantly surprised by the ease with which they've been able to persuade the public that delivering a new national stadium ridiculously late and even more ridiculously over-budget is fine so long as you keep stressing the fact that it has 2,618 toilets, has now decided to recover their entire £353m overspend from MU Rowdies and Chelsea fans in a single afternoon. Today it confirmed that the cheapest tickets for this year's final will be an eye-watering 40% higher than their equivalent last year, with seats going for £35, £60, £80 and £95 (with a limited and as yet unspecified number of £17.50 seats on offer to Under-16s).
"It was important to set ticket prices at a sensible and affordable level for the first FA Cup final at the Late Wembley," honked permanently bewildered FA big cheese Brian Barwick, suggesting fans can look forward to even greater price increases next year when the novelty has worn off. "We believe these are very competitive prices for what will be an historic match," he continued, pointing at the list of admission fees charged by the Rowdies, Chelsea and anything on London's West End with the names Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton attached. If fans had any sense or dignity they'd vote en masse with their feet and stay away, but there's little chance of that. To paraphrase a ginger Welshman who was famously never prime minister (no, not John Hartson): loyalty is a fine quality, but in excess it fills inaccessible football stadiums and FA coffers.

In happy contrast the Rovers season ticket packs include some very generous discounts. I hope they manage to attract people back.

Gutted

Gutted. There is no other word for it. We took Chelsea all the way and still lost. We deserved to win today. Bah. Still, the flag made it onto TV. And Rachel backed first and third yesterday.

Sport mad

Although this is the first year in four I've not been to the Grand National, it's a fantastic sporting weekend. Last night's fairy tale at Edgely Park saw Sale Sharks' Jason Robinson score a try with seconds remaining of his last ever game. Ever the gent he thanked Bath for a gripping game before taking the applause of the 10,000 crowd. What a night.

Good match report here.

I've been looking for the picture from today's Guardian which shows him skipping towards the line with the Insider Magazine hoarding in full view. I'll buy it from Action Images in due course and get it framed for the office.

Rachel always does well at the National and we've backed our usual crop of no hopers and outside favourites, picking Irish trained horses and ones that aren't owned by Trevor Hemmings.

Tomorrow it's the semi final at Old Trafford. it was too dear to take the family so it's a lads do this time. Ten of us are meeting for lunch in Manchester, then heading to the swamp and then probably returning to town with our tails between our legs. 30 years following Rovers has taught me to prepare for disappointment. If McCarthy and Tugay can turn it on we can do it.

Ten thoughts on...cooking

Although I really appreciate good food, it’s usually when someone else has cooked it. Having spent so long away from home over the past week and anticipating a lot more time away in the next two – rubber chicken at business dinners, hospitality at rugby and football (I know, a hard life) you can’t beat home cooking. When it’s our home that means me. Here are my ten favourite things to make. If you ever fancy coming over, let me know your ideas for wine to go with them. Olive magazine is a great inspiration for this kind of thing as it’s aimed at simpletons like me with no time for preparation.

Fish pie
A winter and a summer variant to this, but the trick is to flake the fish and pile in a fist full of prawns, parsley and peas, don’t overdo the pepper.

Thai Chicken curry
A nation that has learned to love curry of the Indian or Pakistani variety hasn’t ever mastered making it at home, if you ask me. Thai is easier, especially as the core paste (red or green) can be bought in a jar – cheating a bit, but the coconut milk, extra red hot chillis, the crunchy vegetables and the gently cooked chicken make it one to experiment with.

Spaghetti Bolognese
The first thing many blokes cook, because it’s so simple and straightforward. Onion, garlic, mince, tin of tomatoes and a sprinkling of herbs. That’s the basic bit, but using Oxo cubes and puree to beef up the beef gives it a thicker flavour. You can use this as the base for lasagne and chilli too. I like red peppers in there for flavour and density.

Sunday roast
Taking over the kitchen for an afternoon and sticking onions and lemons into chickens, sprinkling with herbs from the garden and getting the roast spuds just right. Best veggies in our house are frozen peas, corn on the cob and carrots in marmalade.

Chicken soup
The leftovers of the Sunday lunch can be used to make a great stock when you bung in an onion and some herbs. Warm it up again, bung in a load of noodles and some peas and corn and it’s a Chinese type one. Wack in a jar of crème freche and it’s the Jewish equivalent.

Cheese on toast
Spread the cheese on thick and improve it with Worcestershire sauce or HP. I know it’s not really a recipe but when you can’t beat it for taking the edge off munchies after a long walk.

Full English breakfast
This is actually really hard to do when you most want to do it – ie first thing on Sunday morning when you’re really sleepy. Cumberland sausages are the best, thick smoked bacon and chunky mushrooms. I like white bread dipped in whipped eggs but a guilty pleasure is fried slice soaking up the sausages and bacon fat. A spoonful each of baked beans tops the lot off.

Lancashire hot pot
Chunks of lamb (some on the bone), carrots, and the right blend of thyme and rosemary topped off with thinly cut proper potatoes make this a tricky one to get just right, but as it’s the North’s representative in a new series of the Great British Menu. Serve with red cabbage, but don’t make it, get it out of a jar.

Paella
You can overdo paella, but the sheer size of it is brilliant for a feast. Something for everyone, keep it cooking in a massive pan. The mussels are a risk as the rubbery buggers give kids the squits. But chorizo sausages, chunky prawns and chunks of chicken and pepper give it lots of variety.

Cake
An American of my acquaintance once bragged that her cheesecake was simply the best. How do you make it, I asked. “Well, you open the packet…”. Truth is I’ve never really cracked cakes yet. But there’s this ace recipe for the Victoria sandwich in Olive this month.

The tragedy of Mark Langford

They'll probably never find the loot that Mark Langford and his wife Debbie trousered from their stewardship of The Accident Group - slogan, "where there's blame, there's a claim". We reckon he put about £9m into an Employee Benefit Trust, then transferred that offshore. Talk of £50m is fanciful.

The obituary in the Daily Telegraph is here.

A typically nasty and graphic account in the Daily Mail is here.

Previous posts on the subject of The Accident Group are here.

Was it suicide? Was it stress? Was it justice? Whatever his state of mind when he died it can't have been a happy one. He was separated from his wife. He had become a pantomime villain. Pilloried and pursued across Europe as the man who not only ran a distasteful business, but ran it dishonestly too. Served with a petition from the Revenue and Customs at his daughter's birthday party, his tragic end serves as a sad and pitiful warning to those who's greed and ambition consume them utterly.

On the two occasions that I met him I was struck by his painful craving for respectability. The back story was that he'd threatened to sue us for saying he'd killed Bill Thornley, a war veteran, while driving his Ferrari. He had top libel lawyers Carter Ruck and Partners send us threatening letters. We didn't back down and the row went away. It was true, by the way. He had killed the bloke, but technically he had been cleared of causing death by dangerous driving. Semantics. Mr Thornley was dead.

A year and a day later, he then called me in for a chat. He had employed Clive Entwistle, a former Cook Report investigative journalist as his PR man. Clive claimed this was an extension of his work unmasking bad guys. Langford wanted to show that he was helping people, that he had offered a service to people who had nowhere else to turn after legal aid was withdrawn for personal injury claims. He was also branching out into personal finance and would be sponsoring Manchester City FC through his First Advice brand. The truth was he was still mainly selling after-the-event insurance to accident victims, and taking a cut of the loans to fund them and gambling on a percentage of cases being settled by the insurers.

But Langford also had made an enormous pledge to support the NSPCC. At a glittering ball at Knowsley Hall President Bill Clinton praised him for his efforts. As well as providing the glittering lifestyle for his family - the mansion near Congleton and the fleet of cars, he also craved admission into the respectable class of Cheshire business. Hence the NSPCC stuff. Hence he was talking to Insider.

The business was doing quite well, his accounts showed enormous profit growth, but there was a time bomb under it. Insurers were contesting more cases. To compensate for this more cases were taken on, profits were then booked on probable case wins, rather than cash coming in.

At the end of one meeting I went through his accounts and asked about all the offshore entities which owned his businesses and asked about the employee benefit trusts. He got quite twitchy at that point and stopped answering the questions.

When the next accounts were published it showed just how much he and his wife were paying each other in salary and dividends. We decided to clear a stack of pages and the cover in the June issue and go to town on TAG. Sue Craven did some research for us and red flags shot up; this was a business not paying its bills. Everyone went quiet at TAG as well. Calls weren't returned and the cosy co-operation had dried up. In late May 2003 it went bust. He fled to Marbella and was engaged in a tetchy and evasive battle with the administrators to get the money he had taken from a business that had falsely declared large profits. He was disqualified as a director, chased by the Inland Revenue and Customs and occasionally turned up in the press for the crime of living in Marbella. Always on hand to provide a quote is someone called Alec McFadden, from something called the TUC (not that one).

Infamously, when the business went bust 2500 staff were told in a text they weren't being paid. That communication stunt was in fact organised by the administrators PWC, yet it will be forever the epitaph for Mark Campion Langford.

How do you cope?

We've been away. Center Parcs, Legoland and London. And before you assume we went to that Center Parcs at Longleat, which is quite near to Legoland at Windsor, we didn't. We went to that one at Penrith. We had to get there via Burnley and Settle because of the M6 on Good Friday. Then we drove to our Travelodge (one room, mind) in Reading on Easter Monday after a full day of fun in the forest. We've carbon offset it all however by urinating in the outdoors a lot, apparently it's good for the plants.

If I had £60,000 for every time this week that someone has said to us: "Five! Boys! How do you cope?" I wouldn't have to worry about our enormous and overwhelming mortgage. The truth is, we don't always cope. We sat up until 1am talking about them and what a wonderful life we have with them last night. Conclusion? We're getting better at it, but it's bloody exhausting.

All five of the little darlings will scream and rage and tantrum at some point. But there is usually a limit to it and it's usually for a reason. It took us a while to work that one out, but the reason is either hunger or tiredness. They need to eat, or they need to rest. Thankfully, they very rarely all kick off at once and they tend not to fight with each other too much. Well, sometimes, but it's soon resolved.

The other cause of angst is they need to go to the toilet at the most inconvenient time. Like when we've just navigated through a crowded train with standing room only (where we stood from Reading to Paddington next to a toilet), through Paddington station, the tube station and it's two flights of stairs, up, then down again. On the platform two of them announce a minute before we're about to get on a tube to Westminster: "I'm really bursting for a wee." It's fine at Center Parcs, you just whip it out and have a wizz behind a tree. Don't you? Oh. We piled off at Gloucester Road where the nearest toilet is one of those pod things.

So, here are some lessons learned this week to make up for the lack of ten thoughts last week.

• Make them piss regularly. Stand over them and demand they try harder if it doesn't work first time. It usually does.
• They make their own fun. The more contrived the higher the expectation. The highlight of London for Matt was going on an underground train. Louis loved seeing Reading's stadium as we drove past it. The elder trio played football in St James' Park and Matt and Elliot made a maze in the daffodils. Never mind Buckingham Palace and all that.
• Give them adventures. A three bedroomed house at Center Parcs with the hated Jetix was much more stressful than all of us in one room at Travelodge.
• Musicals on CD are actually alright. They love Mary Poppins and Joseph.
• If there's a fight, let them resolve it between them. Unless skin is broken, or blood shed. Don't be an audience.
• Be prepared to queue at theme parks. Or just don't go. We lined up for an hour to mess about with a JCB for five poxy minutes. My Dad could have sorted an afternoon doing that with his mate Bobcat Pete.
• They don't remember the shit bits. They are grateful, they don't show it all the time, but they are absorbing the love and the experience.
• We don't remember how surly and ungrateful we were as kids. My Dad came up to Center Parcs for the day and just chuckled at our gasps of exasperation. Been there, done that, son.
• At a restaurant, organise two tables. One for us two and a table for the five kids. They get on with it then and we can relax a bit.
• They make a lot of noise, but isn't it sad to see families that don't talk to each other. We blank out other people now. You have to. Sounds selfish, but we can't apologise for overbreeding and most of all they are very happy.

Discrimination report

I have a strange attitude to the Guardian newspaper. It's the best put together paper in this country. The wholesome humanitarian outlook is much more of my neck of the woods than anything else. The weekend paper is full of different ideas and always finds something new and fresh to say. News is balanced and well composed. It has more must-read columnists than any other paper: David Conn, Michael Walker, Marina Hyde, Matthew Fort, Jon Ronson, Catherine Bennett and David Hepworth. I even respect Polly Toynbee but I don't like her style or her politics.

BUT. As the voice of smug media London there is nothing worse than the Guardian in full flight. Take this. A feature on the top black and ethnic minority people in Britain's media. PR people, record producers, someone who runs a civil liberties group (media???), radio presenters, you get the drift.

What about a managing director of a media company with a turnover of over £50m that has changed the direction of his industry, moved its core brand into on-line and television? You'd think he'd be a shoo in.

Ah, but that's David Benjamin, the MD of the Manchester Evening News. He's the right colour, but he doesn't get in the Groucho Club very often. He just works in some far off outpost called the North of England.

Under April Skies

I didn't know which news stories to believe yesterday and certainly wasn't bowled over by the sheer hilarity of the April Fool's jokes. BMW did an advert about a new gadget - this has never been funny, but they persist with it nevertheless. The Observer had a piece about Tony Blair going into acting when he leaves Downing Street, here's the link.

We watched Louis Theroux's programme about a preacher in Kansas called Fred Phelps from Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka and his family have become The Most Hated Family in America. They picket funerals of servicemen and women to proclaim it is a good thing. They wave offensive banners about homosexuality. Their website is God Hates Fags, and no, I won't be providing a link to it. This just had to be an April Fool. Surely? But no, here's what Wikipedia has to say about Phelps, here. We've been discussing it at work and we haven't made up our mind. If it is a spoof, it's a good one.

Fly the Flag

For a variety of reasons we haven't ventured to Old Trafford today - though we will be there in two weeks time for the semi-final against Chelsea.

Also there will be this blog's flag, which was delivered during the week. Parading it in the garden is Joseph, with aching limbs from a nail biting 2-1 win over Stockport Vikings.

John Givens 1963-2007

It's been a sad couple of weeks since I learned of the death of John Givens, a former editor of Yorkshire Business Insider magazine.

John, who before coming to Insider had worked for the Yorkshire Post, had gone on to work at Citywire and more recently at the press office of the Nationwide Building Society in Swindon.

A lifelong Sunderland AFC supporter, he will be missed by many in the media and professional sector in Yorkshire, not least for the football tours he regularly used to organise.

I wasn't that close to "Givo" but we kept in touch. If he ever thought of something that might help someone else he was always kind enough to pass it on. His service was an emotional occasion, well attended by lots of mates and sadly, the children who are now without their father. His family have asked people to donate to Sight Savers, John’s favourite charity, in his memory.

A gush of PR people

Nigel Hughes posts at Ear I Am about what certain PR people of this parish think. I still haven't worked out whether it's a spoof or not, or a joke at my expense.

The journalist most respected by Jo Leah is Michael Taylor.

I was therefore minded of this.

Ten thoughts on....the best parties in the world

My old friend Stuart McGavin always used to say - "we're not here for a long time, but we are here for a good time." It was a full-of-life, very Australian attitude that he embraced right up until he was knocked down and killed in Melbourne after a rugby international in 1997. I miss Stu a lot, he was a proper bloke with a nailed on view of everything. Honest, loyal and kind.

One of our drunken ideas for the future used to be a TV programme on the ten best parties on the world. He went to more of them than I ever did...

The running of the bulls in Pampalona (July)
Never has being chased by crazed animals been so much fun

Hogmany, New year's Eve, Edinburgh
The best way to see in the new year, even when it's chucking it down

Glastonbury (June, but not always annual)
The mud and music

Mardi Gras in Sydney (February/March)
Best party in Australia and a tribute to Aussie machismo

Oktoberfest, Munich (September/October)
Swilling lager and oompah singing

St Patrick's Day in Dublin (March)
A close call, with New York and Boston throwing decent parades, but the original is the best

Beer can regatta, Darwin, Australia (July)
Tins of bear and mad boats in the harbour

Full Moon Party, Haad Rin, Koh Phangan, Thailand (every month)
Druggies on the beach going mental

Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (February/March)
The party city lets its hair down even more than usual

Trinidad Carnival (February/March)
A two day festival of rum and drums. The biggest in the Carribean

Oh my Lord

So Blackpool gets to fight another day. The BBC reports, here, on the close vote in the House of Lords which has failed to rubber stamp the decision of the Casino Advisory Panel to locate a new supercasino in Manchester.

Blackpool got it badly wrong by not bidding for any of the other casinos. Manchester put together a good bid, the panel just made the "wrong" decision. Our prediction: they'll give everybody one, that'll keep them quiet. What a fiasco.

Support your local team

An unashamed sales pitch now for one of the great successes in our local community over recent years: the growth of Marple Athletic Junior Football Club.

With teams starting from Under 7s up to Under 16s the club is gaining a reputation throughout the North West as one of the best run and most successful set ups in junior football. Some age groups even have two teams, A and B, with most if not all currently topping their current leagues and set to perform well in tournaments through the summer months.

The club is run by a mixture of public spirited volunteers and enthusiastic parents but there is also a great opportunity for local businesses to become involved in order for the teams to have kit, trophies and half time oranges!

The club works closely with another successful business in Marple, Footy4kidz, which runs sports courses for children in the area with F.A.Qualified coaches who comply with all safety and statutory police checks, trained in First Aid and with a caring and supportive environment.

The advantages to local businesses include:
- Community involvement in a positive and successful sporting club

- Advertising your business through a popular sports club

- PR opportunities through sponsorship of the club

- Advertising on the club's soon to be revamped website

- Promotion of the business through parents and players bulletins

- Networking opportunities with parents and other club sponsors

There are a range of sponsorship opportunities in each age group. The season tarriff is also follows

Kit sponsor £500

Jacket sponsor £250

Trophy sponsor £100

The club is a great success and we would be proud to support local businesses who support the club.

Manchester, London of the North

By 'eck, I get comments on my blog from all sorts now.

Someone called called "anonymous" was just plain abusive (how brave) and someone called "Armley" (a pseudonym), bizarrely, also got personal. Whatever. He/she took issue with the comment I reported from my presentation to a forum of marketing and PR people from the professional services sector that Manchester is becoming a "London of the North".

Armley spent a good 500 words dissecting a short remark about Manchester's relationship with other cities in the North. Like this, with a reference to what the BBC staff think about Manchester:

"You may have bought into the Manchester regionalist propaganda machine's line that Manchester is a northern Shangri La, a booming cosmpolitan city of international importance that outclasses everywhere in England besides London. They don't; they still think it's a grim, crime-filled milltown shithole."

Who says I have "bought into" that hype? A common theme of this blog is that Manchester is not living up to the story in the glossy brochure. But to not also see the success that is around us is just stupid. Temper that instead with what you hear, as I do, when you go to Carnforth, Blackpool, Burnley and Barrow and hear what people think about the fact that Manchester has won the casino bid, or the Commonwealth Games, or the BBC relocation, or is launching the Manchester Festival, and you hear the resentment in their voices. It's not unjustified either. Blackpool is well hacked off with Manchester. They think Manchester is taking everything. They think Manchester is sucking investment and glory from them and from the rest of the North. It's "the big smoke" with all its airs, graces and pretentions.

Mention Manchester during MIPIM, the international property exhibition, in the company of people from Bradford, Birmingham, Leeds, even Liverpool, and they grind their teeth in frustration.

Then, in the context of professional services, look at how the professional service firms, the private equity houses and the banks have shifted their Northern regional offices to Manchester and closed down in Leeds. Listen to how Leeds complains about the lack of a concert arena and a much smaller Harvey Nichols. It's not me talking, it's the truth.

No, Manchester is NOT London in the sense that London is a massive international capital city of a major economy. Or the sense that London is culturally, economically, politically, physically at the centre of this nation's decision making.

For those reasons - and many more - London is not held in great affection by the rest of the UK. To most people in the UK it's actually a dangerous, expensive and crowded mess that has too much power over the rest of the country. And that same type of resentment is beginning to be directed towards Manchester. That's all.

Ten thoughts on.... PRs and press

I did a meet the editors event last night at the plush HQ of PR company MC2. I was alongside a top chap called Tony McDonough from the Liverpool Daily Post. These were 10 of the questions we were asked and my attempts to answer them.

1 Liverpool and Manchester have a history of being in stiff competition, do you think this is still the case now or is it getting better?
It's getting much better. Liverpool and Manchester peacefully co-exist. I'm always amazed at how very different they are. I think Manchester is becoming the London of the North, however. Investement is therefore being sucked out of Blackpool, Lancashire and Leeds towards this incredible success story.

2 We work for a number of small clients and always put them forward for features. We’ve noticed that although our comments are submitted in plenty of time and are of excellent quality, they usually get bumped out of the feature in favour for the bigger competitors. Can you explain why this happens and also, how to avoid it in the future?
We don't bump out small companies because they're small, but small companies can be cautious.

3 What sort of stories do you get really excited about?
Frauds, overnights successes, political intrigue, hostile takeovers.

4 What makes a good interviewee?
Someone who is prepared to say the unothodox, or the different.

5 Have you ever considered turning to the ‘dark side’ and becoming a PR?
No. But I do PR for Insider all the time.

6 What are your pet hates?
I don't hate anything, I'm a Christian. But London PRs asking if we cover Middlesbrough in North West Business Insider are a little bit irritating.

7 Will the BBC move to Manchester be great news for the media in the region?
I hope so, but I fear not. They are not moving any centres of commissioing power and only one network - Radio 5 - which is the most regionally friendly of them all. I think financial services is a much more important economic success for Manchester.

8 What is the one thing that a PR can do to immediately grab your attention?
Say they've got an exclusive story with unique access just for us.

9 What are the things they do that immediately put you off using their clients?
I never blank a PR company, but you detect trends. Missed opportunities frustrate. We constantly seek stories from successful businesses - metal bashers from Bacup - who only seem to want to talk about what they did on Red Nose Day.

10 Who is the most interesting person you have ever interviewed and why?
In the last year the most interesting people I interviewed were Terry Matthews and Brian Kennedy. They just don't seem to want to stop, and I wanted to find out why.

Dead man's corner

Commuters are facing a dance with death at the blind spot in the tram tracks as you approach Piccadilly station from Canal Street or the courts. This picture here shows a tram having narrowly missed a punter who didn't see the tram coming. Trouble is, you have to stand on the tracks to look around the corner in both directions if you're heading from Piccadilly station. Even when City Inn has been built I can't see the pathway being any safer.

Was lost, but now am found

As well as having a lovely Mother's Day with my Mom and with Rachel, this has been a great weekend. I was confirmed today. I took holy communion at Holy Spirit Church in Marple for the first time. It's been a meandering journey, but I think I belong. All the boys are being brought up Catholic and I thought it was about time to make good my core Christian beliefs and to make complete my own path to peace.

I've been helped along the way by Rachel, a cradle Catholic, and by Stuart Adlington, our Deacon and my sponsor Trevor Martin, a fellow Marple Athletic touchline Dad. I've also been helped enormously over the years by two very wonderful people in the parish; Margery and Peter Mount, who are not only incredible Grandparents to two of my sons, but have been amazingly supportive friends.

The last hymn today was Amazing Grace, one of my favourites.

Where the one-eyed man is king

I bought a magazine last week called Monocle. The breadth of features were incredible, on Chile's economy, German wine, an Afghan radio station, cashmere jumpers, Japan's navy. The Economist in Prada, I suppose.

Is this true, or an urban myth?

A bloke came up to me in Albert Square a few months ago with a long winded story about an argument with his wife, lost his phone, she drove off with his wallet. He needed some money to get to Chester. Get on a train I told him, and tell that to the ticket collector, he'll issue you with a ticket, take your name and you can pay later. He was begging. Just like the bloke with the petrol can that runs around Manchester with his daft story. Ingenious, but he's begging. You either give, or you don't. Personally, I don't.

Then there's this story doing the rounds on email that has also been reported on the BBC's site.

The 32-year-old victim was walking on King Street at about 1800 GMT on Friday when she was approached by a woman. She gave her some change but the offender then grabbed her arm and scratched it with an unknown implement.

The story is harrowing and the implications that there are seemingly civilised, well-dressed muggers with sedatives and syringes is horrific. Two people I know claim they know the woman concerned. Yet I'm still inclined to think it's another urban myth.

Ten thoughts...read them all

This list thing is getting quite hard now. I'm not going to be doing European airports, pretentious magazines or international trade exhibitions. But one of the delights of international travel is the chance to read. Here are ten fiction authors I've read everything by.

Martin Amis - always surprises.

Guy Bellamy - hugely underrated and under valued comic novelist

Julie Burchill - read one you've read them both. Good laugh and a bit smutty.

Mark Timlin - south London private eye who got progressively darker with each book, very influenced by...

James Crumley - Amercian private eye who gets darker still.

John Grisham - because it's easy.

Bret Easton Ellis - Lunar Park is terrific, and I've nearlly finished.

Donna Tartt - Secret History was better than that other one she wrote. Is she Ellis in disguise?

James Hawes - films have been awful, but his books are good fun.

George Orwell - all his stories, like his journalism, are top drawer.

Book review in a lift - Tom Bower's book about Conrad Black

Tom Bower, the master assassin of the rich and famous turns his pen on the former owner of the Daily Telegraph and his wife. Conrad Black, who comes across as self-important and pompous, is on trial for ripping off his shareholders in order to fund a lavish lifestyle. He craved power and influence and a seat in the House of Lords. His five-times married wife, Barbara Amiel craved status and wealth beyond their means. She doesn't sound like a very nice person at all. He just comes across as deluded. Either way Bower doesn't cut either of them much slack. They're suing him now.

The Russians

Reflecting on the international property event I've just been to, MIPIM, the most striking presence was from Russian cities promoting themselves as a destination. There were places I never knew existed, claiming to be Russia's third city. It could almost get as tetchy as the spat to be England's number two.

There, we saw Manchester flag waving with a banner draped over the main exhibition entrance and a large space at the very front. Birmingham fought back with a hamster. Indeed, it's surprising which cities roll out which celebs. Apparently the Brummies had a banging event with Richard Hammond from Top Gear. Bradford were tempting property investors with the chance of a chat to Linda Barker. Liverpool had a Beatles cover band wandering about and Taguey even had a chat to Sir Terry Leahy yesterday afternoon.

Poolside despatches

From technological muppet to a fully paid-up member of the Monacle generation. I'm tapping away at the poolside of the Martinez Hotel in Cannes after flying down last night from Manchester via Munich. I've sorted out wireless and everything.

The only problem is I can't think of anything to say (never stopped me before, I know).

We're hosting a couple of events today. One on investment opportunities in the UK regions, the other on New Towns (like Telford). Wish me luck. Au revoir.

Blue Doom

My football predictions are rubbish, always have been, probably always will be. With one exception that will always be true: Manchester City will never be more than a season away from a crisis.

If you reflect back 7 years to the first time this decade that Manchester City visited Ewood you enter a dark part of my soul and one of the lowest in my life as a Blackburn Rovers supporter. We lost 4-1 in a gutless second half collapse, chaotic ticketing meant our ground was overrun by boozy ecstatic Mancs and the pitch was invaded by them. All that our manager could do was rant as we finished the campaign rooted in mid-table. To make matters worse, Burnley were on the rise again. Everything about our club seemed rotten.

There is no way I could have predicted then any of what has since followed: promotion by an exciting footballing side, three European campaigns, Corrado Grabbi, the Worthington Cup, learning to love Andy Cole, two top six finishes, Tugay, Graeme Souness leaving a club in a better state than what he inherited, another top manager, a team of bully boys, Robbie Savage, Benni McCarthy and a second FA Cup semi-final in three years.

I wasn't reared on thrills and spills but mind numbing mid-table mediocrity, occasional play-off defeats. And Simon Garner.

Even the most optimistic City fans that day knew they were heading back down again in a short space of time. Crisis is in the DNA of the club. Even the windfall of a new stadium paid for by the council and Sport England and the greatest boom in football history has been left in tatters by Kevin Keegan's spending spree. The last two years have been marked by dreary drift. But as David Conn reported in his Wednesday column in the Guardian, something else has gone from City, a part of the soul of the club has gone too.

Once a byword for English fans' bloody-minded loyalty, Manchester City now embody the paradox at the heart of a booming game. While the Premier League's £2.7bn TV deal and exploding interest around the world thrill US investors, at home, in the blue moon heartlands, resentment at the game's direction is turning lifelong supporters away.

The rest is here.

On Sunday the travelling support gave a glimpse of the pride and the passion of the club and its perennially frustrated potential. But without sounding like I'm gloating there was only ever one team going to win. The moment that summed up City's season came ten minutes before the end. Tugay, starved of his enforcer - Aaron Mokeona - won the ball in the centre circle then had time to roll the ball around before he chose which one of three thirty-yard passes to make.

Living in Marple and working in Manchester means I come across a load of City fans who are good friends. After yesterday I genuinely fear the worst. City look like a doomed team while Charlton have hit form. I hope I'm wrong about this, and right about my other prediction that Rovers will lift the FA Cup at the new Wembley having swept past...Middlesbrough.

This sporting life

We've got a problem at Marple Athletic Junior Football Club. We could have worse problems, to be honest, but it's one created by having a successful set up. As most the teams (under 10s, 9s, 8s and 7s) are at the top, or thereabouts, this has caught the eye of scouts. One of the teams is faced with a situation where six of the kids are likely to be recruited by either Stockport County, Oldham Athletic, United or City. This is 7-a-side football by the way and once a kid is signed on for a professional set up they're not permitted to play for their old club with all their old pals.

At a meeting on Thursday night the wonderful people who give up their time to run the set up and the coaching sessions through Footy4Kids - Jason Isaacs, Shirley Booth and Charlie - spelt out the scale of the issues for parents: ferrying around, dealing with disappointment, not playing as many matches, missing friends and the odds of this leading to a football career are still absolutely tiny. On the other hand it's an opportunity to learn skills from a professional set up.

This is going to run and run and I don't quite know what we are being asked to make a collective decision about, or whether we were just being informed of the bigger picture. Meanwhile, my personal interest in the club, Joe and the Under 8s B team, won 6-0 on Saturday and are still unbeaten with just a few games to go.

Ten thoughts on...profound thoughts

Ten Friday thoughts today concern just that. Thoughts.

Many of them I've picked up this week at the wonderful Tom Peters and Charles Handy conference. Some are older than that.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” —Charles Darwin

"Given that we only have one life we can neither compare it to our previous lives, nor perfect it in our lives to come." - Milan Kundera

“One woman can make you fly like an eagle. Another can give you the strength of a lion. But only one in a cycle of lives can fill you with gladness and the wisdom that you have known a singular joy." Deputy Hawk, Twin Peaks

“Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm.” —Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life. And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul?" - Matthew 16:25-26

"Imagine. What would you do if you knew you couldn't possibly fail?" Michael Finnigan

"The greatest dangerfor most of us is not that our aim is too highand we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." Michelangelo

"Ready. Fire! Aim. If it ain’t broke ... Break it! Hire crazies. Ask dumb questions. Pursue failure. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way! Spread confusion. Ditch your office. Read odd stuff. Avoid moderation!" Kevin Roberts' credo

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

"To thine own self be f***ing true, son" - Bernard Manning, quoting William f***ing Shakespeare

We are the quarry

When we were unruly teenagers we used to spend summers afternoons at Jackdaw quarry. It was great for diving in and swimming, though I suppose it was very dangrous. It's now a film location and has been used for Emmerdale and a recent TV drama.

A disused quarry near Carnforth – complete with submerged helicopter, boat and oil rig – was chosen as the Lancashire Film Office’s location of the month recently. Based at Jackdaw Quarry, in Over Kellet, near Carnforth, the Capernwray Dive Centre was chosen after Lancashire Film Officer Lynda Banister visited the 11-acre freshwater lake and was mesmerized by the crystal clear water and the beautiful rural setting.

An absence of logic

Most of the time, reporting on business is quite straightforward. A business makes a profit, creates jobs, does well. This a good story. If a business loses money, closes down, lays off staff, then it’s not so good. None of this suggests that running a business is easy, or dealing with customers, banks, suppliers or staff is straightforward. It isn’t. But when a decision goes against a company there’s usually a reason or an explanation; even applying for planning permission is transparent, if slow.
But there are two instances, currently at the forefront of all of our concerns, where business logic is trumped entirely. One is anything at all to do with the business of football, where the heart so often rules the head; the second is where the government, or one of its regulators, issues a licence for anything, be it a supercasino, or a licence to operate a radio franchise.
Dealing with the last one first, as we are defying common sense, the media regulator Ofcom has issued a licence to Guardian Media Group (GMG) to run a new FM radio licence in Manchester, RockTalk. That will be in addition to GMG’s ownership of Smooth FM, Century FM, the Manchester Evening News, several weekly newspapers, a fledgling TV station, sponsorship of the largest concert venue in the north and a national newspaper, The Guardian, which I won’t assume many of you are terribly familiar with.
Take my word for it, over the years several million acres of forest have been felled in order to fill pages of that paper with stories regarding the evil empire of Rupert Murdoch and the pernicious influence of the Daily Mail. Imagine, if you will, the howls of outrage that would be heard across Hampstead Heath and around the dinner tables of Highgate if Associated Newspapers, publisher of the London Evening Standard, were able to own such a similarly large slice of London’s media.
I have yet to hear Mr Angry of Hyde, Heywood or Hazel Grove on this subject, because there’s no-one stoking the fires of outrage and they probably don’t care. Yet what we have here in Manchester is a rapidly expanding media monopoly, offering advertisers and consumers little choice.
It is the other logic-defining sector that really has got them talking. Assuming the GMG isn’t also tabling a bid for Manchester City, the debt-ridden football club could soon follow two other bigger regional red teams into American ownership, and also see a big shiny casino opening up next door. Will that regenerate East Manchester? Maybe. Will hoards of people flock to this bright new leisure temple? No, they won’t. And perhaps, out of this other farcical bidding process, Blackpool can move on and forget this folly once and for all.
(Lead article, North West Business Insider, March 2007).

Transforming experience

To the Hilton Hotel, Manchester for a full day business conference starring two of the world's leading business gurus - Charles Handy and Tom Peters. The pair complement each other very well, but have never been on the same bill before.

It was a wonderful experience and I can heartily recommend it. Peters was like an adrenline shot. Much of what he said, by his own admission, is common sense. Sometimes you need that. His slides from the day are here. Best quote: If you bang your head against a brick wall and then walk away, you're a quitter. Do it ten times and you're an idiot.

Charles Handy was different. I've read his book The Empty Raincoat and probably forgotten most of it, but his delivery was quieter than Peters, but no less thoughtful. His gentle social philosophy was a wonder to share. Best quote: "Do your best at whatever you are best at."

PS Thanks to the Northwest Regional Development Agency for organising my place at the conference. Lunch with the bossman has been regarranged to next week.

Attack dogs

During a tidy up of the blog late last night I came upon a rant I'd not seen before buried in the recesses of a tale of a day trip to Crosby. It wasn't just the untended dogs of Crosby beach that soiled my boots, anonymous of Liverpool also wrote:

Or the one that a wearingly predictable anti-Liverpool Manchester bigot manages to "see" more crime and disorder in a single daytrip to Liverpool from his home in North West crime capital, Manchester than I have seen in years in the city? You visited Crosby for pity's sake - it's not the inner city. Nevertheless that someone who is the editor of his purported "North West region" is so ignorant and prejudiced about one of the two biggest cities in the "region" his magazine is meant to cover - it confirms yet again the insanity of Liverpool ever being reported by Manchester-based media operations.

Blah, blah, blah. The full unexpunged rant is at the end of this posting here.

I do rather tire of anonymous postings on blogs. Norman Geras has simply given up allowing people to post on his site, so weary did he become of uncivilised outpourings. I don't get as much abuse as Norman, but all I do is tell it like I see it. We had a crappy day made crappier by scallies. Our car was atacked. I got shite on my boots. The statues were awesome, the beach was full of rubbish. The pies were superb. Fact. Facts. Facts. Get over it. Two weeks later I came to a similar conclusion about scrotes in Manchester city centre.

The main point though is that what I say about one place on one day therefore has any bearing on what I think about the city in which I work, or an innate superiority that city has over Liverpool. Can I expect a rant from annoyed of Preston about my tale of woe following the accident on the M6, pointing out that we have traffic jams in Marple as well?

No, it appears that someone just doesn't like me very much. Doesn't like my magazine, doesn't like Manchester and can't get past the bitterness that seems to infect so many people in this country, whether they post anonymously, or not. I can live with that, whoever you are.

The river that changed the world

There's a marvellous book being produced by the lovely people at the Mersey Basin Campaign. It's called The Mersey: The River That Changed The World. There's a thread on the campaign's blog, here, which is getting giddy about how the book is coming together.

Why should I care? I've contributed a chapter on the docks. It's going to be extracted in the next issue of the campaign's excellent Source magazine. The river begins near Marple, where the Goyt meets the Etherow.

Some good news:

The statues of Another Place are a step closer to a permanent home on Crosby beach after council planners decided to overturn their own previous ruling. A new report from Sefton council comes out in clear support for granting planning permission for the installation by artist Antony Gormley.

You can read the full story, here.

You can read about our day out, Once More Unto the Beach, here.

Badder than you think - cable is rubbish

For the best part of three years I earned a poor living working in the cable TV industry. It was rubbish. It really was. First of all I worked in TV production for an appalling TV station called Wire TV. After I was sacked I got a job as international editor of a US based news magazine called Cable World, which was a quality publication for a mega industry in the US, but I was our man covering the sticks, frankly. At the time the streets of the UK were being dug up by gangs of men subcontracted by middle managers from American phone companies eager to know how they could sell cable AND phone services to the masses. This was before the Internet, by the way.

The trouble was, as still is, that there is a far superior way of getting more TV channels; it's called Sky TV. And in securing Premiership football and some half decent imports cable was completely dependent on Sky for supply of TV channels.

The corporate game of chess that I followed so keenly involved various combinations of cable operator merging, acquiring and borrowing in order to stem the huge debts they built up in the cause of killing trees, ripping up pavements and offering a mind bogglingly bad record of dealing with the public. After being a customer of United Artists Communications in Bristol (who gave me everything for free, forever), when I moved I then subscribed to Cable London (pants), then finally NTL (which managed to be even worse). I had a minor dispute over the notice I had to give them, which I was unable to win because they sent debt collectors after me which put a black mark on my credit file. I have pledged never to subscribe to cable ever again.

I am not alone, the shocking service culture and dreadful marketing makes you gasp. Even as I type this there is an invitation coming at me for an event to celebrate the coming together of NTL and Telewest and their deal with Virgin as "bigger than you think". Though that process has finally come to the inevitable conclusion that a large single brand with good customer service could compete with Sky and BT, the fact is they've botched that too. Cable subscribers have now lost some Sky channels due to a row over how much they pay their biggest competitor for supply of their core product.

Richard Branson is doing what he always does. He's muscled in on the cable industry for not much money. Used his brand as leverage and is now bellyaching over being bullied by the market leader because they won't roll over give him the privilege of doing business. Tom Bower, an author I'm enjoying reading on Conrad Black right now, has written about Branson before, he has also has a very telling piece here.

Cable is doomed in this country. It has been completely trumped by Sky, and now broadband. Sky has problems of its own - and we won't have that in the house either - but a threat from Beardie Cable is not one of them.

Tea at the Three Fishes

The first person who ever alerted me to the best pub in the world ever, The Three Fishes was my pal Alec Craig, who was trying to sort out lunch and beers before the hair raising trip to Burnley in February 2005. It's owned by fellow Rovers fans Craig Bancroft and Nigel Haworth, who also do the excellent corporate facilities at Ewood Park. That day we ended up going to the Fence Gate, and Alec still hasn't made it.

We had a family outing visiting family in East Lancs yesterday, topped off with tea at God's own pub. Once again it was a triumph. The best thing about it is the attitude to kids. Not only are they welcome, which to be fair, we are in most places these days, but the belief that kids can love proper food, not just sweet mush. There's a zeal about the place that isn't just a good place to be, but represents something positive and proud about Lancashire and about quality food. Also lunching with his family yesterday was Carl Fogarty.

Nigel wasn't on site yesterday, he was at the Reebok Stadium watching Rovers win 2-1, report here, with his mate Paul Heathcote, a fan of the losing side. I know this because just as we were sitting down to order, coincidentally, Alec phoned with a report on the game. Superb. And just the best place to toast such a sweet victory.

Food for thought

What's going on in Manchester restaurant land?

Establishment and Le Mont were ambitious if flawed attempts at fine dining. Both have now closed. I'll be honest, I could never get excited about either. The last time we went to Establishment was a lovely evening with great service and superb food. I've heard horror stories about the service and attitude at Le Mont, I thought the main flaw was a chilly atmosphere.

Lounge Ten is a huge favourite of Patrick Loftus, who I had lunch with yesterday (at the distinctly average Olive Press). He likes Lounge Ten's character. I've not been for so long I can't remember. But it's despised in equal measure by Wolfie and Jason, two good pals of mine who know a thing or two about good manners and customer service.

Add to this the heavy atmosphere of moody intimidation in the so-called designer bars with gangsters, wannabee celebs and pseudo WAGs, read about that here. The crime is a worry - San Carlo got robbed last month. We're left with pretty poor scene, frankly. Plenty of upmarket average, as I've said before.

Manchester Confidential has a sparky debate about it, here, with an insightful - if slightly pompous - intervention by "Ray", who is almost certainly Ray King the former columnist from the Manchester Evening News.

I think there may be an opening in one of the new hotels that are planned, and the River Room at the Lowry Hotel has the potential, especially now they have wisely erased the name Marco Pierre White from the menu. He came here once, what a prat. Anyway, I'm off to the Lowry on Thursday for a catch up with Steve Broomhead. I'll let you know.

Ten thoughts on crappy days

Like I said I've had better weeks. I fell over at Manchester Airport on Tuesday and my elbow still hurts. Not only that but I didn't end up going to where I was hoping to due to airline incompetence. I did a talk to a very unresponsive audience later that evening, had all sorts of things cancelled during the week, missed the Rovers match on Wednesday, including this goal, here, got stuck in traffic yesterday, missed a meeting in Liverpool, then the rest with that comedian chap, see below.

You have to laugh. You really do. And I know I will look back on this and laugh. It could be worse, I could be a Virgin Cable subscriber who filled his car with Tesco petrol. Anyway ten shitey annoying things that have happened, over 15 years ago, that I can laugh about now.

* Got my first car vandalised by a National Front psycho in Lancaster city centre. Had to drive round with NF scratched on the roof of my Mini until I could afford to get it resprayed.
* First week of the second year at University, walked into a wall in my student house in Manchester cutting my head open. Still got the scar.
* Missed my Second year Sociology of Something Tedious exam because I got the day wrong.
* Got on a train to Leeds by mistake, instead of Lancaster, had to change at Miles Platting, took an hour to get back to Victoria
* Jibbed the train all the way to Blackburn, 1986, for a crucial relegation match V Grimsby, only to find it was off.
* Got the bus back - it took two hours. Missed the start of a big night out.
* Went to the rematch, ripped my jacket climbing over a fence at the end.
* Got shells stuck in the car engine on a beach in Western Australia, had to get help. Got rescued by a family of racist Londoners "still bad with the blacks back home?" "Can you let us out here next to this arid desert please, we'd rather walk."
* When working at EMAP 1990 ish - had a few quiet beers after football, followed by several noisy ones - fell asleep on the last tube to Clapham, woke up in Morden. Left kit, filofax, keys, money, everything, on the tube. Got a taxi - had to wake up flat mates to pay. Awful.
* Due to an appalling mishap in the EMAP admin department had no hotel in Las Vegas during NAB convention week, had to stay in Econo Inn at the arse end of the Strip. Rooms by the hour or the week.

One of those nights

I can't believe I've failed to blog all week. I guess it's been one of those weeks. We held our Merseyside Property Gala Dinner event last night at St George's Hall in Liverpool. Dougal Paver has reviewed it from the perspective of a paying punter.

To St. George’s Hall for the fabulous insider property gala dinner. Star turn was Warren Bradley, leader of Liverpool City Council and self-styled ‘business champion’. Before him lay an open goal: 520 leading property types with a combined borrowing capacity running in to the billions. And he didn’t miss.

You can read the rest here.

As the event host and compere, my own personal recollection will be forever tainted by the memory of introducing the final part of the night, the comedian Jason Manford (pictured). As the crowd politely applauded in anticipation I looked in horror at the place next to the stage where Jason had been stood five minutes before. He wasn't there. I had to fill for what seemed like hours - though it was more like a minute. I froze. The horror, the horror. Jason did appear, he'd been to the toilet, and thankfully he was very good. He even told a few gags I'd never heard before (joke).