Dandy Highwayman

Went for a magnificent birthday lunch yesterday at the Highwayman, at the top end of the Lune Valley. I've waxed lyrical before about the Three Fishes, Lancashire's finest pub in the heart of the Ribble Valley. Well, it looks like Nigel Haworth and Craig Bancroft and their backers - the Walker family - have done it again. A truly great spread of food and drink. Between us we had chicken, fish, steak, pate, soup, salads, melon, bread, sausages and cheese. Not a duff dish in sight. The staff were friendly, the service was quick - which is more important than you think with five boys. The crayons and colouring sheets with puzzles kept the boys amused too.

Thanks Dad, a great birthday. Put a shine on the otherwise depressing onset of middle age.

Go and see for yourself. Link is here.

Spin City

I don't like the way in which the "debate" about road charging for Manchester city centre is going. I think Manchester City Council are taking the public for fools. Their propaganda is based on a supposed consultation, but is just a flimsy exercise in packaging something as a done deal, as if it were bidding for the Commonwealth Games of something. This latest twist today, kind of shows how poor the case is being made. The four examples used in the leaflet Terry from Rochdale, etc, are actually models from the USA.

I'm not surprised, but how hard would it have been to find four real people?

Strangely, there is a case to be made for road charging. Neil Tague went to a debate this morning where Sir Howard Bernstein, the chief executive of Manchester city council, presented a very well put together plan which people supported. I've also heard SHB and the council leader Sir Richard Leese make a cogent argument.

A link to the made up "testimonials" is here

A full link to the story on the BBC website is here.

Born on the seventh of July

The 7th of July has always been a special day in the year for me, as it's my sister's birthday. She had the honour of being born in 1970, so was 7 on 7/7/77. The local paper did a splash on it.

Now, sadly, it's day that will be remembered for when a bunch of nutters blew up themselves, and 50 or more other people, in London. Pause to think about the victims today and all of those who are caught up in this horrific conflict between Islamism and the modern world.

And also take a look at this website, here, dedicated to John Smeaton, the bloke from Glasgow airport who had a pop at the would be bombers. Picked on the wrong airport, didn't they?

Cameron comes to Liverpool

To Liverpool for the CBI dinner as a guest of Andrew Budenburg of Barclays Bank. The main attraction was David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party. I spoke to a lot of people afterwards and asked them what they thought.

This, therefore covers this blog’s ten thoughts for Friday.

• Cameron was on the stage for an hour. He’s a very good performer, not quite in the Blair class. But he spoke, then took questions, and didn’t duck the difficult issues.
• He is right about the skill of charity workers, the voluntary sector and business to tackle social problems more effectively than the state. This could well be his big defining idea. “Gordon Brown’s answer to problems is a top down solution. My answer to problems is to ask what business, the voluntary sector can do." I'm sure Dougal Paver will have something to say about this later.
• He had good examples of business initiatives by big retailers on carbon neutral practice and good examples of how businesses like Tomorrow’s People can get people into work and help them stay in work.
• He is also determined to abolish regional assemblies (hooray!) and give more decision making and finance raising powers to local authorities which should be led by a powerful city mayor. This is what he calls “a transfer of trust”. He wants to encourage “a new generation of civic leader and city fathers”. My question: where are they coming from?
• He wants the Conservatives to be recognised as the party of business, but will not commit to tax cuts. In time, as the economy prospers, it is right that business should reap the rewards and not be taxed.
• Economic breakdown is not the problem that causes poverty and drug addiction and decay, but social breakdown. The broken society is the biggest challenge we face and that business can be the solution, it is not the problem.
• He made a strange policy pledge on the need to introduce incentives for marriage. I don’t quite know what to make of this one. Neither did anyone else I spoke to.
• Two different people him, and him, mentioned to me afterwards that Gordon Brown is messianic when you meet him and a more awesome and inspirational character. My thought is, you can’t convince everyone by meeting them one by one.
• A lot of people said he reminded them of Blair fifteen years ago. I know what they mean, the country is definitely ready for change. But if Gordon Brown positions himself as different from Blair and IS that change, then Cameron could be stuffed.
• Cameron has lots of intriguing ideas that sound good and make sense. Whether people trust the Conservatives is another thing entirely. Like Blair he is trapped in his own party. And like Blair it was his party’s unwillingness to go with him on the difficult decisions that held him back.
  
  

The Flashing Blade

I've just been reminded of one of the most magnificent kids TV series from the 60s and 70s called The Flashing Blade. The theme tune was played on the Chris Evans programme on Radio 2 on Monday and I can't get it out of my head.

It reminded me of watching TV at Andrew Blacktop's house on Saturday morning. This dubbed French epic drama had action aplenty and the Spanish were baddies.

Here are the titles from You Tube: Flashing Blade titles

Here's a link to some background on the programme, here.

Great lyrics too:

You've got to fight for what you want
For all that you believe
It's right to fight for what we want
To live the way we please
------------
As long as we have done our best
Then no one can do more
And life and love and happiness
Are well worth fighting for
------------
And we should never count the cost
Or worry that we'll fall
It's better to have fought and lost
Than not have fought at all
------------
Let's always take whatever comes
And never try to hide
Face everything and anyone
Together side by side

Some very big questions for Manchester

These are very important days for the future of Manchester.

There's a raging debate about road charging, which is not a debate at all. The local council chiefs say they want a discussion, but they slam anyone who raises sensible questions as naive, or prepostorous or unhelpful.

This comes on top of lots of hyperbole about the city being a world class urban centre. Martyn Markland from Atis Real did a superb presentation today on the subject.

Here's a flavour:

In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, Manchester needs to drastically improve itself and set ever more ambitious targets; otherwise it will simply lag behind. Worse still, if it doesn’t solve fundamental issues such as public transport, it could even hit reverse gear. Indeed, I would argue that as time goes by, the task of realising a long term vision becomes increasingly difficult as new resources are wasted on short term fixes.

A link to Martyn's blog with the full speech is here.

Meanwhile, I've written a lead column on the current stories in the Manchester Evening News about the poor quality debate around the transport proposals. The link to the MEN stuff is here.
This is what will be in Insider when it comes out next week:

When a ruthless property development company, Peel Holdings, run by a secretive tycoon from his offshore tax haven calls for the councils of Manchester to sell their interests in regional airports, the words of Mandy Rice-Davies, a prostitute, spring to mind: “Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?”

At long last there is an opportunity to have a mature debate about public transport and the public funding of it. But it is also the time for all of the parties in this debate to declare their interest. Otherwise the whole discussion will descend into farce. Manchester, and here is the irony, will end up sounding like Liverpool.

It is right that the subject that no one wants to talk about should be aired. It has become like the elephant in the living room, or the fact that the Emperor is not wearing any clothes. The North West has this unique critical asset - Manchester International Airport - that has given the region a crucial advantage. It is anachronistic that it remains in public hands, but its sale has just not ever been considered. When Insider raised the issue in 2006, we were told, quietly, that we were being “unhelpful”.

Equally, the property industry supporters of Manchester City Council have been forthright in their applause for the “courage” of the council in starting a debate. But what exactly are we supposed to be debating? That public transport needs improving? Well, yes, it does. That road charging at peak times will suppress demand, maybe it will. But that Manchester’s businesses will be more competitive because they are taxed in a way that other cities are not? I doubt it.

Other cities, like Birmingham and Leeds, may well be bidding for this transport fund. They could possibly be considering a road charging scheme. That is their choice. Manchester’s choice is different, and it is this: should the airport be sold to the private sector in order to fund transport projects; or should all attempts to sell the family silver be resisted because there are real benefits to owning such an asset. That is a debate. What we have been asked to consider so far, is not.

Manchester the uppity city

Thanks to Manchester Confidential for posting up pictures of the launch party at Spinningfields. I'm incredibly relieved I didn't go now.

Manchester Confidential Property - Smile you’re on camera

Welsh hilarity

Thanks to Baldrick from work for sending this from the Western Mail.

A cheeky Welshman thought he’d had the last laugh when he painted a London pub sign with the words: “All English are a**eholes!”
And for a while, it looked like he’d got away with penning ‘Twll din pob sais’ on the front of The Feathers in Westminster.

Full link is here. Hilarious, eh?

Time to close Kelly's Night Club

The Hawk Green Residents Association meeting this evening was a lively affair. Item 6 on the agenda was a discussion about disturbances most weekends caused by drunken scrotes spilling out of Kelly's Night Club in Goyt Mill. There were about 50 people present. A licensing officer gave some guidelines on how to apply for a review. A copper reported that there had only been 6 complaints. The mood in the room changed when people realised the system was hopeless. What followed was an overwhelming sense of anger that this situation had been allowed to continue for so long.

Also present at the meeting was the owner of Kelly's - Mr Terry Kelly. He was offered the opportunity to say: a) how many people he had refused service to, because they were drunk; b) how many underage kids he had turned away; and c) if he had anything to say to residents who had been caused so much trouble. He said he had only come to observe.

I've never been to this place. But I'm more convinced than ever that it should not be allowed a licence in a leafy suburb like this.

However, in the words of this bloke, "fair play to Kelly, he had a go."

Book review - Piers Morgan's Don't You Know Who I Am

Annoying ex-Mirror editor Piers Morgan is actually quite an entertaining author. His diary The Insider was a rip roaring tale of the Mirror years. This is what happened next. It includes an unbelievable amount of blatant name dropping as well as at least two things I didn't know about him. 1. He's going with Celia Walden of the Daily Telegraph, and 2) He's a star in America as a result of some dreadful talent show. I met him during the timeframe of the book and he signed an Insider magazine front cover that was, er, derived from his book. Strangely, he doesn't mention it.

A Historic Day - and an evening with Andrew Marr

You may ask yourself in years to come where you were on the day the country got a new Prime Minister. And who were you able to discuss it all with. Well, I was extremely privileged to be hosting an event at Cobbetts Solicitors where the guest speaker was BBC journalist Andrew Marr, presenter of the most wonderful TV series Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain. In time I'll even get to review the book he signed for me.

Regular readers of the Marple Leaf will know I am a Tony Blair fan, always have been, always will be. We will miss him when he's gone. He has left office with grace and gratitude. He will have been haunted by the pictures of Margaret Thatcher leaving in tears with the knives in her back. He has walked tall, and so he should, we will not see his like again.

If it were not for the hugely unpopular war in Iraq, Blair would be heralded as a great leader. But this was the issue that has laid bare the spin.

The measure of Blair's rule is that he sees the Middle East as unfinished business and wants to put right what he couldn't sort out as PM. Gordon Brown will be planning the withdrawl of troops right now.

Here are ten thoughts on today, from Andrew Marr.

* Ken Clarke is Andrew Marr's favourite politician, both he and Norman Lamont laid the foundations for the last ten years of stability.

* In 1994 Blair was ready to pack it in and go back to being a barrister, he thought Labour was a lost cause.

* Manchester is one of the success stories of the Blair years. The Labour conference opened the eyes of the world's media to a friendly city, in contrast to Blackpool.

* Gordon Brown is a charmless, dour and obsessive character who believes the world was a better place when it rained in Manchester, buildings were black with soot, and we all worked hard. He has a pessimisstic view of human nature that he shares with Paul Dacre, the editor of the Daily Mail.

* Brown would not have known how to react after Diana's death, or 9/11, or 7/7 in the way that Blair instinctively did.

* Sarah Brown will be much more in the background than Cherie Blair, who was always the most political one in the Blair household.

* Tony Blair will be feeling absolutely wretched tonight.

* David Cameron is very clever, but people don't know what to make of him yet.

* Gordon Brown will call an early election, but the Conservatives will win, the country is ready for change.

* Andrew Marr is a gentle hamster, he says, and definitely not a feral beast.

Liverpool v Manchester

The ongoing debate about Liverpool v Manchester takes an intellectual leap forward. Hat tip to my pal Boz for forwarding this link from the New Statesman, where Paul du Noyer makes a plea for Liverpool as the heart of Britain's cultural soul.

A flavour is here:

It is scruffy, careless, brazen and kind. This city has soul. It knows how to throw a party. For all that it's heavy, it is extravagantly welcoming to anyone without airs and graces. After all, it has been entertaining sailors for centuries. If you want a quiet life, then don't choose Liverpool. But if you're on board for the mind-scrambling adventures of an unknowable, violent, tragicomic, globalised 21st-century world, here is a city that knows no other state of being.

The full link is here.

This is a flavour of Dave Haslam's case for Manchester:

The similarities between Manchester and Liverpool are great, but they belie deep cultural differences. Both cities have a history of cultural endeavour, and both have been blessed with gifted local writers. Both suffered a postwar economic decline that appears to have been reversed recently. Both cities have underachieving football teams that play in blue, and red teams that are internationally known. But while Manchester United fans' favourite players include Eric Cantona and David Beckham (most definitely not local boys), in Liverpool the heroes are Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher; that they are proper Scousers is key to their status. Manchester is fluid, ever-evolving, whereas Liverpool is more like an enclave.

The full link is here.

As my pal Dougal Paver might say: cracking stuff.

Going forth

My oldest son Joe took part in a very special Going Forth Mass at Holy Spirit Church today. He took his first holy communion ages ago, he's since even taken communion in France. Anyway, his whole class did it in shifts, but today was about the whole class from St Mary's celebrating their joining of the Catholic faith together. Joe read a prayer beautifully and contributed to the homily. We were all there, as was his Grandad and Nana. But it was great to see all the kids together.

I'm quite new to the Catholic Church and have only experienced good things in my life as a result. I see the same positive things influencing the lives of my children too: a moral compass, a purpose, companionship, and a strong sense of justice. A state of grace. I owe a great part of that, as do many people round here to Deacon Stuart Adlington and Father Marianus Kullu who provide such warm and human guidance to the community.

At the risk of this turning into "kids say the funniest things", we were so touched when Jamie Oldfield, one of Joe's mates, stood up and said the high point of his first communion was that God and Jesus came into his heart. Lovely. But as his Dad, top chap Mark Oldfield, said to me after, "when we asked him he said the best bit was going for an Italian meal. My heart was in my mouth when he stood up and said he had something to say."

Ten thoughts on - a parallel universe – the ten most powerful North West exiles in the world

Each year we produce a list in Insider magazine of the 100 most powerful people in the North West. This year I've thought about the native North Westerners who have risen to the very top. I think this is a credible ten. No celebs, so no room for ex-Beatles, footy players, or even the son of my mate who I had a splendid lunch with today.

1. Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive, Tesco
Sir Terry Leahy is the ultimate Scouser done good, rising through the ranks of Tesco to be its chief executive since 1997. Stands up for business, which you expect he’d have to when his company is frequently cited as “too powerful” because it makes £2 billion. Retains strong connections to the North West through Liverpool Vision, the university of Manchester and Everton.

2. Lewis Booth, chairman, Ford Europe
A board director of Ford and another natural born Scouser. He started his career in trucks, moving to Germany, South Africa, then America, Japan, where he ran Mazda, pitching up in America. Also the chairman of Volvo.

3. Kevin Roberts, chief executive, Saatchi and Saatchi Worldwide
The board of Toyota require Kevin Roberts to sign off all their global advertising campaigns. He’s also close to the board of Proctor and Gamble. An authority on global brands and the author of world reknowned Lovemarks, he is one of the international media jet set and a leading thinker on modern life. A citizen of the world, he lived in Canada from 1987-89 while he was president and chief executive of Pepsi Cola, Canada then moved to Auckland, New Zealand, which he still calls home. Has recently bought a house in Grasmere to add to his pad in New York and a villa near St Tropez. Who would have thought that Kevin Roberts would have achieved any of this when he was expelled from Lancaster Royal Grammar School in the 1960s?

4. Michael Platt, co-founder and chief executive, BlueCrest Capital Management
One of the top hedge fund guys in the world, he was listed in the Sunday Times Rich List in the same spot as the Queen. A Lancashire lad, he was a currency trader and formed BlueCrest which boasts assets under management of £5.7bn.

5. Keith Harris, chairman, Seymour Pierce
Stockport lad Keith Harris is currently selling off English Premiership football clubs one by one. Financial entrepreneur, football fan, loyal adviser, outspoken pundit, devoted Manchester United shareholder, he had a rough ride of his time as chairman of the Football League but remains a heavyweight in the City of London.

6. Sir Howard Davies, director, London School of Econmics
Manchester Grammar School old boy has an impressive track record which have included chairman of the Financial Services Authority, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, Director General of the Confederation of British Industry, and Controller of the Audit Commission. He was also a non-executive director of engineering company GKN between 1989-1995.

7. Nigel Morris, founder, Capital One
Another Lancaster Royal Grammar School old boy, Nigel Morris co-founded Capital One before retiring in 2004. He lived in Wshington, but now has hoem in London where he is active in politics and business again. He lent the Labour Party £1,000,000, is a governor of the London Business School, and a director of The Economist Group and Quanta Capital Holdings.

8. Nicholas Hytner, director, National Theatre
One of the fabulous Hytner boys is now one of the top luvvies in the world. Son of former Granada grand dame Joyce Hytner, Nicholas Hytner went to Manchester Grammar School and worked his way through the arts world directing numerous plays and films, such as The Crucible, The Madness of King George, The Object of My Affection and Center Stage. Scored a world-wide hit with Miss Saigon won tons of arts awards.

9. Cherie Blair, barrister
The Liverpool born founder of Matrix Chambers, one of London’s top practice of barristers, may now be able to fulfil her ambition to become a High Court judge. Oh, and her husband used to be something big in politics.

10. Sir James Crosby, city titan
Another big shot at the top table of British industry, the Lancaster-born Crosby took the top spot at the merged HBOS in 2001 but also build a portfolio of board positions with ITV, Compass Group and the Financial Services Agency. Handed over to Andy Hornby in 2005, but has since taken on big jobs with Bridgepoint.

Race for Rovers, City sold

I mentioned in a post yesterday that there were names in the frame for Rovers that would make fans weep. I did not mean this in a positive sense.

Anyway, another name has cropped up. But I'm sure that this kind of unseemly public discussion is the last thing the Walker trustees wanted.

The South African billionaire Johann Rupert has emerged as a potential bidder to take over at Blackburn Rovers, rivalling the US-based businessman Daniel Williams, as the club continues its dialogue with prospective suitors.
Rupert has contacted other businessmen, including Wayne Huizenga, the owner of the Miami Dolphins NFL team, with a view to putting together a consortium to buy out the Jersey-based Jack Walker family trust's 99.8% stake.

Full story in today's paper is here.

Anyway, looks like Man City are being bought by Thaksin Shinawatra. For what it's worth I share the opinion of Real Journalism's David Conn in the paper today.

Yesterday's announcement expressed nothing about City being the Manchester club, about pride or heart, nor anything about Thaksin's criminal charges or the cloud hanging over him. Instead City's board said: "The offer presents an opportunity for Manchester City shareholders to realise their entire shareholding in Manchester City for cash, at a significant premium."

Which says it all. Many City fans were rejoicing yesterday as if the club had found another saviour, not caring, as predicted, about Thaksin's background; wanting only his money. Really, City fans, those who are not eight years old any more, should grow up.

Real regeneration

Went to a midsummer nights feast at Gorton Monastery last night. The magnificent former franciscian friary had fallen on hard times, the roof was in danger of collapsing and the Catholic Church had abandoned the site, and the people of Gorton, in truth.

Back in 1989 a developer had the mad idea of coverting it into flats, that didn't work and eventually the bank (RBS) handed it over to a The Monastery of St Francis and Gorton Trust trust to restore. Elaine Griffiths did just that, raising £6.5m to restore it. She used lottery funds, European pots of money and pledges of support. The trust has now created an awesome public space.

The event was set up by Sir Howard Bernstein, the chief executive of Manchester City Council. He has this great skill of calling in favours for good causes. And one by one his business and property developer partners pledged their support for the trust. There is truly no such thing as a free dinner.

We'd certainly like to host events in such a place. We hosted a round table there three years ago and the transformation has been remarkable. Go and see it for yourself, the link to their website is here and there's a more historical account here.

Football money go round

The young ginger lad who wants to buy Rovers has done an interview with the Lancashire Telegraph. The link to it is here. It's clear he's a front man for some kind of bid. The names I've heard that are backing him will make some Rovers fans weep.

Here's his website for his business making houses Gabon, west Africa, here.

There's also a thread discussing it on the Rovers fans site. Strangely, including a contribution from Alan Nixon, the freelance footy hack from Hale who broke the story. You can link to that discussion here.

Still, it could be worse, you could be a Manchester City fan.

Launched on the BBC website this morning…

07:40 – Thaksin targets Eriksson for City
07:41 – Thaksin lodges bid for Man City
07:43 – Thai ex-PM accused of corruption

It could only happen to City. And what's the question the fans want answering? If his assets are frozen, will he still have enough to buy "our" club? Dignity. Certianly makes the Man Yoo anti-Glazer protests look even more righteous.

Meeting the editors

I did a talk this morning to an event called Meet the Editors. Also presenting were Chris Barry from the Manchester Evening News and James Wilson from the Financial Times. It was organised by How Do, a new portal for the media industry in the region and held at the offices of Cobbetts Solicitors. This is what I had to say:

When I was a kid there were just three TV channels, our home took a daily paper and a weekly local paper. At different stages in my life I’ve had a magazine – or comic - that’s touched my life and my interests.

Beano - Victor – Roy of the Rovers – Smash Hits – the NME – The Face – When Saturday Comes – Loaded – Private Eye – Golf Punk and most latterly – a new magazine called Monocle, which is basically 'The Economist in Prada'.

We can plot our lives with what we read.

People engage with their media. And now more than ever we spend more time at work, more time thinking about our careers. What we learn in our work affects what we earn. Knowledge is power and how we use information and intelligence gives us a critical advantage.

I was faced with a choice at a difficult age. My first two jobs were on an Australian music magazine and – unlikely as it looks today – on a monthly glossy fashion magazine.

Fashion is as shallow as you'd expect, but I soon learned that music journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, in order to provide articles for people who can't read.

It’s a career trajectory that – all going well – I’d probably have been sacked from Heat Magazine five years ago and would now be appearing on those Channel 4 nostalgia programmes talking about why Magpie was better than Blue Peter.

My next job back in the UK was the most important in my career – in 1989 I worked for a magazine called IBM System User. It was for IT managers when there weren’t that many of them. Instead of the appalling cycle of arse kissing I’d have to do to get a ten minute interview with a soap star promoting a new type of shoe. I was getting my calls returned from board directors of Johnson & Johnson, Midland Bank while executives from the software suppliers would want to talk to us.

Now, I didn’t get computing. I used to pretend to laugh at incomprehensible in-jokes about programmers.

What I was experiencing for the first time were the close ties that a B2B magazine can build with its readers. Ties that are far superior to those a mass-market consumer magazine will have.

You might see the editor of Heat on TV from time to time, but does he regularly want to get in front of large part of the mass market that reads his title? We do. We are part of the market we serve, part of the fabric of that community and that's good fun.

As a media form we are unique in that we enjoy the trust of our audience. And trust is very important.

In our industry publishers must put this audience at the heart of their businesses and build exciting new models and ways to touch their community in ways that work, be they print, online and physical events tailored to suit each different part of the business community.

When I think of the successful business titles they are the ones that offer a range of opportunities for readers to engage. Broadcast, Computer Weekly, Real Deals, Retail Week and Accountancy Age spring to mind.

I’ve used that word a great deal. Community. It’s why I think regional newspapers are declining and having to reinvent themselves as media providers that touch their readers in different ways.

Does technology hold any fear. No, not at all. You have to embrace it, but wisely.

The technology world is incredibly adept at providing pretenders to challenge any King. Publishers have a duty and responsibility to be astride of this.

As for the threat to our business from a blog, or a user generated site, I’d refer back to the trust issue again. You hear some news, or some comment regarding your own world – which one do you trust more – one attached to a magazine brand like Insider, or a media brand like the FT, the BBC or Insider or some blogger trying to build a following by being controversial.

This is an incredibly exciting time for our industry and a great opportunity for us to seize.

Business coverage in the national papers is enormous now compared to what it used to be.

On TV entrepreneurs are genuinely hailed as heroes now. Who would have thought the Apprentice and Dragons Den would have taken off in the way they have.

The liberal leaning media in this country has woken up to the fact that wealth is created by risk takers.

How have we come to this place at this point in time? The answer, and I apologise for sounding a bit grand, is the fundamental shift in power in the global economy away from governments, politics and our elected representatives and towards the power of the corporation and of the global economy. Interest in politics is low – more people voted in the final night of Channel 4’s Big Brother than voted in the local council elections.

Newspaper editors have been forced to reassess the traditional view that politics is the priority on the news agenda.

The media's heightened interest in finance reflects the growing awareness that real power is shifting from politicians to big business.

That brings with it certain attentions. Business has always been there to be knocked down in the free press of a free society. Private equity seems to have become the bogeyman of corporate Britain at the moment.

It’s easy to see why. Inward investment into a region and the economic effects of a new factory, call centre or a retail outlet has profound implications for the communities in which people live.


The genesis of public involvement in share ownership was the large-scale privatisation of the Thatcher era. In the 90s, that was cemented by the windfalls from demutualising building societies and insurers. According to the department of social security, a third of Britons now own shares.

Interest has also been raised by widespread home ownership, providing many with a sizeable lump sum of capital for the first time - another Thatcher legacy. Cash in the bank and a private pension invested in the stock market produces a vested interest in the economy and sharpens your interest in the financial pages.

But what of magazines now?

At Insider we cover stories that effect business people in the North West. Insider has always been seen as strong in the professions, in the property market and has a strong tradition of investigative journalism and independent editorial. We have a shelf full of awards.

But we’re not a magazine about stuffy business issues, we’re a magazine about people in business. Not a magazine about business processes. That would be pretty dull for you, and for me.

We have seen our magazine change and evolve to reflect changes in the regional economy, to highlight the regeneration process and the development of new economy industries. This has resulted in a building boom, an increase in the way investments are made and therefore a shift in the types of advertisers who want to reach our target market.

At the heart of our philosophy, which has seen the company radically change since I arrived in 2000, has been our regional place. We believe we fill in the gaps where the national media just don’t get. We seek to be a media that you guys want to read, we want to host events that you want to come to and create a community that you want to your advertising messages to reach.

As you know we also have stories relating to the activities of the professions, the property market, and how these industries can help business people. Our lists of achievers such as the Power 100, the 42 under 42, and the North West Rich list– a list of the region’s wealthy - are popular, but we are constantly revising these and are open to new ideas to keep the magazine fresh.

Business is exciting, you deal with people who are driven by a passion and an energy to succeed. They create wealth and success and they ooze confidence and enterprise. It’s very infectious. Business communications has to convey this. It has to be the broker of quality conversations. You will find people have high standards, if you are willing to match those, then we can all thrive and prosper as a result.

Thank you.

Racist bullies

This from Manchester Confidential today about the confused moral tone following Bernard Manning's death:

This is clear in today’s priceless Manchester Evening News. The main headline reads ‘Bernard has the last laugh’ and mocks the ‘politically-correct’ who turned their backs on him. Meanwhile the back page has a headline reading ‘Don’t let those race bullies win’, about City’s Nedum Onuoha being racially insulted during England’s match against Serbia. But surely dear MEN, the Serbians didn’t really mean it did they? They were just having a laugh like good old Bernard, weren’t they? Don't be so politically correct.

The link is here, but spare yourself the trouble of the unmoderated comments.

Bernard Manning - the last laugh

I have never laughed as hard as I did when I saw Bernard Manning perform. He dared you to laugh at him, and he always surprised. Manning, who died today, was a genius of comedy, but had become reduced to a relic. I first saw him at his Embassy Club in the 1980s when he whipped up the audience to a jingoistic frenzy, introducing "a couple of army lads just back from the Falklands", how the crowd roared, some standing to their feet in fist waving approval. "Pedro and Carlos, they're Argentinian," he said.

The last time, a couple of years ago at Mere Golf Club, and after many many debates over his racism and supposed hatred, he was as sharp as ever, but more reflective. He didn't use the P word or the N word, which I was pleased about at the time as it showed he'd realised the offence he caused. He'd never admit he'd toned it down though. He told the joke about the old Jewish guy on his death bed that was on the news tonight - "Becky, you're a curse" - and he worked the room for a good couple of hours.

He was a comic genius, Peter Kay is but a cleaned up version with tamer references to his Nana. The world moves on, quite how much is perhaps exemplified by the delivery of the news of his death; sandwiched as it was between the furore over the award of knighthood to the inpenetrably pretentious Salman Rushdie, and reports that Serbian football is supported by, and played by, a particularly nasty type of racist.

I have to say though, I had him in our death sweep at work, but some chiselling crook changed the rules without telling me.

New regime at Rovers

Alan Nixon, a well connected freelance journalist in the Cheshire footballer belt has smoked out who has bought Rovers (his mate the chairman, John Williams, probably told him). The new owner is an expat called Daniel Williams (no relation to John), based in New Jersey, and he's been working with Walter Hubert, a director from the old days.

The full story is here. The price tag of £67m is way off beam, my source reckons it's £30m.

The other name in the frame is Nigel Morris, the founder of Capital One bank and a Lancaster Royal Grammar School alumni. He's a Spurs fan but may be interested in an investment. Kevin Roberts is also sniffing around football. Another LRGS old boy, KR is a Man City fan, but really loves the egg chasing variety of sport: "The global rugby community is something special and is unparalleled in sport," he says.

Book review in a lift - Cider With Roadies

Book review in a lift - Cider with Roadies by Stuart Maconie. I've always enjoyed Stuart Maconie's writing, but this book takes a while to get going and I asked its owner (Neil Tague, business journalist of the year) why he enthused. Taguey advised me to fast forward to the NME bits. Good advice. Superb tale of journalistic shenanigans and making stuff up. Best bit: hanging out with the Happy Mondays. Initially 5/10, rising to 9/10. Bit like the NME in the 80s and 90s.

Nearest the pin

I'm rubbish at golf. I don't play enough, but I'm not going to give up because I like the game immensely. If I can keep my head down and play through the ball I can hit some decent shots. Putting is OK for a hacker, chipping needs a bit of work. Driving is simply atrocious. Playing with my pal Pat Loftus yesterday showed me how far I've got to go.

Still, one of us won "nearest the pin" on the 7th at Worsley Park. It wasn't Pat. To date it is the only thing I've ever won at golf apart from a few Euros from a badly hung over accountant called Jason Hiley.

This pic is the proof, though the word of a chartered accountant of some repute should be enough too.

A pro on the same competition, Harry Proos, also got a hole in one. But he's a pro.

The law of the jungle

This week has been fascinating observing the behaviour and attitude of road users. Everyone's back at work at the moment. The roads are full again and the rain has made people a bit more edgy.

I'm not a particularly aggresive driver. I tend to let more people out of drives, turn right and merge than I have to, but kindness costs nothing and you hope people will do it for you. Well, until a month ago they did, but that's because I was driving around in a 4x4. I tell you what, people got out of the way. When you came to merge, they would let you merge. Now I'm in a rented regular car until my new one arrives I get nudged out of lanes and flashed at the rear by flat track bullies. One graceless idiot this morning on the M67 at Denton island was driving a Golf (a woman, as it goes), a pushy berk was revving his Mondeo as if the most important thing in his world was not letting me merge in when three lanes become two.

This NEVER happened when I drove the beast.

Also, I will be calling a company in Sheffield this morning to inform them that their van driver on the A57 at Gorton is unfit to drive a commercial vehicle.

Where good men die like dogs

I used to write about the television industry. Indeed, I worked for a TV production company for a year. Compared to just about every other industry I have ever had dealings with it is a nasty snake pit of egos and talentless dorks stabbing each other in the front.

It was with amusement that this blog - The Secret Blog of a TV Controller - has been so widely talked about in telly land. I've already spotted a couple of people I used to know. The author is clearly having a great time putting reputations to the sword. As one Marple Leaf reader commented - "Levels of cruelty you just don't see in the Marple Leaf."

HollEwood

It really is the silly season for football. Our Weekly News service today reported that the Manchester City deal is close to collapse, but that Rovers are close to a sale with an American buyer. I heard this story yesterday and have failed utterly to stand it up today, but Rovers have confirmed that talks are ongoing. I've heard the deal is done, the price was £30m.

The whole business of football defies the logic of any other kind of businesss. And the football media - the amiotic fluid of the whole football circus - plays an unwitting game in releasing nonsense. Take Manchester City (no-one else will, story here), a deal to sell the club to a foreign politician in exile is dead in the water. To keep that story off the back page of the Manchester Evening News, the club con supporters into thinking the board have a clue and hope they'll renew season tickets after they concoct the speculation that they want Mark Hughes as manager. I'm sure they do! I expect they'll be lucky to get Graeme Souness.

As for Rovers going west - I'd have preferred it if the Walker family had taken more interest, it's what Jack Walker wanted his settlement to do, or for other wealthy and professional Lancastrians to have taken the club on and run the club as a supporters trust. The key for any owner is a stable management that can keep us in the top half of the Preimership and qualifying for Europe.

I think one of the risks of football is that young fans are being priced out of attending matches and are getting out of the habit. Strangely at Rovers the 16,000 hard core and 10,000 soft core are younger and more rooted than the core support of other clubs. The pricing policy of the present regime is wise to this fact and seems to be taking a long term view.

Talk of the Town

Had the great pleasure of appearing on Talk of the Town on BBC Radio Manchester today, live from the Cornerhouse Cafe. Apparently it's possible to download from here.

Presenter Anthony Wilson was on great form as ever. He's looking thinner, as you would having been zapped so much in his scrap to beat cancer, but he's doing OK.

Also on the (not so) comfy sofas were top PR man and my occasional fixer Chris Bird and Iain Lindley, a fresh faced Tory councillor from Walkden, who has his own blog, here.

We put the world to rights between us, subjects ranged from: Cameron, Blair, Marple, local cinemas, Channel 4, the London Olympic logo, Big Bloody Brother, Diana, Food, Manchester City, local politics, the G8, Barcelona, the Bruges rosette, dogs, cricket, drugs, Liverpool and finally, why Iain Lindley needs to get a proper job.

My mistake

I make a point of absolutely avoiding anything at all to do with reality TV shows. I think they are a scar on our culture. Exploitative, appalling, mind numbing and the very epitome of the shallowness and craven stupidity they need to feed off and grow and mutate.

So there I was listening to a discussion on institutional racism in the police this morning on Radio Five, which ended up being about Big Brother. Aaaaaggghhh. I don't care, I don't need this rubbish in my life. Go away. Please report on something useful that matters.

I leave the final word on this subject to Lord Puttnam, deputy chairman Channel 4.

"I am not proud of the Big Brother row - I am not even proud of Big Brother. But Big Brother accounts for 15 per cent of the total revenue that keeps Channel 4 afloat."

Damned United - review

I did manage to read a couple of books on holiday. The best was Damned United by David Peace. Here's how I'd review it if someone asked me, in a lift, "any good?".

Brian Clough so hated dirty dirty Leeds and that cheating bastard Don Revie that he took the job as their manager when "he" got the England job. Clough lasted 44 days. This remarkable novel, written as a diary, is a raw, blistering and believable tale of envy and ambition in football. You have to remember though, that after the bitter conclusion he went on to manage Forest and conquered Europe, young man.

It also had a feeling of a Gordon Burn novel, who I like very much.

The dangers of swagger

I presented to a CBI event this morning.

This is an abridged version of my speech here. I think I may have upset one or two people with references to Manchester getting a bit uppity.

Lately there have been cries that Manchester is – according to the Lonely Planet guide – the UK’s capital city in waiting.

There were claims on a recent visit to New York by several senior members of the slick suited Manchester illuminati that Manchester was many things. "The first modern city of the post industrial age." "The original modern city." "The cradle of the second industrial revolution." "The birth place of the computer." Reading them back verbatim in the pages of the New Yorker was painful. It must serve as a warning that Manchester at times has a tendency to disappear up its own backside of self importance.

Then there is the whole minefield of standing up to London wherein lies a second danger in challenging London. It’s fine to come up with smart slogans that say – it’s grim down south – as the NWDA did - if you can back it up with enough evidence that Manchester is really challenging London. Think carefully though about what kind of city London has become – the centre of music, food, fashion, theatre, finance, retail, brands, major global companies, home to some of the richest people in the world, the home to new ideas and major media voices.

And yet, It IS economically unsustainable. You need to earn £150K a year to really enjoy London.

London is also:

Unaffordable housing.
Crowded infrastructure.
Crime out of control.

Manchester is none of these things - good or bad - and nor should it aspire to be. A touch of humility and a touch of realism can continue to project Manchester on a trajectory of economic and cultural growth that can make it desirable.

If Manchester is to forge a bright future then some integrity and aspiration would not go amiss. Yes, have the swagger, but take everyone with you.

There are gaps in London’s offer
Finance for real businesses
A proper meeting place and a trading community.
Manchester has always been where people come together to share. And is it not true that the art of good business is being a good middleman – putting people together.

The UK needs places for its best creative and entrepreneurial people to live and to be a home to growing businesses in sectors that Britain needs to steal a march on – interactive gaming, environmental technologies, the next generation of the internet.

Business tourism also needs to up its game – by that I mean Manchester as a thriving convention city where there is much to attract everyone from software programmers to tripe dressers.

But what this country needs more than anything is new ideas for a new century. They don't necessarily have to be original, or modern, just the right ones.

Instead of looking to what London has, civic leaders can look at what London can no longer carry, but which the UK needs. And which no other city can offer it in anything like the same way as Manchester.

Picture this

One of the most enjoyable aspects of an editor's job is judging awards. We're supporting a photography competition called This Working Life. You can link to it here.

The idea is to encourage the best student photographers to produce a piece of work - up to 10 photos - of a workplace. I've really enjoyed being involved. Admittedly, some of the photography was pretentious rubbish that betrayed the immaturity of the students - work is something to be portrayed as grim, stifling, oppressive. But there was a great deal of humour and character revealed too.

I can't reveal the winner, but I think we made the right decision. One of the things about judging is meeting people with a totally different background to me. We had a curator, an exhibition director, a picture editor from the Economist, some proper arty photographers and a venture capitalist.

Most impressive was the work where employees took pictures to reflect their own workplaces.

Rule Bretagne

We've just got back from a longish break in Brittany. It rained for pretty much the whole time we were there, apart from the last two days which were so hot most of us got sun stroke. My good pal John Dixon appeared to have had a damp time of it in the Vendee as well. Here are ten random thoughts about our holiday:

Most French towns and villages are like the creepy town in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The restaurants were nearly all devoid of children, even the one we went to in Paris. Adults stared in horror at our brood. They don't greet you like the Spanish and Italians do.

The nicest most fun meal in France we had was on the campsite.

The best meal of the whole trip was in Abingdon, Oxfordshire at Pizza Express on the way home.

I struggle to find good French wine at home, we didn't have a bad glass all week when I was there. Wish I'd brought more back.

French trains are great.

If you're stuck on a soggy campsite in France then a day trip to Paris is great fun. Don't try and pack too much in though.

Campsites are great fun - when it's sunny.

Adventure sports in France -like a high wire are more relaxed than the health and safety stricken equivalents at home.

Sliding down a waterslide with your bum cheeks exposed makes you go faster.

Pedalos with two wheels are much faster than the ones with the one single wheel in the middle.

The fields of Athens, cry

I was going to bottle out of blogging about the European Cup Final and its aftermath.

The Liverpool Echo has splashed on the tear gas attack by Greek police on innocent women and children, which is shameful. You can even see the video of it here.

Nigel Hughes has bravely had his say here. This is a flavour.

As usual the travelling football fans have tried to absolve themselves of any responsibility for the chaos that ensued outside the ground. Also as usual though, the truth will be that some football fans behave like absolute idiots once they get more than a mile from home.
Last night's incident is even more galling in that it involved Liverpool supporters. Some of the culprits last night will be among those who hold a vigil for the 96 every April. Most of them will still refuse to buy The Sun. Most of them will claim that they will not rest until every employee of South Yorkshire Police has been hung, drawn and quartered.
The hypocrisy of this is quite staggering.

English football fans seem to have shorter memories than the police forces of Europe. The days of widespread violence weren't that long ago - no one is even mentioning Heysel - and mobs of beery lads chanting songs all day long is quite alien to the rest of Europe. I have no doubt in my mind the same chaos would have blighted the event had Chelsea or Man Yoo got to the final. Blame whoever you want, the Greeks, Rick Parry, the police, UEFA, none of it hides the fact that the stadium was full and people didn't see the game, because some fans "stole" the places of others.

Athens was a poor choice of venue. Next year's final is in Moscow.

Book review in a lift - The Modfather

I've just finished reading The Modfather - My Life with Paul Weller by David Lines.

Here's my book review in a lift.

Just as Nick Hornby had Arsenal, so this bloke has The Jam. He didn't actually know Paul Weller, he grew up in Leeds as a Jam fan. As he's the same age as me I thought I'd like it for the Jam stuff. I did, but liked the "growing up" bits too. He sounds like a self-centred, cowardly, pretentious tit as he recounts his teens, but then we probably all were. I know I was.

6 out of 10.

Reporting live from Manchester (or not)

I went to see John Simpson last night, the BBC Foreign Correspondent, speaking at the Pro -dot - Manchester annual dinner at the Midland Hotel. However, though I was invited (and accepted), there was no seat for me. Apparently I was to be sat with company "B", or was it company "E"? Despite being invited by company "M" on behalf of organisation "P". And having turned down a further invite from company H.

I was offered a seat by someone who would then have had to sit on the floor and eat stale loaves, which was kind, but I'm not the sort of person to come over all Russell Crowe.

When I heard the traditional buck passers answer of "there's been a breakdown in communication" I suddenly saw a vision of a nice comfortable sofa with my beautiful wife and a cheeky glass of Pinot Grigio.

Here's a report:

"John had some amusing anecdotes and spoke quite openly about his experiences and answered questions well, even the more stupid ones! He even went into discussing how he has recently had a baby thanks to the box of Viagra sat on his bedroom table!"

Form is temporary, arrogance is permanent

No group of football supporters in the world can beat Liverpool for sheer pomposity.

What's better? This?

There's a link to more of this sort of thing here.

Or do you prefer this?

I don't think our much more basic "C'MON ROVERRRS" banner will echo in eternity, but I like it.

Also for your amusement is a link here to You Tube featuring David Bentley and David Dunn in a dance off in a Preston night club following the players awards do last week.

Ten thoughts on modern architecture

The People's Property Award concluded last night. Here are ten of my thoughts on the buildings that made the final shortlist.

City of Manchester Stadium - One of the better new stadiums. Lacks atmosphere on match days.

Hilton Tower - A grand structure, but possibly a missed opportunity.

Imperial War Museum North - Awesome, but pretentious.

The Jerwood Centre Grasmere, for the Wordsworth Trust - Beautiful. I love slate.

Blackburn Station and Transport Interchange - It's a roof.

National Football Museum, Preston - externally horrible, but the venue is a treasure.

Aintree - Breathtaking from all angles. A worthy winner.

Jaguar House, Chester Zoo - Lovely building, but still just an animal house,

Kingsmead School - never seen it.

FACT Centre - Great building, great asset to Liverpool

And the winners are...

There were double celebrations all over the North West last night. Our People's Property Award has gone down a storm with over 30,000 votes cast in the competition to find the public's favourite modern building across the region.

The winner was Aintree Racecourse. Collecting the award was the architect, Gavin Elliot from BDP.

But I'm also excited about a double win for Insider last night at the Merseyside Media Network Awards. My lads Neil Tague and Damien Wiehl won in the best business writer and best designer categories. David Casey even won the raffle!

Damien is a really imaginative designer. He can produce magazine covers of incredible complexity as well as others with breathtaking simplicity. What they all have in common is a refreshing originality. I'm so pleased his talent has been recognised in such a way.

This is his masterpiece of the last year:

Taguey is on a stag do in Spain somewhere so wasn't even there to get his award. Here's a picture taken last year of him contemplating his next exciting news scoop.

Waste disposal

I hosted the North West Business Environment Awards at the Bridgewater Hall last night, full list of winners can be found here. It was a good event, we kicked off with a chat show discussion about how businesses can meet the challenge of climate change and good waste management. Joe Dwek and Paul Monaghan even disagreed on a couple of things about energy which made for good entertainment.

I enjoy doing these kind of things but every now and again I have to read something off a script that makes me want to gag. One award for environmental good practice in the public sector went to the most useless organisation in Christendom - the North West Regional Assembly - a quango with neither point nor purpose. It seems they won the award for ordering lots of fair trade tea and coffee and occasionally emptying their waste bins and recycling paper. They would make an even greater contribution the environment if they simply stopped producing irrelevant reports and nonsense press releases altogether.

The people have spoken

Voting has now closed in our People's Property Award which we've been working on with the BBC North West Tonight. We had over 20,000 votes for the final run off, absolutely incredible. We've all been bowled over by how much it's captured people's imagination.

I know who's won, but I can't tell you. The winner will be revealed at our awards do tonight at Manchester Central. There will also be a whole load of other awards handed out tonight as well. Should be a good night.

Who let the dog out?

Although I have no interest in the FA Cup I was mightily amused that a proposed tune from within the ranks of the red menace has been winging its way around our office today.

"JOSE, wherever you may be
Ji Sung Park ate your dog for tea
you won f*ck all and your dog is dead
why don't you get a cat instead?"

Aside from the puerile and dodgy nature of this, the giddy popularity of this ditty shows just how much Jose Mourinho has fallen out of favour with the public. There's a good piece in the paper about this today. You can link to it here.

And the winner is...Blackburn Rovers

It was the Blackburn Rovers player of the year dinner at Ewood last night, the first of three awards events I've got on this week - environment awards tomorrow, which I'm hosting, then the enormous Insider Property Awards North West on Thursday at Manchester Central.

It was a great do with a wonderful buzz around the room and a great togetherness between the players themselves and with the fans who were there. The awards were compered by another milkman's son from Lancaster - Graham Liver, currently talking for a living on BBC Radio Leeds - and the whole show was very slickly put together. After a fairly sour experience at the event four years ago when the manager didn't even turn up to what was a glorified pub quiz I was initially reluctant to bother. But my pal Stephen Ashworth told me it would be worth a trip out and that this was one of the many things have changed under Mark Hughes, who he knows well.

ALL the players were there, all the directors, all the coaching staff and no-one was showing any attitude or swaggering about like Charlie Big Potatoes. They seem a very close group. The awards went to David Bentley (fans player of the year), Benni McCarthy (players player and goal of the season), Christopher Samba (new lad), Matt Derbyshire (young player), Brett Emerton (contributor), Brad Friedel (performance) and to accompany news of his new contract extension - Tugay (most man of the match awards).

We had a good chat to the gaffer. The Intertoto holds no fear for him, it's part of the pre-season preparations.

There's talk around the room of new investors coming in. The Walker Trust can't keep a hand in forever, though I sort of thought that's what Jack Walker wanted. There are high hopes that a proper local consortium would be formed to buy the club, but while there is foreign interest in football the trustees will talk to willing buyers. It can be an exciting future, there is something special and refreshing about the club again.

Thick as thieves us, we'll stick together for all time

We went to see From The Jam last night in Preston and it was a superb experience. I initially thought it was going to be awful, as I said here, but was persuaded to give it a go.

The first obvious point to make is that the lead singer was Russell Hastings and not Paul Weller. I tell you what, he definitely knows his Jam tracks. I've never been one for these tribute bands, but this was a proper blasting out of all the old favourites.

The passion of the crowd - of which I was probably in the younger half - brought back so many happy adolescent memories. I was looking around for old faces from concerts I went to across the North of England, but we all look fatter and balder, though I'm sure I'd recognise Lancaster's very own David Watts - Gary "Swaz" Swarbrick.

The Jam were an unbelievable phenomena that appealed to young men like no other band has in my lifetime. Oasis came close. They also bridged a number of youth cults - like punk, mod and the early casuals. The sentiment in raw, knowing tunes like When You're Young and Town Called Malice really cut it with what it was like growing up in a very uncertain world, but without the ready made rebellion of hippy dom or overtly left wing political protest. Thick as Thieves - an album track from Setting Sons really got me thinking about the power of nostalgia for our generation and the awesome treasure chest of memories we have and the solid bond that our gang had from the love of this amazing band that touched our lives.

So, although Weller wasn't there, the whole night was worth it for the smile on Bruce Foxton's face. His bassline makes Eton Rifles, one of the best songs on the night. They even played my personal Jam favourite - To Be Someone Must Be a Wonderful Thing. It really must have been.

European tour starts in July

With Bolton qualifying for the UEFA Cup, it seems our 3-3 draw with Reading now means we are the highest placed applicant for the Intertoto Cup (current holders Newcastle United). Our season will start in the 21/22 of July, with the second leg a week after.

We will be visiting a former communist stronghold now heavily subsidised by EU money.

That is: Llanelli from South Wales V Lithuanian side Vetra Vilnius in June. The winners of that will then play a team from Poland (mid-table to top is wide open). We won't know where we'll be until the 14th of July. But either way it's a trip we're quite up for going on.

This was gleaned from the BBC Wales football site and from the UEFA website, Intertoto section.

Disappointed that West Ham survived. The Tevez thing stinks. Then there's Lucas Neill.

Go Go Go Joseph

We all piled in the bus and headed off to Blackpool yesterday to see Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat at the Grand Theatre. On the surface we were doing it as a treat for our Joseph's 8th birthday, but the truth is we would have gone anyway.

It was a superb performance which had the kids engrossed. Like a lot of places in Blackpool there's a faded glory about the Grand Theatre, but the staff had a real dignity about them and cared about the experience we had there. Their website is here.

The touring performance - linked here - is well worth catching and I'm sure the cast we saw would be more than capable of holding their own on a West End stage; thus completely ruling out the need for the current snotfest on BBC 1 which we refer to as Any Queen Will Do. I watched it at Center Parcs by mistake and decided the main purpose of it was to provide sexual bait for that bloke out of Torchwood or Denise van Outen. On a casual revisit two weeks ago not much has changed.

But poor old Blackpool. We couldn't get away quick enough and no matter how hungry we all were at 7pm we wouldn't have contemplated having tea in a cafe or restaurant in the town centre due to the number of yobs roaming the streets. The shopping centre is being rebuilt, which is a good start, but there is so much to be done. The prom, the tower and the theatre we went to all have a magic about them that makes the rest of the seediness all the more tragic.

PS And the reason I'm sat here on Sunday afternoon typing away with Radio 5 on in the background and getting text alerts from Ewood Park is because this is a brief rest period. Joe had his first holy communion this morning, he's at the pictures this afternoon watching Spiderman 3 with his mates while me and Rachel are off to see The Jam (no Paul Weller, mind) in Preston tonight. Review tomorrow if I get a chance.

Ten thoughts on top Marple Traders

Rachel reminded me that the Marple Leaf hasn't been about Marple much lately. Ten thoughts therefore on my favourite ten shops and traders in Marple.

M & Co - change their stock regularly, cheap and good quality kids and casual clothes.

Grenaby Farm - this must be where steak pies go when they die. The best by a mile.

Deli Select - a treasure trove of cheese, snacks and treats.

Toast - cosy and friendly place for a cake and a coffee.

The Co-op - when you just need something when the cupboard is bare.

Harrods - for his impudence and knowledge of car parts

Dolce Vita - Wolfie warned me this was rubbish. I take his word for it, but the refurb and the new menu have created a buzzy happy place. No need for a Piccolino here.

Marple Wine bar - Murillos tapas bar is great for a table full of tapas and a bottle of rose wine on a hot day. Choose carefully, mind.

White's Butchers - Some great cuts and always with a smile

Controversially, Greenhalgh's - I don't usually like bakery chains, but they're lovely people and the sausage rolls are very good.

Kids and football

With having so many of us we're never far away from a birthday in this household. Yesterday Joe was 8. He wanted the Blackburn Rovers away kit more than anything else. I'm so amazed at his resilience and loyalty at sticking with Rovers. Most of his mates at school support Man Yoo with some boys sticking with City and Everton. Getting to go to matches helps and so does a relatively good season. Meeting a few of the players like Savage, Oojer and Bentley also made it harder to waver. Though I suspect Bellamy might have put him off for life. Obviously I'd love them whoever they supported - I'm married to a Burnley fan, afterall - but just how proud I am was summed up by a tale I heard this week.

Mark Webb and Steve Wilson, two of our guys in the Leeds office, and long-suffering Newcastle United supporters, met a certain high profile Newcastle player who used to play for Rovers. Steve has had a bit of bother with one of his brood deciding to support Man Yoo. Our star - let's call him "Alan" (his real name) sympathised. One of his boys likes to wear an Arsenal shirt. Just goes to show.

I started going to Rovers in 1977 because I could. But one of the many complexities of the football industry at the moment is that I think loyalty only goes so far these days if commitment stretches to watching your team on Sky and wearing a replica shirt. I'm so pleased that my nephew Ben has really got into watching Blackpool with his step Dad, and my brother-in-law, Dave Tinkler. It's been an exciting season for them and it might just stick with him.

As for kits we only have a strict policy in our house. You can have any kit you like, as long as it's Rovers, Burnley, Spurs or foreign (see above).

Also on the football front, Max and Louis are making their debut this morning for what will be the Marple Athletic Under 7's next season.

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.