New Order at Castlefield - best birthday ever

I feel so extraordinary, something's got a hold on me. New Order were brilliant. Incredible set, a real journey through their achievements, like a world tour. The Castlefield Bowl is a fantastic venue as well, open air and right in the heart of the city with a video and light show as good as I've seen. Crowd full of old gits like me as well as young lads with pyro. Felt great to be amongst it.

After we saw the Stone Roses, I was thinking which of my favourite songs I still have to see performed live. Obviously won't get to see the Clash or the Beatles. But the obvious one missing until now has been New Order. Just never managed to catch them live. 

The set was:

Singularity

Regret

Academic

Crystal

Restless

Your Silent Face

Tutti Frutti

People on the High Line

Bizarre Love Triangle

Waiting for the Siren's Call

Plastic

The Perfect Kiss

True Faith

Blue Monday

Temptation

Decades

Love Will Tear Us ApartPlay Vide
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I remember when I was writing about music for Xpress Magazine in Perth, Western Australia in 1989 and the editor gave me New Order's Technique to review. It was the coming together of Ibiza party house music with Manchester's finest traditions and I gave it a five star review, it felt like most massive vindication of everything I believed in. I feel goose bumps now remembering Round and Round at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney at the massive Back to RAT party which I spent with my much mourned dear friend Stuart McGavin (RIP).

So to end with Love Will Tear Us Apart was just a perfect way to end a perfect birthday. Thank you Rachel. Thank you New Order. Music Complete, indeed.

The Business of Devolution at Manchester Metropolitan University

The Manchester Evening News has published a review of the Devolution Question Time event we hosted in the Business School a couple of weeks back. 

It is currently featured on the front page of the Business section online, and is also available at http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/way-forward-now-northern-powerhouse-11576706.

The video of the event is above at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS_oT9vYAsk. 

And we have collated some tweets using the hashtag #mmudevoqt on Storify at https://storify.com/mmuknowledgehub/manchester-devolution-question-time.

The UKIPs are coming

Like many people I laughed and laughed at Stewart Lee's acerbic put downs of "Paul Nuttalls of the UKIPs" in his 2014 comedy sketch, where he lampoons their deputy leader. I've shared the disdain at the ludicrous spectacle of Nigel Farage and some of his rabble.

If they're honest, a lot of people in different political parties still regard UKIP as a bit of a joke. Even their only MP, Douglas Carswell, seems a bit embarrassed by his colleagues.

But the Brexit referendum has changed everything. If anyone thought that UKIP weren't a threat to Labour in the North, they surely can't think that now. 

I went for a drink with a mate the other night and we bounced around the idea of where Labour go next, of which that will be another blog for another day, but we also discussed where UKIP go from here.

The optimistic theory is based on the premise that UKIP are a shambles, Labour still command tremendous loyalty, that the brand still has some heft, that Labour also still has a formidable ground operation, while UKIP does not. They have reached their ceiling and their toxicity will keep them there.

I don't buy that, and here's why.

Matthew Goodwin and Rob Ford's pioneering book on this - Revolt on the Right - identified early on that UKIP were more than a Eurosceptic right flank to the Tory Party. The answer to questions posed by Owen Jones and John Harris that there should be a UKIP of the left was answered by the reality that there was a UKIP of the left, it was called UKIP.

Anecdotally, let me share a story from the 2015 General Election. In Ashton Under Lyne, UKIP fielded a candidate called Maurice. He admitted at a hustings event that he knew nothing of UKIPs policies beyond being anti-immigration and leaving the EU. He even admitted he was a paper candidate. He got 8000 votes and came third just behind the Tories.

The optimistic scenario recognises the issue of immigration is a problem for Labour, but builds into the numbers a natural ceiling for UKIP of about 20%. Pretty much where Maurice ended up. Never quite enough to win anywhere, but enough to change the weather nationally. 

Talk to a UKIP activist about GOTV, voter ID, the marked register and they look at you blankly. 

Either a formidable ground campaign makes a critical difference, or it doesn't. If there's a lesson from the Leave campaign it's that many of the old rules don't apply like they used to. Untrained activists have come into the party, surprised at what needs to be done to win, but older hands have learnt with each election. 

This piece on Conservative Home looks at the ground operations of the EU referendum. 

It includes a raw assessment of the weaknesses of the machinery: "It hasn’t all run smoothly. I gather some areas have experienced difficulties in encouraging UKIP volunteers to move away from the less targeted but higher-visibility tactics which are core to a smaller party’s campaigning, such as street stalls, and towards canvassing and data-gathering. Others report their surprise at finding some UKIP branches to be much smaller than they had expected. Both of these factors fit with the difficulty Farage and others experienced last year in translating energetic campaigning into victory in target marginals. The People’s Army are certainly enthusiastic and in many cases very experienced, and in some places they are proving very effective, but in terms of troop numbers or strategic approach there appear to be distinct shortfalls in some parts of the country."

You take all of that on board and then you confront this: They won. Brexit is a reality. People voted for it, people who normally don't bother to vote actually cast a vote for something that mattered. Why won't they do so again? The Leave campaign funder Aaron Banks has his tail up and is prepared to chuck more money at this project to build on the success of Brexit.

The other shifting factor is the leadership. The BBC have given a frequent platform to the florid Nigel Farage. For better or for worse he has been the brand. The change of leadership provides a true fork in the road. Stephen Woolfe and Paul Nuttall are itching for a chance to take on Labour in its citadels in the North. Suzanne Evans provides a gentler tone that doesn't frighten middle class liberals.

I've debated with Woolfe and he's frightening. A mixed race Mancunian with forensic attention to detail, he lacks natural charm and humour, but has the brass neck to debate in Manchester and without irony, evoke the spirit of Peterloo. 

I've observed Nuttall up close and he possesses that homespun working man authenticity that would have cut through with angry working class males. He doesn't sound like he's slumming it with the workers on a RyanAir flight, as Suzy Stride said Labour activists appeared to during the 2015 General Election.

That's the case for UKIP. But the other reason why Labour will lose, of course, is because Labour seems determined to be irrelevant.

Radiohead tribute to Gordon Murray, creator of Camberwick Green, Chigley and Trumpton

Always the stuff of childhood nightmares.

Who's to blame for Brexit? I name the guilty

I don't usually go in for blame. It corrodes and eats away at you, because often it leads to negativity and a failure to act positively as a result. That's why I mean it when I say I embrace forgiveness. What I don't offer is a free pass, an excuse, a shrug. So as a major, major seismic decision has been made by 52% of the British people, then someone's to blame, here's who.

I'm to blame. I should have delivered my leaflets earlier, I should have realised I had so many left over after I'd done my rounds and could have made better use of them.

I'm also to blame for letting vanity get the better of me and enthusiastically making sure we pulled out the stops for Gordon Brown to come to Manchester Met and deliver a major speech. I could have said, let me ring round and get you into a factory, or a youth centre in Bolton or something. Same with Eddie Izzard, Lucy Powell and Chuka Umunna. Sure, I got to meet them all, but it made no difference. They all spoke to lively audiences I helped pull together of students and Remain supporters. 

Our universities are to blame. Most of the people who work for us voted Remain, most of the people who have been educated by us did too and most of our students did. Despite providing piles of evidence that it was better to stay, our experts were ultimately ignored. What then have we done to so weaken wider public trust? What must we do to broaden social gain from what we do? I will dedicate my life to changing this.

Brexit is to blame. The use of the stupid word made the decision assumptive. Would you call the General Election the Tory Election? No, of course you wouldn't, especially when there's a binary offer. Damn anyone who used it.

David Cameron is to blame. The lucky general ran out of luck. His plan didn't work. His judgement was appalling and he created this unnecessary and spiteful contest. He has paid a price and will be denied a legacy of making Britain more comfortable with his liberal brand of conservatism. He has done the decent thing and resigned.

Jeremy Corbyn is to blame. If he was intent on sabotaging the Labour IN campaign AND Stronger IN, then he couldn't have done a better job. He was useless. I have never understood the appeal. I never wanted him on the ballot, never mind as leader. He has come to represent whatever his followers want him to be about, all those meaningless tropes about equality and fair society and it doesn't have to be this way. It's empty rhetoric. He has no plan. He has no zeal, he is unfit to be leader of the Islington Allotment Society, never mind the most important reforming political movement in Britain's history. He must also do the decent thing and resign.

Labour is to blame. All of it, not just the bits I'm particularly angry about. Labour has failed to reconnect with the people who need a left of centre, social democratic, government. There are no wake up calls here, the erosion of Labour's base has been there for all to see for five years at least. Liz Kendall based her leadership campaign on this truth and was duly slaughtered for it. 

The Trade Unions are to blame. Apart from the TUC's Frances O'Grady, I can think of no meaningful or positive intervention in the campaign from a trade union leader. The more they bluster, the more bombastic the rhetoric, the more they are being exposed as deep failures. They have failed in their manifest destiny to look out for the working people of this country: to train, promote education and embrace new patterns of work and technology. I laugh when I see resolutions passed at poorly attended union meetings and the photos of campaigners with their flags. They have no real power and influence any more. They lose every time. They are a paper army.

Blue Labour is to blame. A serious intellectual exercise has virtually disappeared at a time when it has been badly needed. I even read a blog today when it was referred to as a movement. It isn't, tragically. It's a collection of very clever blokes who aren't able to gain any traction for some heavy duty ideas.

The Liberal Democrats are to blame. I reserve a particular place in hell's waiting room for our local LibDems. If only they had put in 1% of the effort they do to getting their candidates elected locally into a campaign to remain in the EU. A leaflet mostly about the parliamentary ambitions of one of their councillors from Romiley and party building arrived with a poster, two days before polling day. Their presence was pitiful. Stockport voted to Remain thanks to Labour activists. There will be a reckoning for this. 

The EU is to blame. How can anyone seriously expect to campaign for an endorsement of, and membership of, an organisation so widely misunderstood and so utterly unloved. Where did the passion of that unification of ideals go? The biggest laugh I got around the whole campaign was when John Oliver did that daft song called 'F*** the European Union', but vote Remain anyway.

We are to blame. Our divided society. The cruel casting off of the poor, the blindness to the effects of globalisation, the lack of concern for Communites derided as chavs and scroungers. They've had enough. 

So, yes, I've got that off my chest now, let me know if there's anyone I've missed out. 

Choose peace and hope, an evening with the Mizens

Amidst all the hate, the naked racism and division throughout our society, Rachel and I were fortunate to take our seats in a public meeting last night to hear a strong message of love and hope from Barry and Margaret Mizen.
Eight years ago they lost their son Jimmy in a brutal attack in south London just a day after his 16th birthday.
Ever since they have dedicated their lives to promoting peace and love, driven by their strong Christian faith, through the For Jimmy charity.
At a time when my confidence in our politics has never been so low it was a reminder that there are many ways to change the world. And never has it felt more important to embrace that message of love, forgiveness, peace and hope. 

Just watch this - then Vote Remain. Michael Dougan video nails it

Stone Roses at the Etihad - joyous, raucous and middle-aged Dads in bucket hats

What a joyous, raucous, fun and happy night we had watching the Stone Roses at the Etihad last night. 

I can't explain how much so many of their songs mean to us. A time, a place, a feeling.

Really proud of Rachel and our lads, and glad we shared such an occasion. Also had some real characters around us from Liverpool and Scotland. Thank you Robie from Fife for keeping us entertained.

I know there's been loads of sneering at middle aged blokes in bucket hats and Adidas trainers with their mini-me sons, well that was us and I don't give a toss, that's who we are.

Here we go again - I'm so tired of the hate

I feel numb. Sick with shock and fear. I really don't know where we are going as a country. The murder of Jo Cox MP, if it is to mean anything, has to wake us up to the hatred and bile that ferments everywhere.

This referendum wasn't necessary. It isn't about a law, or a treaty, it's about something far bigger than can be summed up in one question. So the campaign to Leave has made it about immigration. No matter that our trading island will be less well able to police our waters, process in Calais, or support refugees in continental Europe.

We are living in an era of post-truth politics. It doesn't seem to matter what the evidence is, just what facts suit your prejudices. The answer "it's complicated" isn't good enough any more, it has to be the easy answer, the anger, the war cry, the condemnation. There has to be someone to blame, someone to hate.

Fascists declare direct action against Sadiq Khan. That UKIP poster. I don't know any more than any other twit with a keyboard whether it flipped a troubled mind, but he didn't do it last week, or last year. He did it yesterday and now our nation is denied a talented servant and her family is robbed of a mother and a lover. Awful.

There were people yesterday afternoon literally willing the murderer to be a Muslim so they could say 'I told you so'. As facts emerge about Tommy Mair, then that gets used by others as evidence of a right wing coup, a white supremacist assassination. Social media enables others to make snap judgements - me included - the latest being an army of instant experts on mental health. I'm weary of it.

I'm tired of the anger, tired of the sullen insolence that demands a voice, a right without a care for the consequences. Where's the love? The joy? 

I applaud, by the way, the "thank your MP" hashtag. I imagine our Tory MP works hard, so do some of our councillors, so do people who deliver leaflets or knock on doors. Yet it seems like open season on us all. Some of my political opponents get under my skin from time to time, but we have to take responsibility here for the dehumanising language we use and the way we all conduct ourselves.

Seven great songs in seven days for seven good friends

Over on the Facebook, my friend Chris Barry nominated me for the music challenge, which meant that for the next seven days I shared a tune a day.

Tuesday
I'm going to kick off with Berry Gordy's Desert Island Disc I heard this morning in another tear jerker on Kirsty Young's peerless interview with the castaways. The Tamla Motown founder clearly still holds a torch for the love of his life Diana Ross, here performing I Hear a Symphony. I'm so lucky I'm with mine.

For one of my dearest and longest friendships and who really got me into Northern Soul and Motown I nominated Kevin Parkes to delve into his musical archives and share his top tunes for the next seven days.

Wednesday
My second choice is Preposterous Tales by I, Ludicrous.
All of us at some point have met a Ken McKenzie. In fact if you can't think of someone in your life that's like him, it's probably you.

As Facebook is about old friends and new I'm going to celebrate the old again and nominate Paul Swinnerton to pick a new tune a day for the next seven days - as he introduced me to this song back in the late 1980s. Apparently he was good mates with them!. It's true, man!

Thursday
Day three of the musical challenge takes me to Perth in Western Australia, the world's most isolated city. A big song about loneliness by a band who embodied so much about their home city - flatlands, wilderness, big and empty.

It's Wide Open Road by The Triffids.

But I love it especially because I used to have it on a VHS that my friend Roy Jopson (RIP) made for me when we shared a house in Perth. When I moved to London I'd watch it after a night out, to take me back to nights (and mornings) sat up chatting with ABC TV's Rage on in the background. The track after it was Atmosphere by Joy Division, two bands that belong in, and are a product of, their unique time and place.

I'm passing the baton for the musical challenge - pick a tune for the next seven days - to Adil Bux, a Perth pal to this day, who Facebook has allowed me to stay in touch with and witness his lovely family growing up. Hope to see you for a lemonade in London sometime soon my friend.

Much love to all the Perth crew - Keep the Faith.

Friday
Part four of the seven day musical challenge finally brings me into the 1990s (which apparently was the point).

I love the pomp of the Pet Shop Boys and this awesome reworking of a Village People disco anthem.

This is dedicated to the honeymooners Jason Prince and Lee Clarkson who are indeed heading that way in a few days. Consider yourself nominated, but take your time and enjoy the West Coast. Life is peaceful there.

Saturday
Day five of the musical challenge. And I had to promise to stick to the 90s, which apparently was the point (whoops). This is from the soaring "comeback" album from the Manic Street Preachers. I saw them supporting Oasis at Cardiff Arena in 1996 and trying this stuff out. 20 years later they were filling stadiums and now they're doing the Welsh team's song for the Euros.

I'm going to nominate Martin Cook to take up the challenge of a new tune every day for the next seven. "I wish I had a bottle... ".

Sunday
Day six of the music challenge and it's THE Oasis track of the time, Don't Look Back in Anger.

I did this song with the band who played at my 40th and at the Y Factor charity gig we did for MENCAP, raising over 150k over a few years.

The greatest tribute to my musical prowess was from Terry Christian: "he's dancing to the words".

The leader of the band and the most musically gifted of all of my friends on here is Jeremy Smith, soon to appear at Glastonbury as part of Barclay James Harvest. Over to you maestro to pick a 90s tune a day for the next seven days....

Monday
Final day of the music challenge.

I went all the way back to 1994 for this one. A song that reminds me of going freelance for the first time and the optimism I needed to sustain me through the uncertainty.

The song was also used three years later as a campaign song for New Labour in the landslide election of that year. A time of optimism and togetherness I feel our country has long since left behind.

The song is of course Things Can Only Get Better by D:Ream, featuring Professor Brian Cox on keyboards.

So I now nominate is comrade Steve Connor.

OBI Property 'Beyond the Bomb' - Manchester 20 years on

Underwhelmed by Owen Coyle's appointment as Blackburn Rovers manager

Owen Coyle is going to have to turn around not only his own flagging career, but the mindset of an exhausted and insulted group of fans AND the fortunes of a club in the financial mire. If he manages it, then he could well have a religion named after him.

Can he do it? On the evidence of his last three jobs he has lost the touch he once had at Burnley. Crap at Wigan, Not good at Houston in the MLS and sacked from his dream job at Bolton. When he got Burnley promoted I thought he was a decent bloke who understood how football should be played, but he torched all of that when he took the Bolton job.

I'm not excited by this appointment, I'm underwhelmed by it.

I'm not offended by this appointment, but we all long ago gave up on any notion that the Venky's knew what they were doing.

Manchester Mayor - at last, the penny drops - this is a golden opportunity

There is now a wide open window for some creative energy to blow through the campaign for a Greater Manchester Mayor in 2017. One that not only seeks to build on the incredible range of powers devolved to Manchester, but to start thinking about what else can be done.

But there are also massive risks for Labour, which I have outlined in this new book, Labour's Identity Crisis, England and the Politics of Patriotism, edited by Tristram Hunt MP and published by the University of Winchester.

Overshadowing so much of what social democracy can be in the next century is Scotland. Labour’s destruction there, the surge of the Scottish National Party, is underpinned by three major drivers: economic justice, national identity and a statecraft to address the other two.

In the North of England, I’m convinced of the need to address the first. In fact, everyone is. Where I see an opportunity is through devolution, federalism and empowerment at the most appropriate level that finds a way to tackle this imbalance. Where this is trickier is in how anyone can negotiate the political and cultural structures that underpin this. In truth, the compromise of an eleventh member of the Greater Manchester cabinet - effectively the power that a directly elected Mayor will have - isn't massively game changing. There has been a stark lack of buy-in for a devolution project that offers us an opportunity to shape our own destiny in ways that have never been granted before. Yes, it’s flawed, and yes, there is too much emphasis still on a sequence of dismal caveats, summed up in eight binding words – ‘at the discretion of the Secretary of State.’ But it’s a start. Just as Scotland was.

What brighter future can be imagined? What does a Manchester Health network look like? How do we encourage the values of co-operativism in the delivery of public services across the whole of Greater Manchester? And how do we encourage ambition, innovation and prosperity in a cold climate?

We still have a lot of growing up to do, but maybe as a city region and as place at the forefront of a new social democratic politics we can build on our successes, not just wallow in our defeats.

But there’s a weakness in the identity element here too, a massive deficit from the Scottish experience. Any regional English political project is inevitably tied to weary Westminster culture where Labour are losing and seem hell bent on continuing to do so. If Scotland has taught us anything it is that the firm link between identity politics, aspiration and better governance has proved truly inspirational. Similarly in Catalonia.

There are pockets of surging civic flag waving in our cities, but they are not a foundation upon which anyone is suggesting we can build a viable political project. But it could be. In this age of political easy answers it is not beyond the realms of the imagination that a popular, successful Mancunian, with no particular political ties, could emerge as a catalysing and insurgent force. What if Gary Neville thought he’d like a go? A Manchester Movement, led by a successful sports personality, a super-bright business achiever too, a well-connected property developer and savvy media performer. The more you game it, the more urgent it becomes to seize the opportunity to do a Greater Manchester version of our values in a bold, inclusive and distinctive way.

Much as I’d like it to be so, there isn’t a strong Northern or Greater Manchester identity anything like as historic and emotional as that which drove the Scots awakening and sustains support for some fairly poor statecraft under the SNP.

But maybe cities are different? More open, modern, globally focused and therefore less tied to a static view of nationhood. More English, in fact. For there has to be far more to a modern English identity than just Britishness with the Scots lopped off the top.

New Statesman podcast - usually good, terrible on Manchester Mayor

I found myself grinding my teeth with quiet rage on Monday listening to the usually excellent Helen Lewis and Stephen Bush of the New Statesman podcast pontificating on the Greater Manchester Mayoral selection.

Ivan Lewis is not thinking of standing for Mayor of Birmingham.

Andy Burnham did not grow up in "part of Greater Manchester".

Richard Lloyd is not the interim Mayor of Greater Manchester. 

Sir Richard Leese, is not the Mayor of Manchester City Council.

Tameside is not pronounced Tem-side. It's named after the River Tame, and rhymes with lame.

An outstanding Freshwalks hike up Kinder Scout and Edale

I've done a fair bit of walking in the Lake District, but all the toughest walks I've done have been in the Peaks. Even the names sound daunting - The Dark Peak, Bleaklow and Black Hill. This Saturday the Freshwalks tour did the Edale Circle, a good 16km in some fairly hostile conditions. It was at times unbearably hard. As a symbolic celebration of completing Jacob's Ladder, I slipped onto my arse.

I took the potentially irresponsible option of taking my 14 year old son. I am sufficiently worried that he doesn't get enough exercise and that he needs to find more things that he's good at, and that get him out of the house. And I thought he'd like it. For large parts of it he really didn't, but then none of us really enjoyed the lashing wind, the swirling rain or the hazards of the marshy bogs of Kinder Scout.

It was like the Revenant, without the bear, but no less harsh.

I'm no expert on building personal resilience in kids. I try my best. God knows I was hardly brought up in a favella myself and didn't want for much. And I worried that this was a step too far. But there was also a profound sense of euphoria and excitement when we yomped up the last hill before a smooth descent into Edale.

A word too on the company. I was involved in the very first "netwalking" expedition that has now developed into the hugely successful Freshwalks, led by my pal Michael Di Paola. Timing has conspired against me joining further expeditions, but it is clear that something truly special has been created here. The levels of support and friendliness are astounding. The kindness so front and centre.

As I cuddled up to Matt on the train heading home, trying to congratulate him on an awesome personal achievement, he just looked relieved. While I was trying to understand the mix of teenage hormones, his own unique characteristics that I can never truly comprehend but will never stop loving him for, I swear I had something in my eye.

James at the Arena - "Do the hits FFS"

James were immense at the Manchester Arena last night. The emotional heights they reach on some of their anthems have always and rather obviously been the mainstay of their appeal, but even for us old rockers the show goes on.

I'm in two minds about the live music "experience". The high standard of musicianship, staging and performance is now a given. Two and a half hours of brilliance from the stage. But that's not what takes the edge off it. So I thought I'd do a blog review as if it was done by the bloke sat next to me.

"Went to James last night. Had to wait ages for them to do Sit Down, after they did a load of new stuff and got the fiddles out for She's A Star and ruined it. If I wanted to see the Waterboys I'd stand in a field and chew grass. James don't do fiddles. And they didn't play Laid which me and our lass like. And they started Sit Down off dead slow, as if they don't really want to do it. Got what I came for though and filmed the whole thing on my camera phone, but it's probably ruined by the bloke next to me pushing me away and holding his hand up to hide his eyes from the flash light. But you need that to get a good picture from the upper tier of the Nynex. Anyway, once they'd knocked that one out we left to beat the traffic. Shame, they were doing that other one off the Best of James CD (or is it Best Anthems in the World Ever 4?) as we were coming out of the bogs. At least I didn't have to queue for a slash that time. I'd been five times in all and it took ages. That's one of the upsides of them playing the new stuff, time to have a piss or get another bevy in. Support bands were rubbish. Never heard of either of them."

Bring me sunshine - Morecambe v York a good day to end a rotten season

Michael Gibson, me and Kevin McGuinness

 For most football supporters, the end of any season has a strange mixture of emptiness, optimism and relief. 

Focus is rightly directed on the small number of teams still in the thick of a battle against relegation or promotion, or a title win, or it's been so dire the die was cast weeks ago. For most of us however, the season fizzled out a while ago. We're resigned therefore to watching a nothing game in the sunshine, reflecting on what might have been, but wondering what a better future might bring.

With this in mind, a few weeks ago I accepted an invitation to finally visit Morecambe FC's new home at the Globe Arena in preference to the last Rovers game of the season at home to Reading. As a Lancaster lad, I used to regard Morecambe as my local non-league team and went to a fair few games over the years. As a kid I even played on Christie Park once in a cubs tournament. In 1985, a few weeks into my first term at Manchester University, I hopped over to York to watch the Shrimps in an FA Cup first round clash with the Minstermen, their opponents this weekend.

Me and Jimmy Warwick

I'd only ever been to the Globe for the wake after Uncle Pete's funeral. We said then that we ought to come back for a game to honour the big man. I'm just sorry it's taken this long. Still, ground number 72 of the present 92 and 145 of the grand global total. I'll be losing West Ham and York this summer.

There's not much to say about the game, a 1-1 draw with some comedy finishing from both sides. It was great to be sat between Michael Gibson on one side, a Morecambe stalwart who gave me chapter and verse on the state of the club and the bad luck of the present season. On the other I had Phil Simpson, a York City supporter, lamenting the season and the circumstances leading up to his club finishing 92nd and heading back to the Conference, or National League, or whatever it's called. As Jim Bentley, Morecambe's manager, said at the end however disappointed the home fans are, there are 300 York fans here who'd swap places in an instant.

I'm sad to say that the ground is a bit of a missed opportunity. Too many executives boxes, the side opposite a neglected afterthought. Two low level terraces and some strange design quirks in the main stand - press area is very exposed, for one. On the positive, the pies are superb. The spread of food in our lounge was first rate for a football lunch. Too many grounds do a poor imitation of five star rubber chicken. I don't see the point. This was great though.

AC Milan line up against Hi Viz City

But bumping into two of my oldest friends Jim Warwick and Kevin McGuinness in the bar beforehand reminded me why I love the fellowship of football so much. So many memories, shared stories of days out, high jinks, scrapes and ordinary madness.

Here's to a summer of sunshine and hope. As they said 19 years ago. things can only get better. 

Vote for decency in Stockport this Thursday

People go into politics for all kinds of different reasons, I'll be generous and say usually for very sound and honourable motives, irrespective of party. At the other end of the scale, people then need to be forced out by the electorate when that moral compass no longer points to their own true north.

There are two wards close to where I live where the choice tomorrow is one of decency and honour over the rotten face of local politics. In other wards, like my own, it's actually between competing political programmes. I will therefore be voting for Sheila Townsend of the Labour Party, though I respect Tom Dowse of the Conservatives, who I regard as a good neighbour and not just a rival in politics, to paraphrase Justin Trudeau.

In Manor ward in Stockport Charlie Stewart is standing for Labour against the current Liberal Democrat leader, Sue Derbyshire. I worked alongside Charlie last year and know him to be honest, hard working and deeply honourable. I contrast this with Councillor Derbyshire whose behaviour and conduct over a whole range of issues has finally come to a head, resulting in resignations from her group and the kind of childish infighting that gives politics a bad name. The issue is supposedly over who-said-what over the relocation of Stockport Market. In reality, it is a demonstration of very poor leadership. Not least for entrusting the portfolio of economic development to a loose cannon called Patrick McAuley, the very councillor she is now attempting to smear and attack at every turn.

In Offerton ward the choice between light and dark couldn't be more pronounced. Janet Glover has worked in public service as a midwife, nurse and teacher. Over the last year she has been embedded in the local community and achieved countless positive outcomes for residents who have no-one to fight for them. Housing Associations need to be put under pressure to do repairs, crime needs a community response that a leader can convene. Politics requires this of you and Janet has displayed her qualities in spades.

The other choice is dishonest and represents all that is truly wrong about local politics.

At stake is the way Stockport is governed, how public services can be reformed and run effectively and how strategic decisions can be made for the long term, not just to preserve councillors' careers.

I hope that on Thursday night we will be cracking open the jelly and ice cream.

Here's Ivan Lewis speaking on The North. More Poorhouse than Powerhouse

Protests, anger and football - a bit of context

When is it alright to protest at a football match? Discuss.

It's always your right to protest, to wave a banner, but while sometimes it's a legitimate expression of popular will, at others you just end up sounding like a spoilt brat. The rest of the football world looks on  and makes a snap judgement based on a shallow reading of the facts.

As the season draws to a close the banners come out. The frustration, the broken promises, the problems with the board, they all bubble to the surface. The common thread is often a feeling of powerlessness. But who are we to judge? What do we who follow another team know of the back story, the daily reality? Here are a few examples.

The Justice for the 96 campaign has at times been sneered at and patronised. But by God they were right. Persistence, pride and passion directed at the police, media and a judicial system that has failed them.

Blackpool fans marched on their stadium on Saturday, outraged at the dire football, the years of goading by the Oyston family. Yes, I totally get that.

There was a pitch invasion against the board at fan owned FC United. No, I honestly can't fathom this. There is a mechanism, a democratic structure, to change things at this club. Pursue that by all means at the EGM that has been called, but this can be easily sorted without indulgent showboating.

FA Cup holders Arsenal are on course to finish in the top 4, but the placards were out calling for Arsene Wenger to be sacked. Arsenal fans are one of the minor reasons I don't listen to 606 any more (Robbie Savage is the main one). Supporters of clubs owned by oligarchs demanding more and more spending of more and more money in a season where Leicester City are going to win the league make me feel ill.

We have form about this at Blackburn Rovers. A mid table and unremarkable season under an unloved but plodding manager sees the surprise appointment of a Scottish manager (ex-Celtic player) who makes things worse. You know the rest.

Well actually you don't. On Saturday at Rotherham some Rovers fans sung: "Paul Lambert we want you to stay" (I didn't) and the blame was firmly directed at Venky's, our strange owners.

Loop back a few years ago and the anger was almost totally focused on Steve Kean. At the time I thought that was wrong. It personalised an issue, made the fans look like a baying bullying mob and got Venky's off the hook. The villain of the piece was the agent Jerome Anderson and his involvement in bringing Venky's to the club and tearing it apart. Kean was enthusiastically and willingly complicit, he was clearly out of his depth as a manager, but absolutely everything that was going on at the club pointed to a meltdown under Venky's ownership. The Shebby Singh circus that followed proved all those fears to be right.

The Rao family have been truly terrible owners, but they have kept paying the wages. I don't know how this situation is in any way sustainable. How on earth can they expect to keep writing the cheques to support an asset they have no operational or strategic interest in? I'll be honest, I'm surprised they've lasted as long as they have. The future has to be under different owners - preferably a fan owned co-operative and local businesses - but that is a pipe dream in truth. There can be a better future, but it is sadly going to have to get much worse before it does. That will inevitably mean administration, relegation and a rock bottom we may not have experienced before. Think Portsmouth.

I looked around at Rotherham on Saturday. A tidy new stadium (back up to 71 of the current 92) with a decent atmosphere, a run down town in the shadow of a bigger metropolis. A manager who has saved the season with graft and tactical nous. Is this our future? I hate to say it, but it might be. This was what I'd have settled for in about 1990. How does the song go, "If we hadn't had such riches, we could live with being poor".

Is that then a situation worth protesting about? Of course. But it's also one that has to go beyond anger and forces us to get organised. To be ready to take a full part in rescuing the husk of what will be left. It won't be easy, or pleasant, people will fall out and egos will collide. It may never be as great as the heights of the past. But this is our future, let's hope we can shape it.