Getting beaten at Man City - this is how it feels to be Rovers

Manchester City fielded at least four players against Blackburn Rovers yesterday who cost more than Venky's paid to buy an entire club. With the exception of City keeper Joe Hart - who may as well not have bothered playing - no Rovers player cost more than the next cheapest City player.

There is a gulf in money between the clubs. There was also a gulf in class. I said to my eldest lad yesterday that the point wasn't to hope we'd win - we had no chance - but for him to watch at close quarters a player of sublime skill and ability - David Silva.

We can moan about humiliation and tactics as much as we like, but that's the truth. And whoever else buys the club, there isn't a thing we can do about it. The Man United score looks more and more like a fluke.

Best hope for Blackburn Rovers - a mutual future

The building blocks are being slotted into the place for a supporter owned future for Blackburn Rovers. The website, here, has all the details so far of the newly formed Supporters Investment Trust. This plan has my full support. There may be some short term blips and the present owners may play hard to get, but this is the only game in town.

Inside Out - BBC North West programme on Peel

I was delighted to be asked to contribute a few comments to the BBC North West Inside Out programme on Peel Holdings this week. In a nutshell I said the North West is very lucky to have a business like Peel, led by a driven and determined character like John Whittaker, but that their success comes with a ruthless streak. They tend not to lose. I also mentioned he is a devout practising Catholic. Maybe I sound a little like the Indian mother on Goodness Gracious Me, always spotting her own.

My one and only on the record encounter with John Whittaker is recorded for all time here in the May 2010 edition of North West Business Insider. I rather regret not making more of this encounter and putting it up on the web. The theatre of the clash between JW and Sir Howard Bernstein seemed exciting at the time, and we milked it as a news story and demonstrated how we accessed such big hitters. I wish in a way I'd delved into the great man a little more while I had the chance and splashed it some more. Hats off then to Property Week editor Giles Barrie for doing just that with his opportunity here, but I notice that he too has chosen to hide it behind a paywall. Sometimes it's better to save these things for the printed product, I certainly thought so at the time.

I also have to commend David Quinn and Arif Ansari for an excellent short film. It was fair, balanced and gave a number of valuable insights into the business. The only shame for them, like me, like Giles Barrie, is with Peel you just don't know what to leave out - but part of our challenge is always what you omit as much as what you include and how the story is then told.

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

There is something frustrating, irritating and slightly unctuous about the modern literary elite - Martin Amis, Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes. There shouldn't be, we should actually be proud of what they have produced and be prepared to absorb ourselves in their prestigious output. Barnes won the 2011 Booker Prize for this slim novella - and though I haven't actually read any of the others he beat to the title, it seems at least worthy of the honour. It's an uncomfortable read at times, dealing with the recollections of Tony Webster, a middle aged man dealing with a life of regret and questionable recollection. It is beautifully written with a straightforward story and cast of characters. His tone of voice, so eloquent and observant, and yet so unable to read people properly as time passes and to display such lack of awareness takes real skill. Building a story around an unsympathetic character is often hailed as a worthy trick to pull off, Amis and McEwan all revel in it. This is slightly different, as you never particularly root for Webster, but recoil in mild disgust. It's also an antidote to boastful Great American Novel writers who demand so much of you with their 150,000 word epic. None of that should put you off, it is a short, accessible and thoroughly engaging little gem of a book.

Charity shop classics - from Marple

James Graham, a journalist of this wider parish of Manchester, presents a delightful show on community radio station ALL FM based in Levenshulme. It's called Charity Shop Classics and features music purchased in the ever growing number of charity shops. The idea of the show is to show how much great, eclectic stuff you can find. There are a few Charity Shops in Marple as we know and programme number 10 sourced some of its music from the Cancer Research shop on Derby Way.


James says: "I was delighted to find that this was just two songs: Graham Parker and the Rumour – I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down, and Kris Kristofferson – Help Me Make it Through the Night from the albums Stick to Me, and Me and Bobby McGee respectively.

 "I remember thinking the general calibre of albums was pretty high, not too much battered stuff, or crooners like Doonican and Jim Reeves, or dreadful Scottish marching music." Here's a thing. They were both £1.99 which James thought was a premium price - the ideal rate being 50p or £1. "Sadly there's terrible price inflation in charity shops, fuelled by some stores who realised they were under-selling a lot of stuff." I thought maybe it's a Cheshire thing, but apparently not.

The show is on every Sunday morning 11-12 (apart from the first of the month) on allfm 96.9 which can be picked up across Greater Manchester.

Marple democracy in action

My fascination with the workings of local government and politics took me to the Area Committee meeting at Marple Library tonight. Usually such meetings are small and sleepy affairs. Some have no members of public present at all. Marple's is usually quite well attended - about 40 people were at this one. There were a couple of presentations - one on woodland and the other on the long term Vision for Marple by Gillian from Marple Civic Society.

The most controversial aspect of the meeting was a presentation by one of the officials on the use of A Frames outside shops. There is a proposal that these be registered and licensed at a cost of £70 each. The reason? the council are concerned that they may be liable if there is no scheme in place when some tricky lawyer comes knocking with a stack of personal injury cases.

Understandably the businesses present were appalled at another burden when they least need it. But the councillors seemed sympathetic enough. One of them however proceeded to lecture local businesses on the best ways they could advertise cost effectively on the internet and in local papers - instead of using these advertising boards.

It seems a mundane and trivial issue, but the promise to look again seemed genuine as did a call for a formal response from Marple Business Forum to introduce a voluntary code.

Did it make me any more convinced about the need for non-partisan representation at a time of critical community need? No, not really, but it did reinforce the view that while they may be hugely committed to their local community needs, councillors have to play a daily game of cat and mouse with professional bureaucrats who have a need to meddle. Some cope with that better than others, and the closer they are to the party machine, the harder it is to do that.

No news on the supermarket developments - Asda have yet to submit a plan. The deadline for expressions of interest on the Chadwick Street site is this Friday.

Local politics - too important to be left to politicians

The local council elections this May have thrown up a few intriguing issues. Marple's two wards have both been relatively safe Liberal Democrat seats, but these are far from normal times. If the national picture is to be translated locally then the LibDem vote is in meltdown and they will probably lose control of Stockport Council, which they currently run with the tacit support of a group of independent councillors from Heald Green.

Last time round, the Conservatives trailed the LibDems by 8 per cent in Marple South and 10 per cent in Marple North. A softening of the core vote could easily swing it. Link to the results is here.

Locally in Marple there are only really two well organised political bodies. The Liberal Democrat party and Marple in Action. That is not to say that Marple in Action is a political party, far from it. Indeed, there are many crossovers in membership and over the single issue of the supermarket the LibDems have come out as against it.

Yet I get no impression that the Conservatives have a sufficient organisation in Marple. The Conservative Club is a social base, not a political one. They have fielded "paper" candidates in the past, young activists with a willingness to put their names out, but with no hope of winning. Now that they have the opportunity, do they have the means?

A cynic could say the local councillors and candidates have played to the prevailing wind. Had there been no outrage at the proposals, I dare say the councillors who have sat as college governors would herald the inward investment success of attracting interest from Asda. As it is, they've latterly come to the table and been rather shocked by the weight of public opinion (see the picture above at the Area Committee in Memorial Park which rather shook them up).

I think all of this has made Marple quite volatile politically. There is also, to my mind, the continued question as to whether Shan Alexander should continue a career in public life following her conviction in 2009 of a driving offence which resulted in the death of a passenger in her car. I certainly don't think she should, as I said here. I don't know whether this is a big issue locally, but it should be.

But as I've said before, here for example, there is a vital need for an open and public debate about where this community is heading. Marple in Action has done a great job raising this long term thought to the fore. But will the councillors? In a council chamber, with party loyalties pulling elected members in one direction and another, I fear the main priority of this community and it's fragile business base could be overlooked.

I don't think the short term objectives of Marple in Action are under any immediate threat from the issues of this election - it is important too that the organisation remains focused on this huge single issue. But beyond that I have an uneasy feeling that the longer the Marple Area plan is thrown into the hands of council committees and dense reports, the more obscure it appears to ordinary people. 

My view, which I have come to recently, is that this election is time for an independent slate to come forward and stand up for the community. And put Marple first.

Thirty One - a very worthwhile project

Some of Manchester's finest musical talents have contributed to a fantastic project called Thirty One. The launch is at Band on the Wall tomorrow and I'm gutted I can't go.

It's all in aid of the CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably) charity. Suicide is the biggest killer of young men in the UK and the proceeds of the album will be going towards helping CALM set up a 24/7 round-the-clock helpline.

 Thirty One is a collection of tracks from Manchester UK, featuring rare and exclusive songs from both established and emerging acts. The album has been curated and compiled by DJ/Writer Dave Haslam for The Factory Foundation. Thirty One also features art direction from Peter Saville (in collaboration with LOVE Creative) and photography from Thomas Cockram. All profits from the release will go to CALM a registered charity with its roots in Manchester.

The ambition of Thirty One is to raise sufficient funds to enable CALM to run their national freephone helpline service: 0800 58 58 58 every night of the week, every day of the year. The helpline is currently open from 5pm-midnight on Saturday, Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays. Thirty One is an amazing snapshot capturing the undeniable quality of the Manchester music scene. It features brand new material by artists with careers stretching back to the post-punk era.

TRACKS INCLUDE: -ELBOW Lippy Kids (Live from Pinkpop- an exclusive UK release) -NOEL GALLAGHER’S HIGH FLYING BIRDS Let The Lord Shine A Light On Me (from the band’s second single) -I AM KLOOT Bigger Wheels (reworked exclusively for Thirty One) -EVERYTHING EVERYTHING Carry Me Home (Gloworm Cover) -DURUTTI COLUMN Requiem Away (re-mastered from FAC244) -JEZ KER Reason I Feel Like An Alien (a stripped back version of the track from A Certain Ratio’s bassist/vocalist).

Other tracks come from established acts such as Delphic and Mr Scruff, the inimitable psychedelic songwriter Jim Noir and bright new hopes Airship. Thirty One also features BBC 6 Music favorites Plank! and a remix of Manchester stalwarts The Whip’s “Secret Weapon”. It is an album much like the city from which it originates: rich in musical variety. It ranges from the bass heavy sounds of Murkage, to the delicate stylings of Sara Lowes and the stunning, original new talent of Ruby Ann Patterson. All of the songs have been donated by the artists for Thirty One, which is not just a compilation reflecting successful music-making in the city, but presents one of the highest quality charity albums of recent years.

Have you ever met a soft Salfordian?

I enjoyed a trip to Salford's new community stadium to watch Salford City Reds play their first game against Castleford hast weekend. The positives first: the facilities are very good, the food was excellent. I enjoyed the company of my good pal Chris Bird, Jonathan Wall from BBC Radio 5 Live, Mike Fahey and the Salford legend Mike Sweeney. Salford scored first, which was exciting. But it was absolutely freezing. That obviously hit the attendance, which was a little disappointing. The stadium is a decent facility, as it's new the fans are getting used to it - but it's a good main stand with a long and plush function room and the view of the action is first rate. It was a pain to get out of after the match - they need to sort out the access roads.

One other thing. What do you do if you come from Salford and are soft? I mean, everyone looks really hard. Men, women, kids, business people, politicians, sports players. I don't mean they look rough and I'm not being snobbish, but seriously have you ever met a soft Salfordian?

Norbert Smith - one of the greats - a Cricklewood legend too?

I'm looking forward to seeing Peter Capaldi in a new documentary about Cricklewood Studios - on Sunday. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14310252 - if it's half as good as the above tribute to British film making excellence we will be in for a treat.

A Week In December by Sebastian Faulks

While learned critics were reaching for the "Dickensian" epithet, I recalled The Wire, which had multiple story lines, interweaving characters and each said something funny, pointed and wise about the times we are living in. The word then and now is "sprawling" both of the clever interlocking themes and the wide ranging cast - some you believe more than others - John Veals the hedge fund scumbag most of all. Mixed in with all of that is a smattering of sexual tension and human tragedy. What is particularly impressive is that those issues pan mental illness, football, immigration, hedge funds, the book world, the law, morality in the media, Islam, ambition, failure, voices in the head and a few more layers of London. There have already been a number of books dealing with the elements of the financial crisis of 2008, but in the hands of Sebastian Faulks, a really accomplished literary writer, this one will stand out. There is an element of him showing off, using contemporary themes he backs them all up with flawless research and detail. It makes for a dizzying read - but one that is hard to dip in and out of.

Blackburn Rovers fans - listen to this

We recorded a podcast last night with Daniel Grabko the author of the draft plan for a mutualisation of Blackburn Rovers. The link is here. Everything about Daniel's plan is open, honest and optimistic. He wants input and feedback - let me know what you think.

The Rocky Place

Did you have a special place you visited as a kid? We did. In fact, we had a few. My parents were no fools; not for us were the arcades of Blackpool or Morecambe, and their temptations to take your money for slots that were stacked against you and piles of ice cream, no way. We would spend Sundays at local beauty spots in the "area of outstanding natural beauty" beyond Quernmore and towards the wilder moors.
For my Dad's birthday weekend we took a stroll down Nostalgia Way with a clamber up this outcrop on Littledale Road between the Scout camp and Quernmore. The view and the light were magnificent on Sunday, something magical and special, it rekindled memories of childhood and adventure and quite how loved we were as kids. I still can't find a name for it though, so we still just call it The Rocky Place.

Marple shops in 2012

There is very little to disagree with in the major findings of the Mary Portas review of High Streets. And the points in her recommendations about public consultation and compulsory purchase powers over empty shops are of particular interest. Much of the underlying problems, however, are caused not by estates management, but an economic imbalance between the numbers of retail units and the amount of money in the economy that people want to spend in shops.

My eldest son and I had a lovely coffee and teacake in Portobello recently, the newish cafe on Market Street. I admire the courage of the owners, especially with plenty of local competition - particularly with Costa opening on Stockport Road.

Thoughts quickly turned to how the ideas Mary Portas has expressed may play out in our community, in particular in Marple centre. On one hand there are empty shops and new businesses trying to make a go of it with wafer thin margins. On the other hand there are ever more plans to bring in new supermarkets to increase the space to shop in and a proliferation of national brands.

The discussion on the Marple website about the recent opening of Costa and the plans for Chadwick Street, as well as Hibbert Lane, have been categorised by rumour and bickering - just as it does in cafe's homes and pubs, I expect - but the misinformation is damaging and counter productive.

So, good luck to Portobello, good luck too to everyone prepared to give it a go. It is for their sake that we must continue to oppose Asda, but we also have to be grown up enough to ask - what else would work around here? What are we lacking? This is a truly important time, we must not waste it.

David Miliband makes the case for Mayors

pic courtesy of Coral Grainger + instagram

David Miliband was in Manchester last night for a Labour Party event where he was interviewed by DJ and writer Dave Haslam and I actually really enjoyed it.

There's a decent review here on Manchester Confidential, so I won't attempt to repeat that. But a few additional thoughts occurred. The first is over the issue of public engagement in politics and the second is linked to that - the issue of city Mayors.

What I like about David Miliband the thinker, the backbench MP and the activist, is he has a very analytical view of the way the world is changing. The reason I joined another 150 people on a wet Wednesday night at the Mechanics Institute was because I was very impressed with his contribution to a debate on the world a decade after 9/11 I heard in London last year - there's a link to a bit of it here and I have been particularly impressed with some of his non-partisan thinking on issues like youth unemployment.

Also, to be fair, his Movement for Change sounds very grand - get community groups who are involved in political (with a small p) campaigns and issues and work alongside them. By engaging with them the Labour Party can renew itself by listening as well as learning. At least I think that's how he defined it.

I liked his analysis of politics and how to find political solutions in stages -"empathy, analysis, vision, policy and implementation." To illustrate by example he cited the problem of youth employment, and was both logical and creative.

In answer to a question on Mayors for Britain's cities he held his hands up in deference to Manchester Labour people and said he was in favour. The political establishment in Manchester is opposed. At an event I chaired last week Sir Richard Leese mapped out his reasons for opposing - Manchester has evolved a political structure where the 10 local authorities have combined some key functions. They come under the control not of Manchester City Council, but the Combined Authority, made up of all of the boroughs. That is led by the elected leaders and organisations to administer these joint functions. Manchester is not being offered the opportunity to elect a Boris or a Ken.

Yet I've heard David Cameron make the same case for a Mayor being the accountable and elected office that you can knock on the door of. Great cities need one. The difficuty about what is on offer so far is way removed from that. Salford is voting on the issue today - I'm hearing a turnout of less than 15 per cent will reject the idea - but this is no way to deal with the issue. The cities of Manchester and Salford, let alone the towns of Stockport, Bolton, Wigan, Oldham, Rochdale and Bury aren't big and powerful enough to require a big and powerful charismatic leader - let alone made-up entities like Tameside and Trafford. I actually like the idea of the elected Mayor at the head of Greater Manchester, driving policy and having some vision to deliver it. The city region has been blessed by the stable double act of Sir Richard Leese and his chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein, but you cannot enshrine in the constitution of a city region for "remarkable civic leader who gets things done by hook or by crook". I don't look forward to the day when these very able men choose to do something else in their advancing years. They are virtually irreplaceable. But it is their success that has made the Mayoral issue a non-starter.

But who outside of Greater Manchester and outside of policy making knows of these two? When was Richard on Question Time last? When was he on Newsnight? If he had the office of Mayor for a city region of 2.5 million people he'd have power and clout to be on all the time. He has the right to be as high profile as the tedious Alex Salmond. And the point David Miliband was making was that these examples of good practice in the cities have the potential to reshape the narrative of national politics.

POSTSCRIPT - there was a low turnout in the Salford referendum, but there was also a yes vote. Seems like the politically active voted for another body that has no popular enthusiasm.

Make Venky's History

The Venky's have been a blight on Blackburn Rovers. Their ownership has been disastrous. There are good people working against all the odds to prevent a total meltdown, some of them as employees of the club, most of them as supporters trying to broker a solution.

When you analyse why they bought a Premier League football club - you have to deduce it was for the promotional possibilities. That seems to have amounted to getting the players to take part in a humiliating chicken commercial, promotional trips to India (where the club captain came over all Iraqi Minister of Information) and a few hoardings around Ewood Park. Even they have failed.

All the protests against Steve Kean have achieved have been to get the football establishment rallying round him and our fans portrayed as oafs. The element of the protests against Venky's have either been ignored, dismissed as ungrateful or just plain racist. So far.

The thing with people who crave good PR is that they can't deal with bad PR. A few corporate fans at Wigan told Venkatesh and Balaji the facts of life and that was the last we saw of his pony tail and bling.

Jerome Anderson is distancing himself from them. They have no allies in England at all. And now their business judgement is being questioned in their home country by this terrific summary of their comedy ownership in the Economic Times of India.

Slowly the message is starting to get through.

Momentum is slowly building too for Rovers fans here to grasp the nettle and see them off. Of course, they have to want to sell, but the first thing is making them not want to own any longer.

Beyond that the options are emerging. Wayne Wild, a forthright and willing businessman and sponsor of the Darwen End, has articulated his view, here. Ian Battersby has spoken to the Independent, here, about what the Venky's need to do as a matter of some urgency. And then there's a detailed business plan here, prepared by a Swedish based Rovers fan to establish a mutual trust. All of them amount to the same thing I've been saying here for a while - leave this club. Give it back. Go away. You have wasted money, don't waste any more.

These are all positive steps forward to ridding our football clubs of these owners. Make Venky's history.

What are the chances?

The strangest things happened last week. 

Firstly, on Friday, on the Marple flyer, I squeezed into my seat and popped open my latest book - A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks, a book published in 2010. The guy across from me was not only reading the same book, but the same edition and was only marginally further into the 392 pages than me. "What are the chances of that?" I asked him, holding the book up. He was about my age and was dressed in a similar way too.

Logic, rather than magic, deduced that the chances of two similar men reading a Faulks book are still longish, but not impossible. Novels can take time to catch on. Faulks is everywhere at the moment, with the TV adaptation of Birdsong appearing on Sunday night. My book was passed on by a mate at work, he thought I'd really like it, and I do. Maybe the other bloke had the same encouragement, its themes are current and modern. It's not quite like the One Day phenomena, where word-of-mouth saw interest explode, but it's not a surprise.

Secondly, the CD I have on in the car at the moment is This is the Life by Amy MacDonald. Again, it's an older product - 2007 - and has been a success for a while. My artistic son's art teacher Sean Wood had the same CD on in his studio on Saturday. Again, what are the chances? Again, it's not a surprise. He is a man of good folky musical heritage. I like that kind of music and have been dabbling of late. Sean would tend to play music that the kids would like to draw to, but that he likes too, but would be the easier end of that spectrum. She is therefore ideal. Subconsciously too, I suspect I was subliminally drawn to her music when scanning Sean's collection.

I am occasionally inspired and awestruck by serendipitous moments, but these weren't them. Just a load of middle class white people all liking the same kind of stuff.

Steven O'Riordan - still missing

Steven O'Riordan is still missing from the Whaley Bridge / Stockport area. His family and police are very concerned for his welfare. He was last seen in Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire, and he regularly walked along the canal to Marple and also worked at Lyme Park.

It must be desperately worrying for his family, but they should never give up hope.

Anyone with information should call 0800 555 111.

It was wrong to target Steve Kean and still is

A year ago Blackburn Rovers stuffed Liverpool in a thrilling game. The crowd cheered the new manager Steve Kean and even chanted his name. That night I sat in the director's area at Ewood close to Jerome Anderson and the Rovers board. I asked chairman John Williams how he was and how things were going. He wasn't happy. I blogged about it here. He was gone within the month.

Thanks to the excellent research of Nick Harris on the Sporting Intelligence site we now see the detail of quite how the whole unravelling was taking place at Ewood Park. In an extraordinary and explosive letter to the owners the concerns of the three executives running the business - John Williams, Tom Finn and Martin Goodman - laid bare their frustrations. They were being frozen out of big decisions and feared the worst. This is what they said about the manager: ‘Steve is an inexperienced manager who needs day-to-day support and assistance from people experienced in the running of the football operations.’

Last week we were treated to a quite dreadful interview on Sky Sports News with Jerome Anderson of sports agency SEM. He used phrases like "certain issues" "things happened" about the Venky's and what was going on at the club without ever being challenged as to what they were or what the problem was to which he was the solution.

Anderson also makes a statement here defending himself and attempting to correct the widely held belief that he is involved in running the club.

"At the conclusion of the January 2011 transfer window I ceased to assist Blackburn Rovers Football Club in any capacity and I can confirm that I have not had any role or influence in their transfer policy or any other business of the club whatsoever since that date."

The letter from the three executives reads to me like the first step in a move towards the exit door. An expression of frustration, yes, but also a legal step in a potential case of constructive dismissal. It also paints a picture of owners who are utterly without a clue, but are relying on advice from SEM, but not their own board.  It also refers to a meeting at the Liverpool game with Barclays Bank. Now, if John Williams was telling me, a journalist, that he wasn't happy with his personal situation then it must have been equally difficult for him to confidently convey a good message to the bank. And as we now know, that relationship is crucial.

A year on, there has been nothing at all to reassure the bank that this is a sound business. The accounts made for grim reading and the Barclays are after assurances if they are going to support the business as a going concern.

I have strongly believed from the outset that these owners are the real problem, Steve Kean is a symptom of that ineptitude. His inexperience was clear from the outset, but everything else I have heard this week backs up the depth of the problems here. You even detect in Anderson some fast paddling to get as far away from these owners as possible.

It has never been established how the deal to buy Rovers was funded. The ultimate holding company is in India, where borrowing costs are high, so I suspect they borrowed internationally. My contacts on the deal were surprised when Venky's showed evidence of funds, as they suspected, as I do, that Venky's are nowhere near as wealthy as everyone has been led to believe. It was one of the many questions Sky Sports didn't ask Jerome Anderson.

So, to the present and the next few important games. For what's it worth, I think the whole BRFC Action campaign needs a rethink. All that passion and commitment needs a new direction.

The personal abuse of Steve Kean is wrong on a human level. But it has also been wrong on a tactical level too. I've heard the conspiracy theories about him as well, and I'm sure they fuel the hatred. In this kind of atmosphere untruths will fill the void of silence from the absentee landlords. Some of his public statements in support of the owners have been ill-judged, but the Kean Out protests have allowed the campaign to be portrayed as one man against the mob. With better support from a board and a proper infrastructure, who knows what he could achieve? But it's hard to construct a slogan out of that.

Any campaign for action has to have a conclusion in mind. The heat needs to increase on the owners to sell to someone who can do something with the club and who cares, but this lot have proved they are buffoons who are not fit to own a football club.

And in the middle of all of this I still have one other question - what's Bob Coar for?

A ramble round Manchester

There's a ramble round Manchester on the The Casual Connoisseur Blog: by my pal Bill Routledge. Some good tips on ale and clobber.

Bill has a good nose for decent pub and has written a few of these city guides on the CasCo site.

The photographs are pretty good as well - the one opposite is of Bill and LS Lowry in the bar of Sam's Chophouse.