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.

On this day in 1943 - remembering my Grandfather Francis Edward O'Hare

On this day in 1943 my Grandfather died. He was Flight Sergeant Francis "Teddy" O'Hare of the Royal Canadian Airforce who served as Wireless Operator on board Halifax Mk. II JB-920 coded LQ-F during an operation to Duisberg.

The aircraft crashed 12 miles from Duisberg along the banks of the Rhine, all of the crew perished. They were the first crew lost by 405 squadron since it was transformed into a Pathfinder unit. 

Although he was born in Birkenhead, he joined the RCAF crew and his colleagues, like him, were all in their twenties and from Ontario, Saskatchewan and Detroit.

Thanks to the RCAF for continuing to honour his role and to Michael Oliver for his important work in creating the permanent memorial to the contribution of the RCAF at the National Arboretum in Staffordshire.*

As my friend Tom Cannon said last week - they really were the greatest generation. Defeated fascism, created the NHS, rebuilt Europe, created the UN etc, etc.

None of us have anything but these pictures, facts and our genes to remember you by, Teddy. But your two daughters turned out fine. Wonderful women, the best mothers their sons and daughters could wish for. Amazing Grandmas, even a great Grandma now.

 To those that fell. RIP.

 * I've blogged about that here and here.

Why I couldn't bring myself to celebrate a goal today - my Rovers is dying

An angry football fan of my acquaintance was railing against this team and that and I asked him if he hated every team?

"Yes."

"Except your own, obviously?"

"No, especially my own."

I feel like that at the moment. When Danny Graham's flukey second goal against Bristol City flew in this afternoon I stayed seated. I didn't applaud. I couldn't. At the end I'm pleased we didn't lose, but it's how I've come to feel. Numb.

I really, really find it hard to like anything at all about Blackburn Rovers at the moment.

A particular source of my ire is the search for green shoots and silver linings. There really aren't any. 

We saw a young lad Mahoney make his debut today. He was alright, my eldest lad likened him to one of his former team mates, a lightweight diletante, a tippy toes. He whipped in a couple of decent crosses in the second half and started to prove he was putting his marker under pressure. 

Then Lambert subbed him.

There were individual instances of professional incompetence that should warrant a formal warning for gross misconduct. Jason Lowe failing to take a throw in properly, Elliot Ward dribbling instead of shooting, Jordi Gomez backing out of challenges. Any of the midfield or full backs unable to turn an opponent and make a forward pass. 

In fact when Gomez got subbed I shouted that he should carry on walking all the way to Sunderland. His obvious skill and footballing brain is far outstripped by his cowardice and lack of application at this level.

There's that hopeless moment that you see mark out every struggling helpless team. A player holds his hands out as if to say - who can I pass to? Ward did it, Lowe did it, Marshall's whole body language is of a coiled spring wound tighter and tighter under the pressure of carrying a whole team. It's a terrible indictment of a team without a plan.

And what of the manager? He's a man running out of excuses. He's had plenty to say about Aston Villa's plight of which he must bear some responsibility. And I haven't heard a denial of any interest in the Celtic job. But if anyone from Glasgow was at Ewood wondering how a coaching genius could make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, they wouldn't have found him here.

We weren't going to come to Ewood today after last week's awful display against Huddersfield. But if there's one thing worse than sitting through another defeat, it's sitting at home and hearing about a spirited victory we could have gone to.

On top of this Louis broke his foot last week and needs an operation on Tuesday. He's not crippled, but is uncomfortable and not terribly mobile. We usually park in Lower Darwen and walk, which would have been a stretch. So I rang Rovers and asked about parking. Yes, £10, near the Darwen End. I didn't expect special treatment, but when I've been a corporate fan I've had my name on the list and been helped along by someone who seemed to care. I don't blame the lad who I spoke to, but it was a stark contrast to a Rovers I once knew. A time when this was a club that cared, where the default response would have been to bend over backwards to help. I don't particularly resent the £6 extra I forked out to park either, it was never about the money, but a one-off and slightly needy cry for a random act of kindness. 

We're off to Rotherham next week, mainly because it's a new ground to visit, but we'll want to see a good performance to add to the four we've seen in this appalling season. Maybe a decent parking spot to help the lad who'll be on crutches by then. But as it's not about the points, it will be about the manner of the performance. Some evidence to challenge my desperate view that we seem to be witnessing the collapse of an ideal.

 

Good telly - it's about the writing - thoughts on The A Word and Undercover

No-one does TV drama like the BBC. The Americans do it very well, but not in the same way. But no-one gets it so annoyingly, irritating, piously and awkwardly wrong like the BBC either.

Let's get the good one out of the way first - the writing by Peter Bowker in The A Word is stunning. It brings to life the complexities of a family challenged by the sinking realism that their beautiful son has autism. The direction and photography and sense of place is spot on. Sometimes it's the little touches that make a difference. I'm sure a continuity anorak like me, but with more detailed knowledge of the English Lakes, will tell you what's wrong, but I liked the fact that they nip to Lancaster. You do, when you live up there. A lazier writer would have looked at a map and sent them to Penrith.

Apart from poor Joe, the 5 year old at the centre of the story, but always on the edge of it, the characters all drive you mad. Well, families do, don't they? Sometimes they work it out and sometimes they can't.

I hesitated before watching it, so I've binged on it this week. I don't need a TV drama to know what effect a child with profound special educational and emotional needs has on a family. It's uncomfortable, the shock, the stages of comprehension and the allowances you make are all there. But more than anything is the love, protective sometimes,irrational, confused and flawed, but real love. There are times I've hid behind the sofa in a way I haven't since Doctor Who, as there are reactions and emotions on display that ring too true. I read somewhere that it didn't speak a truth about one reviewer's autistic brother. Maybe so, but that's not the point. It didn't try to be the last word on autism any more than it is about the tensions of succession in family businesses.

The real skill is that actually, really, nothing much is happening. It's just the stuff of life. It's a sharp contrast in pretty much every way to Undercover on Sunday nights. There, SO much is going on. Undercover cop, man on death row, death in custody, drugs, sex, corruption, conspiracy. But it's all nonsense. The confusing 20 year flashbacks make no sense as the characters look EXACTLY THE SAME. 

I don't crave realism - I'm addicted to the Walking Dead afterall - but if you have to watch Undercover you must then suspend any understanding of police culture, the establishment and how someone who has never prosecuted a case can end up as the Director of Public Prosecutions and immediately throws her top team onto a pet project dating back 20 years. It's the BBC production department's view of racist Britain in 1996. No, it's just not happening.

I've sat at a bus stop in a rural Northern village with my schoolfriends and then watched a scene in The A Word and gone, yes, that works for me. I've seen teachers tip-toe around issues and I know how hard it is to fight for extra support. Yes, all good.

I've also been on a demo in East London against the far right in the late 90s, but it wasn't anything like it was depicted in Undercover. That wasn't accurate. What was said, who was there, how it was policed. Undercover got it all wrong. It's then about trust. If that's faulty, then what else is? The main character pops over to Louisiana with far less bother than the cast of The A Word go down the M6 to Manchester.

At the end of it all though it's the writing. You can create the most fantastic high concept of a story but without character you can believe in, then it's sunk.

This is how it feels to be Rovers - more questions than answers after Huddersfield defeat

It took us the best part of 2 hours to get home from another dismal and depressing game at "Fortress Ewood" today. Stuck on the M66 near Ramsbottom as the police cleared up after a collision gave me time to ponder a whole new range of existential questions and some that have plagued me all season. Here goes.

1. Why does the team run out to Viva la Vida by Coldplay, a song about a soldier's loss of faith?

2. If that's inappropriate and ludicrous, then what would be right. This is how it feels to be lonely by Inspiral Carpets; This is a Low by Blur; When you say you have nothing at all by Boyzone; Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now by The Smiths. All of the above?

3. Does Paul Lambert care any more? Not on the evidence of this performance. All we've heard is moaning about money. This is his team now, including the two he subbed off at half time.

4. Were there any scouts here to watch Ben Marshall? They may have been the only non-Huddersfield fans who didn't feel like they'd wasted a day.

5. Does Shane Duffy have that apology tweet to the fans on HootSuite, scheduled for half an hour after every game?

6. What does Paul Lambert say to the players through the week? Do they practice clearing lines, turning in midfield and any other the other things they never do during a match? Or does he just say, I wish I could get rid of you all and get an open chequebook from Venky's? Or is he just getting his excuses in before taking over at Celtic?

 7. What's with Jordi Gomez?

 8. Chris Brown?

 9. If we're safe, why not play the kids. Are any of them any good?

10. How long can the current operation run on present cash flow? When Venky's pull the plug, and they surely will, how will it work with getting rid of players?

 11. Can I be bothered to give up my afternoon to go through the same dismal day next Saturday when this lot play Bristol City?

12. Before the game we looked at rows and seat numbers with a view to choosing better seats in the Riverside next season. Shall we even bother?

Altrincham Market should inspire Stockport

Took a trip to Altrincham Market today to see what all the fuss was about. The first people we bumped into were Proper Mag editor Neil Summers and his family on a similar journey of exploration.

It was even better than I imagined and the result of hard work, strong purpose and huge public enthusiasm. We had a nice chat to Nick Johnson, the gaffer, who didn't sugar coat the challenges. You can't click your fingers and make this happen - it takes time. But building anything new starts with a bold and brave first step. My conclusion, with Stockport in mind, the status quo is simply not an option. Change is needed. Excellence is worth shooting for, but you have to do it openly, carefully and respectfully. 

It's not a matter of emulating this, but learning from the challenges and making a leap into the 21st century. 

Definitely one for continued informed discussion with friends who can make this happen like Stockport MP Ann Coffey and Labour Group leader Alexander Ganotis and my colleague at MMU Professor Cathy Parker, head of the Institute for Place Management. 

The psychology of a 2-1 defeat to Preston

It's said that golf is a sport played over 5 inches, the ones between your ears. I think we saw at Ewood Park today that football can be as well.

The game was basically turned on the incident when centre back Shane Duffy demonstrated his goalkeeping skills with a fine one handed save. A short sighted and ludicrous thing to do so soon in the game that gave Preston an equaliser from the resultant penalty. What goes through a man's mind when he makes a decision like that? How does he weigh up the risks and the consequences? Short answer is, he clearly didn't. With one sub already used it was a remarkably stupid thing to do by a player who has been riding a tide of adulation with a late winner at Brentford and a dream debut for Ireland.

How a team reacts psychologically to being reduced to ten is telling. In our title winning season I remember a 10 man performance against Leeds of such breathtaking courage, tenacity and raw passion that I felt the title was possible, even if we only gained the one point. Players did extraordinary things: Chris Sutton dropping deep and Alan Shearer grafting as a lone striker. Today told you a great deal about the character and quality of the squad.

Jordi Gomez is not who you need in a game like this. A stroller rather than a grafter, his whole body language exuded his lack of comfort in being asked to do that bit extra. Danny Graham was still sulking after being denied the earlier free kick that he allowed himself to be crowded out of the game and constantly chased decisions. You're less likely to get a decision if you are constantly trying to play the ref. Afterall, referees are psychological beings too.

Ben Marshall on the other hand seemed to want to win the game single handedly. For me, him and Darragh Lenihan were the most up for it and demonstrated the most grit. Marshall, sadly, seemed to let his determination get the better of him and got involved in some handbags at the end of the first half. He also got caught out trying to nutmeg Garner and that drained him of the confidence to take players on after that. All in the mind. 

I hate blaming referees for losing games. It lets the underperformers off the hook and provides an easy alibi for failure. The peek I've had at social media and the calls to Radio Rovers have made much of Chris Brown's penalty claim and the incidents I've already mentioned. Less has been made of Preston's dominance of the midfield and at least three clear cut chances that Preston should have scored, such was their dominance. 

There was one player on the pitch today who looked mentally prepared and focused and that was ex-Rovers player Paul Gallagher, provider of the second goal and a man with a clear job to do. He just couldn't believe his luck that Jordi Gomez was so willing to give him the freedom to do as he pleased.

The second Marple Spring? High hopes for the Neighbourhood Plan.

Whenever I hear talk of a new politics, a more inclusive democracy or the wider participation of the public in decision making, I visualise Marple. Not because I can't see beyond the place I've called home for the last decade, but because it's almost a living social laboratory for a practical way of delivering what is in effect a theory of community and social organisation.

Over the last few weeks a keen group has built on years of careful thinking to lay the foundations of a Neighbourhood Plan for Marple and I've been delighted to play my own part by chairing the meetings with community organisations and an open and packed public meeting at Marple Library.

Under the terms of the Localism Act, a parish council can formulate a Neighbourhood Plan. This trumps what the local authority may want to do for an area. There is no parish council here, so the other route is through a specially formed Neighbourhood Forum.

I genuinely haven't formed a firm view on where this is heading, though I support the moves towards a Neighbourhood Plan in principle. Here then are some thoughts on whether this can work or not. Many of which I shared at the public meeting as provocations.

1. The Devo crux. Devolution to a Greater Manchester level provides an acute challenge to communities such as Marple. The targets for new homes won't be met just by building on former industrial brownfield sites. Embedded in these agreements is control over where house building takes place. It's important houses are built, the issue is where. Not many parts of GM have the Green belt which developers covet and where communities misunderstand how to build a cases to protect it.

2. A NIMBYs charter. There will have been people interested in the Plan who want to stop any house building at all. Either to raise their own house prices, or just because they want to preserve what they think Marple is. I'll be blunt. That can't happen. It isn't a matter of if, but where.

3. The boundary. The Plan covers the centre of Marple, but stops short of including Strines, High Lane, Marple Bridge, Compstall and Mellor. If not more houses in Marple, then the fields between Hawk Green and High Lane and all along the Windlehurst bends could be built up like Bosden Farm has been, effectively as an infill between Offerton and Hazel Grove. Wherever you draw the line, the risk increases that you create the blockages in one place, only to make it someone else's problem. 

4. Town Teams and Business Improvement Districts. For me, this is a continuation of the Marple Spring of 2012, when Asda and the College sneaked a plan through, the public rose up and beat it back. Noticably absent from this has been the groups of local businesses who clubbed together then. That could and should happen again, this has to be a wider vision for Marple and what kind of place it can be.  

5. Planning is about more than building and houses. Services, schools, nurseries, transport and creating an environment where ideas and businesses flourish in a sustainable way. Planning gain can accrue real social dividends out of the deals that developers will have to strike.

6. Local democracy is dying. I could point to plenty of councillors on Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, and therefore probably on every other local authority in the country, who are virtually unemployable in the real world. The money they earn isn't great, but it is enough to support the very time servers you would prefer not to be involved. Many effective local authorities are run by all-powerful officials. There's a veneer of accountability and scrutiny, but skilled professionals in local government can run rings around elected members. In turn their own power is waning, despite devolution, their tax base is minuscule and the budgets to deliver what services they have are repeatedly cut to the bone.

7. ...But it's still democratic. There was an audible burst of approval during the meetings at any expression of dislike or disapproval for councillors and the council. The anti-politics mood has long been a feature of Marple life. Beware of what you wish for. Unelected committees of 21, however well-intentioned, are still part of the other. You join it and you become the hated "they". It is a one-way ticket to unpopularity and lacks the safeguards to call it to account. As G K Chesterton wrote: "I've searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues of committees." Ultimately it needs a local electoral element to keep a check and balance. 

8. It's not about a mass movement either. Ever since Manchester University student union elections in 1986 when an anarchist student pulled me on my dogmatic use of terms like "rank and file" and "mass movement" I've rather bristled at political dog whistle cliches. Now they appear to be back in vogue, replacing electoral politics with what Stella Creasy called "meetings and moralising" where self-appointed campaigns claim to speak for the people. Yet it remains a truism that in every council ward in every corner of England there are still about 100 people who provide the social and organisational glue to make things happen. 

9. The death of politics and the birth of iDemocracy. I enjoyed Douglas Carswell's book about how open source politics is changing how the public interact with government, but if anything the recent events have proved another old maxim, power is ultimately wielded by people who are prepared to turn up to stuff. Petitions and social media campaigns create an expectation that your viewpoint means something and will make a difference. It won't, unless it is in alignment with sufficient numbers of others who feel the same way. People who don't get their way will say they are excluded. Others will seek a hearing and a voice, as of right. But they still ultimately won't get what they think they want. That's what rule by the majority does. 

10. Communications will be everything. In the olden days, putting a notice in the local paper was an extension of the Town Cryer announcing news. Now of course we have local web sites. Sadly, this won't cut it any more either. Neither will a reliance on social media, a website, or posters. A sustained, multi-channel, relentless and tireless drumbeat of messages across every route and via that most trusted of channels - people talking to one another about what matters to them - will be key. And that's the clincher. It has to matter enough to people to ensure they do that. 

On the match with the Cod Army at Fleetwood Town

Me, Andrew, Paul and Ian join the Cod Army

It wouldn't have been right to have prawn sandwiches in the posh seats at Fleetwood, so we did what the locals do and had cod. If you'd said to me 15 years ago that I'd be notching off my 70th football ground of the current 92 at Fleetwood I'd have laughed. But here we were. On the way we passed what could be ground number 80 of the 92 as we looked at AFC Fylde's ground taking shape. Another disgruntled Blackpool supporting business man who has decided to back a different club on the Fylde after being snubbed by the hated Oyston family.

The ground is decent. The stand we were in is impressive from the inside and out. A towering view from the front row isn't for anyone with vertigo. The rest of the ground is a standard upmarket lower league set up - seats along the sides and terraces at either end.

The match itself was good. Fleetwood played a classy passing game throughout, resisting all temptation to hoof it. Midfielder Eggert Jonsson was a standout in the first half. Walsall soaked up the pressure and were always going to hold on to their lead once they nicked it, though Andy Cole's son Devante came close near the end. There's a link to a match report here.

So that was the 70th of the current 92 and the 143rd ground worldwide I've watched football on and I'm up to 81 in the Punk 92.

Made in Blackburn - I'm backing this Kickstarter campaign for Northern fashion, jobs and pride

In the week I've restocked Northern Monkeys - the epic anthology of the history of Northern working class fashion, I've also backed a Kickstarter project called Community Clothing, aiming to support the creation and manufacture of fashion staples in Lancashire.

Designer Patrick Grant has responded to the plight of one of his suppliers - Cookson and Clegg in Blackburn - by raising £75,000 for future orders of classic jeans, jackets and raincoats. I love each piece, especially so for what the project represents.

So much of the garment manufacturing business is seasonal, while there's a consistent demand for staple basics. The project aims to fill the capacity at the factory during the quiet times with production of these pieces of beauty and simplicity.

It didn't surprise me to learn that the factory produces clothing for my favourite British label Albam Clothing. But these will bear the label Made in Blackburn. How good is that?

It's had great coverage in the fashion press, including Monocle, and the London Evening Standard.

There are only 8 days to go and the campaign is nearly there.

Evolving Manchester video - the start of everything

Video interviews with random but amazing people next to the statues in Albert Square Manchester on February the 29th 2016. First shown at the Pro Manchester Great Manchester Business Conference on March the 4th at the Hilton Hotel. Videography by Michael Simensky at the Centre for Enterprise at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Staying sane on the morning commute

I've had official scientific validation that my morning grumpiness on the commute into Manchester isn't my fault. No, it's not Northern Rail's fault, or my fellow human beings, or the weather. It also explains the almost involuntarily draw towards Rose Hill station, rather than Marple. It's due to my neurological wiring.

I read this piece by Dean Burnett, author of The Idiot Brain, on why commuting is turning you into a bastard.

"The big problem for the brain while commuting is that you’re totally restricted – you can’t change anything. You’re also unstimulated as the journey’s repetitive and monotonous, and you’re trapped in a vehicle. And so, because your brain has no expectation of action, it shuts down. This is why you do stupid things like forgetting to get your ticket out before reaching the gates."

Two months back into the new routine and this all makes astonishing sense.

My ideal commute is a genteel and well timed drive to Rose Hill station. Park up, collect the Metro, sit in forward facing window seat, preference is for a plastic headrest as opposed to metal bus seats, plug in a podcast - New Statesman, Spectator, Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, Thinking Allowed, Media Show or The Bottom Line.

While listening to this I do the easy sudoku by the time we get to Romiley, the moderate before Hyde Central, and the fiendish by the time we roll into Piccadilly. If I don't, then I don't.

There are a number of things that can throw me off that routine that have a massively destabilising effect on the rest of the morning. Traffic in Marple can be periodically horrible and I miss the train and have to go to Marple station instead where there are more trains. This is when I remember why I don't use Marple any more. There are simply too many traps: no parking spaces, it can be busy crossing the road, there may be ticket inspectors, then there's the sharp elbows required to get on the train, which may or may not have enough carriages for the sheer number of commuters on the platform. Getting a seat is then a battle.

There can be train delays, but once I'm in my hermetically sealed hunch I barely notice the rest of the invariable factors (other passengers). I also forget something virtually every day. As long as it isn't my phone, earphones, a pen or my Travelcard then the commute is OK.

So here's another thing. Rose Hill fellow commuters are friends, fellows, companions. We are the pioneers, those at the start. Marple commuters are your rivals - for a seat, for space. Then there are the New Mills lot who've already taken their seats further down the line and earlier. Rose Hill stationmaster Tony Tweedie is your friend, welcoming you. The Marple staff are no less friendly, but less well known, less accessible, the relationship is more transactional.

The green shoots of spring will usher in an added dimension - the bike. But for now it's a matter of getting through these first world problems.

My first brush with Brussels - but why I'm still IN

My first collision with the European Commission was over a planned directive to impose a interim analogue TV transmission standard on all European broadcasters. It was loaded in favour of European electronics companies Philips and Thomson, it was a means of attacking Rupert Mudoch's SkyTV and it was driven in a thoroughly technocratic way by an EU commission officer called Eamon Lalor.

As I tended to in my journalistic life I got rather obsessed with the story. I even door stepped Francis Ford Coppola at a trade show in America and got a quote from him on the madness of what the EU was trying to do and the harm it would do to the development of the television industry.

I say this because I know that Brussels bureaucrats can drive businesses and policy makers demented with rules and regulations.

But. There was always going to be a but. Lalor was defeated. The dead hand of the Commission does respond to reason. Good policy can follow bad. British influence in Europe won the day.

I've also dealt with the petty minded officials in local authorities and in regulators in the UK government, procurement rules in the NHS, the regional development agencies and other regulators.

So as we approach this decision on the UK's membership of the European Union I don't support REMAIN out of naïveté.

I'm also not playing any kind of games. This week I've heard it said that Nicola Sturgeon says she's in favour of voting REMAIN, but secretly wants England to vote LEAVE. That Jeremy Corbyn wants us to leave, but it's all part of his bigger plan to shift the debate to the left. That Nigel Farage secretly wants an IN vote, to sustain his sense of purpose. Don't even get me started on what George Galloway is up to.

No, I'm for staying IN because I genuinely think it's better for our economy, our standard of living and for being a full part of a global community where we can exercise our hard and soft power. 

I've done a debate tonight on PURE FM in Stockport with Louise Bours UKIP MEP and had a foretaste of what's to come. Fear, hyperbole, exaggeration and a dismissal of facts that don't suit. To be fair, she brushed off the rubbish that Iain Duncan Smith came out with about Britain being more at risk from terrorism in favour of more positive vision of the future. But she was still wrong.