What’s on in Manchester and the North West

As autumn takes a proper hold, the Manchester events calendar always seems to get busier and busier. Here are some highlights for the rest of this weekend and beyond: YES Opening Parties – Fri 21 – Sun 23 September Charles Street, Manchester YES celebrate their opening with free parties all weekend. Saturday’s bands and DJs include London […]

The hidden shame of period poverty

Half the population of the world are women. It is, therefore, safe to say that a large proportion of that population have periods. So, why is the issue of menstrual care still so taboo? Why do people still feel awkward and embarrassed by their period and feel that it should be something that should be […]

Wythenshawe MP backs Manchester lawyer calling for end to legal aid cuts after being paid £255 for seven months work

Guest Article from The Wythenshawe Reporter: Catriona McLauglin, a solicitor advocate, based in Manchester says criminal lawyers are leaving the profession because of the cuts, denying access to justice to some of the most vulnerable people accused of crimes. And the independent body which represents solicitors, the Law Society, who are mounting a legal challenge to […]

Manchester is putting Housing First – and the results look good

This article is part of ‘The Meteor Explores: Homelessness in Manchester‘ series. Decadence, procrastination and occasional nudity. It would be tricky to explain some of our private domestic activities to an imagined third-party observer, but anarchic indulgence is for many the wholly necessary backend to the economically functional front which the aforementioned observer would probably wish […]

The Addy land squat:  a missed opportunity for Hulme?

When masked bailiffs arrived to clear the North Hulme Adventure Playground of a group of squatters and dismantle the homes they had built there, it marked the end of the most recent in a series of occupations, and eventual evictions, of non-residential buildings across Manchester. The site’s residents spent three months clearing, building and planning […]

No, Councillor Blundell – the solution to begging isn’t fines, it’s fixing our broken housing system

Councillor John Blundell strongly proposed in Manchester Confidential that Manchester City Council should start fining “aggressive beggars” as it is “the only solution” to what he describes as “organised begging”. His use of the term “beggar” comes off the back of Manchester City Council leader Richard Leese in his leader’s blog describing Christmas as “peak […]