Tweet The story of influential Manchester band Joy Division has been told to the point of exhaustion, right? So many books, including Hooky’s, two films in the shape of the excellent Control and Steve Coogan’s 24 Hour Party People, not to mention the myriad press coverage. But a play? Well, yes. Why not? The big […]
Crowdfunding for carrots and kale
Published in June 11th, 2013
Tweet Crowdfunding for new projects is quite the thing these days and it makes a lot of sense to raise money from the very customers you want to buy your product because those customers already have some kind of emotional investment. Look at the success of crowdfunding the Pebble, for example. Raising capital this way […]
No longer disabled enough: Cameron’s brave new world
Published in May 1st, 2012
Tweet Today it’s Blogging Against Disablism Day, an annual blog carnival in which we take stock of our crip status and our lives. To my shame it’s been three years since I last participated in BADD, and almost two years since I last blogged about how living with epilepsy affects me. Not much has changed, […]
BBC News redesign excludes the disabled
Published in July 14th, 2010
Tweet The BBC rolled out its new-look BBC News website redesign today amid much fanfare. It’s attracted a lot of comment, not just on the site itself but also across the media-reporting media. Taking out all the “if it ain’t broke, why fix it” remarks, of which there were very many, there still seemed to […]
Disability Living Allowance - a personal experience
Published in June 24th, 2010
Tweet Tuesday’s Budget contained the not-entirely-unexpected announcement of cuts to benefits. There was a general expectation that Incapacity Benefit (IB) and its new incarnation, Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), both of which are claimed by many disabled people, would be targeted. IB is frequently in the news for its renown as a benefit that is […]
Future of Manchester under the microscope
Published in May 18th, 2010
Tweet A couple of recent events have thrown the future of Manchester into sharp focus as pundits and citizens both look at ways to develop the city in a fitting manner for the future. Manchester is the UK’s third city in terms of size but its second in many other respects. Culturally, it’s been a […]
The sale of MEN
Published in February 10th, 2010
Tweet Several zillion words were written yesterday on the sale of the Manchester Evening News to Trinity Mirror - the details, the commentary, and the rest of the speculation. I’m not going to rehash what’s already been said.But, as a freelance journalist working in my adopted city of Manchester, I’ve had time to ponder what […]
The learning curve
Published in December 8th, 2009
Tweet My thirst for knowledge never seems to diminish. There are always things I’m curious about, want to know more about, pique my interest enough to go exploring further. Much of my curiosity is transient - I’ll read a blog and look up something on Wikipedia or remember something someone mentioned in passing and do […]
TEDx Manchester - some thoughts
Published in October 3rd, 2009
Tweet I attended TEDx Manchester yesterday - a half-day of presentations and debate on technology, entertainment and design (the TED of the title). I’m still digesting much of what was put out, because there was an awful lot packed into the five-hour programme. Apparently, too, this was the biggest TED event in Europe to date […]
Expenses - MPs vs journalists
Published in May 12th, 2009
Tweet National treasure Stephen Fry has waded into the debate about MPs’ expenses, claiming that MPs are not really doing anything much wrong, and stating very bluntly that journalists are far worse when it comes to fiddling expenses. I have news for Stephen. The expenses culture for journalists ended a long time ago - at […]
