Manchester
15th August.
Dear S,
The hot summer weather finally broke at the weekend, the result, we are told of a rogue Hurricane which crossed the Atlantic on Saturday and drenched us in rain all Sunday while continuing to soak us with showers all week.
They did manage to finish the Test Match though at Old Trafford-we beat the Indians for the second game in a row.
Talking of water, the ridiculous charade at Piccadilly Gardens continues, those awful fountains are completely broken and the council have decided to put the project to bed, though we are told that the giant wheel will start revolving again soon.
They have started digging up Albert Square.As with most of the centre at the moment, the trams are taking over and they are lifting the historic!!! cobbles up one by one but they will put them back before the Xmas markets get here or so we are told.
What with all the digging and all the protesters on the streets demonstrating about that Palestinian thing, you can hardly get around in the city at the moment and talking of that, there is some scheme coming in to turn our streets into 20mph zones.I hear though that it is unenforceable as the police speed guns aren’t accurate enough to trap people.
We had that Dan Snow fellow here last Friday in Albert Square trying to get people to sign his petition to tell the Scots to stay with us.They stuck some boards up outside the town Hall and tried to get people to sign.That fellow from the council was there as well.
Our chief constable is in a lot of trouble.A couple of our MP’s are saying he should step down after being investigated by the Police Complaints commission.Apparently he let a young boy enter the house of a known paedophile during an operation, putting the boy in danger.He is refusing to step aside, apparently this sort of thing comes with the job and our police commissioner agrees.
Do you remember Kathleen Ollerernshaw? She was Lord Mayor and she did a bit of work for Maggie and solved the Rubic cube.Well she died, guess how old she was…. One hundred and one.She outlived her children as well as her husband.
And talking of council people, that Dave Goddard from Stockport has been, as they say,elevated to the House of Lords by our deputy Prime Minister-Well there’s something !!
Remember the old Brown Brother’s building at the bottom of Chapel Street? Well you wouldn’t believe it but they have turned it into a hotel.It’s quite posh inside, seventy five rooms and ninety nine pounds a night.
There is talk of them knocking the Cornerhouse down as well.The council are talking about another of those multi functional mixed development things, ie more coffee shops and estate agents.There is a bit of stink going on and someone has set up a Facebook group (that’s this new social media thing btw) to try and save it.Do you remember when it used to be a Lyon’s restaurant?
There are some funny goings on at Old Trafford.They’ve got a new manager from Holland and they are stopping the fans holding their mobile phones and tablets in the air.Apparently it is because they block the view of the people sitting behind but I’ve heard that they don’t want people filming the game and upsetting the people from Sky.
Anyway I must go.Its one hundred and ninety five years since the Peterloo massacre this weekend and they will be marching to the Old Free Trade Hall.I think that Maxine Peake,( did you see her in the Village on Sunday? ) will be reading out the names again.
N
