(^10) DAILY MIRROR SATURDAY 17.08.
DM1ST
VOICE OF THE
Slaughter
must stop
HERO policeman Andrew Harper beamed
as he married beautiful bride Lissie just
four weeks ago.
Today he is dead, the latest victim of Britain’s
lawless streets. How many more tragedies like
this must unfold before ministers get a grip on
this epidemic of violence?
Most of us go to work knowing we will return
home again at the end of a shift.
For the frontline men and women of our
police forces, this is a luxury they do not know.
Andrew’s death is a brutal reminder of the
dangers into which 999 officers place
themselves every day and night.
They respond without question – their only
thought being to help others.
They deserve our gratitude, praise and
support as they strive to keep us safe, protect
us from harm and prevent or detect crime.
While investigations into Andrew’s death
continue, we mourn with and pray for grieving
Lissie - his bride a month ago, his widow today.
Board walk
STROLL down your high street and
chances are you will walk past several
boarded-up shops.
Now these sad reminders of an era of
cheaper business rates and pre-internet shop-
ping blight our town centres.
So we welcome Labour’s plan for a simple
shake-up that would allow councils to hand
vacant premises to start-up businesses or
community organisations.
Young entrepreneurs cautiously making
their way into commerce would benefit as
would projects benefiting wider society.
Jeremy Corbyn’s idea is a seemingly easy way
of breathing new life into our high streets.
Empty shops are wastes of space. Put them
to good use and everyone wins.
Rays & shine
PUT the brolly away - it looks like
summer’s back.
After this week’s deluges, it’s finally time to
fire up the barbecue again. Like our farmers,
we should make hay while the sun shines.
A voice of the north and guest columnist
COPS BLOW
THE WHISTLE
The British public sector
does not have the best
track record on delivering
large IT projects. Throw the
outsourcing giant Capita
into the mix and the
headlines start to write
themselves.
So it was that this week
I’ve been investigating a
giant new Capita-designed
computer system being
rolled out by Greater
Manchester Police – the
third biggest force in the
country – and how frontline
officers believe it to be a
disaster.
A flood of whistle-
blowers – highly unusual for
a profession where officers
really don’t speak to the
press these days – have
come forward in the last
fortnight to say it’s
unworkable, it’s putting
them and the public at risk,
and they can no longer
access basic information
about crimes and criminals.
The force’s leadership
insists it isn’t a disaster
and that it can be fixed
over time. Yet it is one
more example of where
proper scrutiny of our
public bodies, both by
politicians and the local
press, is vital.
We don’t know where
this story will end, but
the bravery of the
whistleblowers who found
the courage to speak to us
can only be commended.
Without them, and
people like them, we would
know far less about how
our money is being spent,
or the implications.
PM’S SCOUSE EXCUSE
Speaking of Boris Johnson, if Manchester was
lukewarm in its response to his northern vision,
Liverpool simmers.
His 2004 comments that Liverpudlians
have a “peculiar and deeply unattractive”
tendency to “wallow” in “victim status” have
not been forgotten.
Nevertheless, the city did reportedly offer to
host the government’s next big northern conference next month,
after Sheffield fell through as a venue. Cue silence. Speculation is
rife in northern political circles that sending the PM there was
unacceptable to Number 10. It chose Rotherham.
All of which brings to mind the city’s troubled relationship with the
Tory government of the 1980s. Can it be right, nearly 40 years later,
that our new Prime Minister fears to set foot in that proud port?
A different type of premiership battle is hotting up as three institutions race to capitalise on
Manchester’s sporting success – by opening a dedicated university. Gunning for the reds is former
United star Gary Neville, and others from the Class of ’92, who are opening a UA92 university
near Old Trafford in September. Taking him on is City, which wants to open one next door to the
Etihad stadium in partnership with the council. In between is Manchester Metropolitan uni,
which had been in talks with City, but is now planning to open its own instead.
Future of the north
is still going south
IT has been a strange few
years to be covering politics in
Manchester.
Between 2014 and 2016 it felt like
we were being love-bombed. It
seemed that every time I turned
round in came another invitation to
a photo opportunity with George
Osborne posing in a hard hat or
laboratory goggles.
There he would be, inspecting
some graphene in Manchester
University’s physics department.
Or standing in a railway tunnel
in Bolton.
On one memorable occasion I was
locked in a room with other journal-
ists while he toured a factory in Bury.
I think the answer to our one
question was something about a
long-term economic plan (remember
that?).
The flipside to this circus was that
it suggested government was at least
paying attention. While we were
having our budgets hacked away –
welfare, local government, policing
- there was (and it will be cold
comfort to many) a recognition that
the northern economy, its woeful
transport and powerlessness did
need addressing.
Enter Theresa May. Like every-
thing else, the ‘northern’ agenda
went out of the window for a
long, empty three years of Brexit
nothingness.
By this summer, we’d had enough.
Report after report warned that
areas outside of the south east and
London – and especially post-
industrial communities in the north
and Midlands – were not
only being ignored, but
that this was baked into
the way Whitehall thinks
about us... if it does at all.
One, by former head of
the civil service Lord
Kerslake, even argued that
the chasm in wealth and
success in this country is
so stark there is a direct comparison
with Germany after the Wall
came down.
So a campaign was launched by a
number of regional newspapers
including the Manchester Evening
News called Power Up The North,
demanding not just a few piecemeal
election giveaways from the new
government, but a fundamental
change in the way we are treated.
You might think then that
Boris Johnson’s first speech as
Prime Minister outside of
London, in the same
Manchester museum
Osborne had made his
first ‘Northern Power-
house’ speech five years
earlier, must be welcomed.
He spoke of “left-behindtowns”, of the need to sort out public
transport, of frustration with West-
minster. As I write, a new Treasury
minister is back in Bolton, this time
visiting a bus station.
But the PM has been unable to
explain how his plans would be paid
for, or the detail of how they would
be delivered.
An initial round of NHS funding he
announced, for example, turned out
to be cash that hospitals
already had, but had been
banned from spending.
And we have no idea
what Brexit will mean.
So beware electioneers
bearing gifts. Bolton is a
prime example of a seat
the Tories need to win in
order to secure a majority.
Osborne knew that and so does
Boris Johnson.
Far be it for me to bite the hand
that feeds – but it’s best to know
what it’s feeding you first.VISITS George Osborne‘‘We need a
fundamental
change in
the way we
are treatedchester Evening
r Up The North,
t a few piecemeal
s from the new
a fundamental
we are treated.
k then that
t speech as
side of
same
seum
de his
ower-
e years
lcomed.
t-behindTWEET
Andy
Burnhamlise on
ds is former
versity
or to the
uni,JENNIFER WILLIAMS
Andy Burnham clearly feels he needs
no help from across the pond in making
the north great again.
During Donald Trump’s visit to
Britain in June, Manchester’s mayor
was asked whether the US President
would be welcomed in city and firmly
responded that no, he would not.
So when Trump tweeted this weekthat he would be “in Manchester” for a
rally that evening, Burnham had a
momentary wobble.
Fortunately, the US President’s post
also clarified that he meant Manchester,
New Hampshire, not our own backyard.
“Heart missed a beat there,” tweeted
the Mayor. “But – panic over – we’re
safe.”TRUMP WANTS TO BUY GREENLAND YOU’RE NOT WELCOME!
.. And then
we build a
big wall
round it to
stop all
those green
people from
coming here