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Here's the Mancunian Way for today:
Hello,
Half term is upon us and it’s feeling very autumnal. The leaves are turning glorious shades of red, yellow and brown and the nights are drawing in quicker.
There is plenty for families to enjoy this week in and around Greater Manchester, but be aware that things are getting increasingly pricey. A visit to the new Art of Banksy exhibition in Salford will set you back the best part of £20. Even D.I.Y projects are costing more with Morrisons now selling giant carving pumpkins for a whopping £8.99. Think I’ll grow my own next year.
We’ll be discussing the situation for hospitality businesses, a visit from the Supreme Court and the friends sharing mortgages in today’s newsletter. Oh, and the small matter of a new PM.
But first, our data team has been delving into the world of university admissions to find out the chances of an Oxbridge education for Greater Manchester pupils. Let's begin.
What are the chances?
What are your chances of going to Oxford or Cambridge if you go to a state school?
Well it’s a bit of a postcode lottery according to new data from the Department for Education.
It seems like you’ve got a better chance if you do your A Levels in Trafford, whereas both Rochdale and Salford are ‘Oxbridge deserts’, with no students going to either university in 2020/21.
Meanwhile Trafford was the most successful in sending pupils to the prestigious universities.
David Dubas-Fisher, of Reach’s data unit, has been looking at the state-funded schools with the highest and lowest admissions.
Altrincham Grammar School for Girls has the joint best record of any state-funded school in the North of England for getting its students into Oxbridge.
A total of 15 of the school's 2020/21 graduates were accepted that year. That’s the highest number in Greater Manchester and works out as nine percent of the school’s A Level pupils.
Altrincham Grammar School for Boys has the joint next best record in the region nine pupils (six percent) making it to either Oxford or Cambridge.
Over in Manchester, the sixth form colleges also sent a number of pupils, with Loreto College, in Hulme, sending 14 to Oxbridge and Xaverian College, in Rusholme, sending 11.
In Wigan, Winstanley College had 12 students make it to the prestigious universities (representing one percent of its A Level pupils). While eleven pupils from Holy Cross College, in Bury, got into Oxbridge.
For comparison, King's College London Maths School has the best record of any state-funded school in England for getting its students into Oxford and Cambridge.
Just under a third (29%) of the school's 2020/21 graduates were accepted to Oxbridge that year.
The Department for Education said that as well supporting teachers with high-quality training and investing in education recovery through schemes like the National Tutoring Programme, it wanted all schools to be in a strong academy trust.
“Real social mobility is about more than just getting disadvantaged students through the door at university and we have also asked the Office for Students to look at how we can make sure universities all over the country are actively working with their local schools to raise pupil attainment for everyone, particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds,” a spokesman said.
You can see the percentage of pupils from the 2020/21 academic year who went to Oxford or Cambridge by typing in the name of the school or college here.
Incoming/outgoing
Rishi Sunak said he will fix the ‘mistakes’ of Liz Truss’s leadership as he took office as Prime Minister today. He warned the UK is facing a ‘profound economic crisis’ in his first speech after being asked to form a Government by the King.
Mr Sunak, 42 is the UK’s first Hindu PM, the first of Asian heritage and the youngest for more than 200 years.
He said Ms Truss was ‘not wrong’ to want to drive up growth, describing it as a ‘noble aim’ but said ‘mistakes were made’. He warned of ‘difficult decisions to come’ and but he promised to repeat the ‘compassion’ he showed during the coronavirus pandemic.
An hour previously, Ms Truss defended her botched economic strategy as she left Number 10 with her family. She made no apologies for her disastrous mini-budget and stressed the need for lower taxes, before wishing Mr Sunak ‘every success, for the good of our country’.
Open justice
The UK Supreme Court is coming to Manchester. As the highest court in the country, -housed in central London - it is the final court of appeal for all criminal and civil cases and also hears cases of the greatest public or constitutional importance.
Lord Reed, President of the Supreme Court, has announced it will be sitting at Manchester Civil Justice Centre next March. It will be the first time the Court has ever sat outside one of the four UK capital cities.
Three cases will be heard by four Supreme Court Justices and Lord Reed, who says it will be an important experiment in open justice.
“As the final court of appeal for the United Kingdom, we hear cases of profound importance to everyone across the country,” he says. “My colleagues and I strongly believe that the experience of attending a court hearing in person should not be limited to those able to get to London. We have previously sat in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast and I am very pleased that people in Manchester and across the North-West will have the opportunity to see the Court in operation locally.
"The Supreme Court is committed to being one of the most open and accessible courts in the world and, like all our hearings, the cases we hear in Manchester will be live streamed via our website for everyone who cannot get to see us in person."
Members of the public will be able to attend the hearings.
Another nail in the coffin
“I used to spend time talking to politicians, because you felt it was worth it, that you were being listened to, and maybe some of those ideas would get fed through to the treasury. Not anymore.”
That’s how William Lees-Jones, managing director of JW Lees, has felt since the recent government flip-flopping over measures that could help pubs.
The planned freeze on alcohol duty by Kwazi Kwarteng has since been overturned by the new Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt. William feels like he’s being ‘gaslighted’ by those in power.
“You get to the point where each of these nails is going into the proverbial coffin. And each one hurts," he says. "At this moment in time, we haven’t a clue what’s going on. Business rates are very high, VAT is very high, and during the pandemic we were seen as a sector that was worth saving. They came this far, do you really want to stop now?”
What’s On writer Ben Arnold has been talking to those in the industry about the ‘cruel blow’ to hospitality and how the government has ‘blown hot and cold’ with businesses ‘at a time when being able to properly plan ahead could mean the difference between your local opening up for the day, or closing down for good’.
Allan Hudd, landlord of The Britons Protection, says pub owners are having to hike prices. “And once you have to breach that £6 a pint mark, it’s going to screw us,” he says.
Meanwhile, Sacha Lord, Manchester’s night time economy advisor, says he is furious about what he sees as the creeping devastation of a sector that could have been avoided. “It highlights exactly where we are with this government,” he says.
“Part of the sector would undoubtedly have benefited from what they announced in the mini budget. There was probably a weekend for people in my sector where they started planning on the back of it.
“To get it snatched away three days later is not just head scratching, it’s completely and utterly irresponsible. We’ve been looking for lifelines like this, and to have it taken away, it’s devastating and insulting.”
An absolute yolk
The Lovely Eggs - those purveyors of psychedelic rock - claim they have been ‘robbed’ by bosses at the O2 Apollo.
The husband and wife duo, from Lancaster, were told they would have to hand over 25 percent of their sales and five percent VAT to the Ardwick venue when they arrived to play with Pavement last week. They also claim they were told by management that they would have to sell their branded T-shirts for £35 instead of the £16 they usually charge fans.
Singer Holly Ross says she asked for the rule to be waived for a small DIY group, but claims they were told if they didn't agree they wouldn't be able to sell their merchandise at all. She took to Twitter to claiming: “This s**t will kill DIY bands like us. O2 Apollo you should be ashamed of yourself.”
Holly told reporter Sophie Halle-Richards the band never signed a formal agreement with the venue, and were only told about the rules an hour before their performance.
"This practice is wide-spread but you don’t expect it to be put on a DIY support band. We rely on the sales of merchandise to keep the band going. It’s not fair for anyone to take 30 per cent. We don’t take 30 per cent of the bar sales,” she said.
Marking homework
Manchester Airport’s new boss has quite a job ahead of him. After a summer of long queues caused by staff shortages and cancelled flights by airlines, many holidaymakers ran out of patience.
Images of long snaking queues for security running outside airport terminals and for passport control were a common occurrence. There were even reports of people abandoning their luggage after long waits at baggage reclaim halls.
Managing director Chris Woodroofe says those scenes are a thing of the past. He’s been speaking to reporter Paul Britton about a difficult year for the hub. "There will be nobody doing laps of the airport stood in car parks - that's behind us,” he says.
Mr Woodroofe - who took up the role in June this year after the resignation of former MD Karen Smart - said 750 extra airport staff have been recruited since January, with 200 more set to take up positions between now and Easter next year. He has promised 2023 will be ‘at least as good as 2019’ and says he will be ‘marking homework’ of baggage handling agencies to drive up performance.
Figures for the month so far released by the airport reveal 97.1 percent of passengers got through security in less than 30 minutes.
The airport expects to see 600,000 passengers through the gates over the October half-term. "The team have really been working very hard and have thrown the kitchen sink at turning around the situation that was well reported in April and May. It's on the up from a not great place, but you can see the pathway,” Mr Woodroofe said.
You can read the full interview here.
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Weather etc
- Wednesday: Partly cloudy changing to sunny intervals by late morning. 17C.
- Road closures: A665 Bolton Road in both directions closed due to resurfacing work between Wordsworth Avenue and Unsworth Street until November 4.
- A6017 Berrycroft Lane in both directions closed due to water main work between Ruskin Grove and Warwick Road until October 25.
- A575 Walkden Road Southbound closed due to gas main work from Mesne Lea Road to Kingsway until November 6.
- A560 Gatley Road in both directions closed due to water main work between Wensley Road and Warren Avenue until November 4.
- Trains: Special timetable operating on Transpennine Express and Avanti West Coast due to shortage of train crews.
- Trams: Revised service on Metrolink due to over running engineering works at Piccadilly Gardens. Some Metrolink services are operating with changes until the end of November when the works can be finished. Bury and Altrincham services are not operating into Piccadilly station. Ashton services are operating to Crumpsall via Victoria. Eccles services are only operating to Deansgate.
- Trivia question: Which famous Mancunian wrote 'A Clockwork Orange'?
Manchester headlines
Wait times: Ambulances have been pictured lining up outside Stepping Hill as hospital trusts across the region warned of seven hour waits in A&E on Monday. Numerous trusts in Greater Manchester reissued urgent advice for people to only attend if they are in an emergency. Some patients claim they were given a six-hour waiting time, with over 150 people reportedly waiting to be triaged at Manchester Royal Infirmary on Monday afternoon. Stockport NHS Foundation Trust warned of 'extremely busy' A&E departments, with an average of 330 patients a day coming through their doors over the last week. Bolton NHS Foundation Trust announcing that wait times had been exceeding seven hours on Monday. More here.
Counterfeit Street: Manchester's infamous Counterfeit Street is to be bulldozed. In a radical move to smash what police say is a national magnet for criminality, buildings on Bury New Road in the Strangeways area are to be closed, compulsory purchased, and then flattened, as Neal Keeling reports. The move is part of an operation to erase for good dozens of shops in the area which sell hooky clothing, perfume, tobacco and toys but are also believed to be a front for serious crime. GMP have established that 33 organised crime gangs from across the UK have links to the area. We’ll be discussing this story in more depth tomorrow.
Inquest: A teenager accused of murdering their mother died just hours after blood tests revealed they were suffering a ‘life-threatening’ condition, an inquest has heard. Rowan Thompson, 18, died while an inpatient on the Gardener Unit at Prestwich Hospital - just days before they were due to stand trial. At an inquest at Rochdale Coroner’s Court, jurors heard that Rowan, who identified as non-binary and used the pronoun 'they', had collapsed suddenly a week before their death on October 3, 2020. Doctors put the incident down to a change in medication, however, blood tests later revealed that Rowan was suffering from 'severe hypokalemia' - a condition in which a person has too low a concentration of potassium in their blood. However, the results were not communicated to those caring for Rowan on the Gardener Unit, the hearing was told. Rowan died the following day. Full story here.
Rag and bone
Rag-and-bone men' were a common sight on the streets of Greater Manchester in the 1960s and 70s. Known for travelling on a horse and cart, they collected second-hand items.
This image from the archives shows Russell Woods, a rag and bone boy working in Manchester, back in July 1975.
Worth a read
With mortgage rates rocketing and hundreds of deals having fallen through in recent weeks, it’s a difficult time to buy a property. That’s why some first-time buyers are joining forces with friends.
Property writer Phoebe Jobling has been looking at this new trend and has spoken to James, 26, and Danny, 27, who bought a two-bed flat in Prestwich together in February.
“I always wanted to buy somewhere but I knew that I probably wasn’t going to be able to afford anything that I wanted to live in if I got a mortgage on my own,” James says. “I had a girlfriend at the time - and I don't think she wasn’t too happy about it. In all honesty I was a bit blasé about getting a mortgage with Danny at first because I wasn’t sure how far it was going to go. But then all of a sudden we had bought a flat and had a mortgage and her reaction was like ‘this is a bit weird’.”
That's all for today
Thanks for joining me.If you have stories you would like us to look into, email beth.abbit@menmedia.co.uk.
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The answer to today's trivia question is: Anthony Burgess.
