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As the monarchy faces a serious race row, one of Greater Manchester’s most influential figures says he was also asked about his ‘heritage’ by a royal aide.
University of Manchester chancellor, Nazir Afzal, was at the same reception where Lady Susan Hussey repeatedly asked a black domestic violence campaigner where she ‘really came from’.
Ngozi Fulani, founder of the charity Sistah Space, says she was shocked at the question from the late Queen’s lady in waiting.
Lady Susan, the Prince of Wales’s 83-year-old godmother, resigned from the household and apologised after she repeatedly challenged Ms Fulani when she said she was British at the Queen Consort’s reception highlighting violence against women and girls.
William, who is in the US with the Princess of Wales, backed the decision and Kensington Palace issued a statement, saying: “Racism has no place in our society.”
Ms Fulani told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “Although I didn’t experience physical violence, what I feel I experienced was a form of abuse.”
Now Mr Afzal, former chief prosecutor for the North West, says he was also asked about his heritage by Lady Susan.
“I was at the Buckingham Palace reception at which Lady Hussey questioned the heritage of a brilliant DV expert Ngozi Fulani,” he tweeted.
“She only asked me my heritage once & seemed to accept my answer - Manchester currently! Racism is never far away tho.”
Mr Afzal yesterday revealed that he left the Palace reception when he saw Priti Patel and Suella Braverman turning up.
He told a People’s Powerhouse conference he was afraid he would get into a row with the Home Secretary and her predecessor if he stayed, citing them as people who ‘just love divisiveness’.
Hear us roar
It was less of a call and more of a roar for change during the This Is the North conference in Manchester yesterday.
Some of the biggest challenges facing the region were up for discussion during the event at the historic Friends Meeting House, including inequality, racism and growth (or the lack of it).
There was plenty of cheering about the great things our northern cities and towns are built on. But there was also a palpable sense of anger.
As one delegate put it, speaking during a workshop on growth: "It doesn't matter the size of the pie, in the North we still get the crumbs."
University of Manchester chancellor Nazir Afzal said Greater Manchester ‘built itself’ with the Chartist, Suffragette and Cooperative movements and urged attendees to keep holding the feet of those in power to the fire.
“They can't keep giving us scraps off the table. We want the whole table," he said.
Edna Robinson, chair of the People's Powerhouse movement which organised the event, said the North is facing huge challenges and is full of people who feel 'sidelined and ignored'.
She said there is 'no clear plan' for devolution in the North and asked if writing letters to the government is 'really the best we can do'.
"We are calling clearly for a democratic solution for the North," she said.
Using transport as an example she said money should be spent growing towns 'not just our cities'. She said the 'vast majority' of people who use transport are actually women taking children to school or childcare who won't see HS2 as a priority.
Arriving late, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham asked if anyone had mentioned the trains yet - a comment met with peals of laughter.
He said those in the North are being treated as 'second class citizens', something he says was revealed during the pandemic when much of the region was held in stringent lockdown measures for months on end.
Asked if he had only 'technical power' as mayor he said: "We've got people power". But he said a 'complete rewiring' of the country is needed in order to create a fairer system.
Comparing Britain to an electricity map, he said Holyrood and Cardiff have a 'steady glow' and there are 'flickers' of light in Greater Manchester, Liverpool and the West Midlands.
"London however is glowing nuclear," he said.
Show of hands please
The mention of trains may have prompted scornful chuckles at yesterday's conference, but it is of course no laughing matter.
Chaos on the rail network is, without a doubt, one of the biggest problems facing Greater Manchester right now.
Train cancellations across the north are reported to be costing the region's economy £8million a week.
Mr Burnham and four other Northern Metro Mayors yesterday met with Transport Secretary Mark Harper to discuss the seemingly endless slew of cancellations, delays, strike action and staff sickness that is affecting Northerners and Greater Mancunians in particular.
The irony gods were watching over West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin, whose train was cancelled while on her way to the meeting.
She eventually made it to Manchester and used the People’s Powerhouse conference to labour the point, revealing that she stays in hotels when trains let her down as it’s cheaper than a cab home. You can see the many hands that shot up when she asked who had suffered similar problems in recent months.
Mr Harper said he is hopeful the long-running industrial dispute can finally be resolved - but insisted unions must agree on reform. He told reporter Stephen Topping 'quite a lot of progress' has been made in talks between unions, Network Rail and train operating companies - but there is still work to be done.
"Unless we can resolve the industrial dispute that's going on, passengers aren't going to see much improvement," he said.
"I'd like to at least get to the point where the pre-Christmas strikes don't happen. And there's a sense that we're on the path to getting that dispute resolved.”
But the Northern mayors have seemingly lost patience and, in a joint statement, called for Avanti, Transpennine Express and Northern to be put on notice to improve.
"The absolute bare minimum of levelling up means being able to get to work and college on time - but northerners have been robbed of this basic right because of the chaos on our railways. That must end,” they said.
Just Tipp-Ex it
Bev Craig joked that the ever-changing Prime Ministers of 2022 are like ‘the modern day equivalent of Tipp-Ex’ during a speech at yesterday’s conference.
There speaks a woman who spends a lot of time reading very large printed documents.
The Manchester Council leader today marks her first 12 months in the job.
And though she can’t ignore the chaos in national politics, she claims things have been much calmer here.
“It’s been a chaotic year in national government set against a turbulent backdrop, but here in Manchester we’ve been getting on calmly with delivering on residents’ priorities and building an even better city,” she says.
Coun Craig says her council has a ‘determined focus’ on delivering affordable homes, tackling inequality and climate change, helping young people and investing in communities.
Looking at the past year’s achievements she cites This City - the new council-owned development company, the Manchester Living Rent and the ongoing work to retrofit council buildings, increase electric vehicles and renewable energy.
Mayfield Park, the first new city centre park for more than 100 years, opened in September.
Meanwhile, an £8m package of support to help people struggling with the cost of living was also agreed and Manchester also became a Real Living Wage city.
Coun Craig says she’s proud of those achievements but there is ‘much more to do’.
Express yourself
Withington Walls, the community project to create street art in the south Manchester suburb, is holding a photography exhibition at Libertine from 7pm - 11pm tonight.
The huge Marcus Rashford mural, painted by Akse, is perhaps the most high-profile of the pieces created in the area so far, but there are dozens more.
Those donating to the scheme will be offered the opportunity to receive their favourite from a selection of the photos.
Founder Ed Wellard says: “Withington Walls has been possible because of people's generosity with donations in the past, the time and energy given freely by its organisers and the fact that so many great artists have bought into the ethos and aims of the project.
“The project has dramatically changed how Withington looks and feels, given a platform to artists to express themselves, drawn attention to important issues and raised a lot of money for good causes”
Weather etc
Friday: Cloudy. 8C.
Road closures: A560 Stockport Road in both directions closed due to water main work between A627 Dowson Road and Hill Street until December 8.
Trains: Special timetable operating on Transpennine Express due to shortage of train crews.
Trivia question: Who was the leader of Manchester Council before Bev Craig?
Manchester headlines
- Weatherfield Precinct: Coronation Street bosses have unveiled a brand new extension to the soap's growing Manchester set with the Weatherfield Precinct. The much-mentioned precinct has been visited by the residents of Coronation Street for decades in storylines, but now for the first time viewers will be able to take trips to the shopping centre on screen. A design team researched similar shopping precincts that were built across the UK in the 1960s - and paid particular attention to those in Manchester and Salford. More here.
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Late night trams: Manchester Council’s Lib Dems have called for a three-month trial of a night tram on the Eccles via Media City to Ashton-under-Lyne service. Lib Dem councillor Alan Good told a meeting it would boost the night-time economy, help shift workers and make women feel safer when travelling by tram at night. Council leader Bev Craig said her Labour administration is already 'pushing hard' for trams to run until 1am on Friday and Saturdays from next year. But she said passenger numbers have not returned to pre-pandemic levels and Greater Manchester should be calling for a fairer funding system from the government, comparing it to that of London.
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Happy: Altrincham has been named in the top 20 of Britain's happiest places to live in an annual survey. The Trafford market town ranked at number 17 on the list in the Rightmove survey. Other areas in the North West that ranked in the top 20 were Northwich in Cheshire at number 16 and Macclesfield at number 18.
- Blackouts: Details of how possible emergency three-hour blackouts in Greater Manchester would impact millions of people have been laid out. Bosses have reassured that planned power cuts are 'unlikely', but say homes across the region could well be plunged into darkness as demand for electricity rockets in the colder winter months. Russia's war in Ukraine has led to the supply of gas and electricity becoming more uncertain, sparking concerns for the months ahead when demand for energy inevitably increases. Local leaders say planned power cuts, though improbable, may be needed.
Worth a read
Inside Kym Austin's kitchen, three small blue inhalers are neatly lined up in a row, next to an assortment of tablets and cough syrups.
One of her three children was diagnosed with asthma last month, and her other two children have been in and out of their doctors surgery for persistent coughs and chest infections.
She says she's been warned by a doctor that their infections are likely to be a direct result of the mould infestation at her three-bedroom home in Salford, and will likely only get worse. A doctor wrote to a letter to her housing association saying exactly that.
The kids now all sleep in the living room downstairs. Their own bedrooms are so riddled with thick, black mould, Kym doesn't want them sleeping there.
Reporter Sophie Halle-Richards has been speaking to Kym at a time when the conditions of social housing are at the forefront of the national agenda following the tragic death of Awaab Ishak.
You can read the full piece here.
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: Sir Richard Leese.
