News

Just Jim

Plastic revolution on the way

I remember when seat belts and breathalysers were regarded as a gross infringement of motorist’s freedom. Smoke filled offices and pubs are of more recent memory. Car drivers using mobile phones seem to be getting the message. In all these…
callum
1st March 2018
Just Jim

Don’t patronise us Boris

I’m sure most Remainers will be heartily irritated by the patronising tone of the Foreign Secretary this week. It was billed as an attempt to bridge the great divide in our nation over Brexit. It failed for a number of…
callum
15th February 2018
Just Jim

No Pardon for Suffragettes!

PARDONS. This week’s commemoration of thirty-year-old women getting the vote in 1918 was marred for me by the suggestion that the women who resorted to arson and criminal damage should be retrospectively pardoned. This is like Britain apologising for various…
callum
8th February 2018
Just Jim

Uni’s not what it’s cracked up to be

Downtown is always ahead of the game, so this week even before George Osborne identified educational attainment as the biggest issue in the North-South divide, a Manchester Downtown event had the benefit of an interesting debate about education. Our guest…
callum
1st February 2018
Just Jim

Truss gets the Downtown message

My 40 years of covering ministerial visits to the North have left me a bit jaded. They are billed as opportunities for ministers to get out of the Westminster bubble and hear what “real people” are saying. One of two…
callum
25th January 2018
Just Jim

Carillion boost for Corbyn

The political tide should be running strongly for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. In the week when he has tightened his grip on the party’s organisation, the collapse of construction giant Carillion gives powerful weight to his arguments against privatising public…
callum
18th January 2018
Just Jim

Thin pickings for North in reshuffle

It’s a good job Justine Greening threw her toys out of the pram, or the North wouldn’t have a single Cabinet Minister after the reshuffle. The refusal of the former Education Secretary to move to head up the Department for…
callum
11th January 2018
Just Jim

After Brexit, a Corbyn government?

The people haven't risen up At this turn of the year I wait in vain for any sign that the British public has changed its mind on Brexit in sufficient numbers to encourage a revolt amongst Remain parliamentarians. So, in…
callum
4th January 2018
Just Jim

Mayoral Maelstrom

Liverpool Council will vote on Tuesday to deny the people a vote on whether they want an elected mayor. Council leader Joe Anderson justifies this on the grounds that he can beat other cities to a package of powers and…
chris
2nd February 2012