Tag: Manchester

Kate Smurthwaite on Facebook:

Credit to Jack Edward Mitchell for assembling this data and making these excellent points. (And he is happy for others to share, please do):

3. The number of Accident and Emergency departments closed in Manchester since the Conservatives entered government.

4. The number of Greater Manchester Police stations sold off to plug funding gaps since 2010.

10. The number of Police station front desks Greater Manchester Police have had to close because of budget cuts in the same period.

2246. the number of officers Greater Manchester Police have had to let go since 2010, formerly 8200, now cut to 5,954.

£134,000,000. the cut applied to Greater Manchester Police’s annual budget between 2011 and 2015.

Emergency services in Manchester did an amazing job on Monday night, but take Theresa May’s condolences with a hefty slug of salt because this is how she and her party have consistently attacked those same emergency services over the last 7 years. This is why we have soldiers on our streets, because the UK has 11.7% fewer police officers than it did when we last had a Labour government.

Soraya Chemaly nails it in one paragraph.

Ariana Grande’s audiences aren’t just filled with children but specifically with free, loud, public girls. This is a strategy and it’s explicit. It’s not only about targeting spaces filled with young people in hedonistic settings but very focused on the role and presence of girls in these spaces. Recruiting disaffected young men is enabled by misogyny and toxic masculine ideals everywhere. Most of the on-air public commentary that I’m hearing is ignoring what this means and what it means in terms of our own governance and lack of women in our governance. It’s very frustrating and one of the reasons why our attempts to address the threats represented by all kinds of extremist violence, include white male supremacist violence in the US, are anemic. Am also adding here, because it’s related and pertinent that she also has a large gay male following. Several people have pointed that out and there is zero doubt that homophobia and misogyny are two sides of the same coin. #ManchesterBombing

From the BBC:

Twenty-two people, including an eight-year-old girl, have been killed and 59 were injured in a suicide bombing at Manchester Arena, at the end of a concert by US singer Ariana Grande.

A man set off a homemade bomb in the foyer at 22:33 BST on Monday…

Armed police have arrested a 23-year-old man in Chorlton, south Manchester, in connection with the attack.

Mancunians did what they could to help:

As hundreds of people fled Manchester Arena following the explosion, taxi drivers began taking people to safety.

Driver AJ Singh said he tried to help wherever he could.

“I’ve had people who needed to find loved ones. I’ve dropped them off to the hospital. They’ve not had any money, they’ve been stranded,” he told Channel 4 News.

“We should come out and show whoever’s done this that it doesn’t matter because Manchester, we’re glue and we stick together when it counts.”

Sam Arshad, from StreetCars Manchester asked his drivers to give free rides to anyone stranded after the Ariana Grande concert.

“The audience was a very young audience, and there were a lot of people there without their parents,” he told the BBC.

“And it’s then that people were requesting taxis but they didn’t have money.

“It was at that point that I made the decision that money isn’t everything in life and we’re part of Manchester and we need to do our part to make sure these people get home safe and sound.”

…

As news of the attack spread, locals soon began offering spare rooms on social media, under the hashtag #RoomforManchester.

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham tweeted: “If you are stranded in the area you can also follow #RoomForManchester where hotels and local people of our great city are offering refuge.”

There’s not much you can say, is there.