The week Greater Manchester turns red (and a bit yellow) again?

Dear readers — it’s election week! After one of the most chaotic and turbulent periods in recent British history, the country will have a chance to pick its next government on Thursday. The sensible Millers among you will have already voted by post, but if you haven’t, you can find your local polling station here (polls open at 7am and close at 10pm) and see who is standing to represent your neck of the woods as an MP here. 

Making your card: Those of you who are paying members already rank in the top 0.1% of most informed citizens, having read in-depth pieces about the battleground of Bolton West (where Labour hopes to grab a Tory seat they lost in 2015), Rochdale (where George Galloway is trying to back up his by-election win from earlier this year) and Hazel Grove (where the Lib Dems are strong favourites to gain a seat from the Tories, just as they are in Cheadle). 

The FT reported last week that Labour has started diverting activists away from Lib Dem target seats (“a strategy that is likely to maximise Tory losses in the south of England,”) which may calm yellow nerves in Stockport. It’s also worth keeping an eye on Altrincham and Sale West, where Labour expects to complete its rout of the Tories in once-true blue Trafford. You’ll know that Sir Keir Starmer is on course for a stonking majority if he manages to unseat “minister for common sense” Esther McVey in Tatton, once the very safe seat occupied by George Osborne and now part of the ‘Footballer Belt’ of wealthy Cheshire suburbs that some Labour figures are daring to dream about. 

And we’ll also be keeping an eye on how the Labour vote share performs versus expectations in heavily Muslim areas in Manchester and Oldham, even if those seats don’t see any upsets. We’ll have a blockbuster election piece for you on Friday, so if you’re a candidate or activist, please stay in touch with us this week (you can also slide into our DMs on X, if you’re not already on WhatsApp terms with Jack or Mollie).

Over the weekend, we published an essay by Robert Pegg, which asked whether Manchester’s theatres — and the arts more generally — have a class problem, and boy has it been a hit. The comments are still alight with members telling their own stories and responding to the piece’s core argument, including a punchy counterpoint from former Corrie star Julie Hesmondhalgh, who felt “compelled to speak in defence of some of the work that is being done to address the class problem in the arts in Manchester.” On X, one member called it a “Remarkable and powerful piece, and one of my faves to date” and the BBC’s presenter Samira Ahmed called it “Really thoughtful”. By far the most effusive sharer was Leah Marks, who tweeted “Read this! Read it right now! Brilliant writing and clear next steps! Stop reading this tweet already and click the link!” 

If you’re not a member and you’d like to read our members-only stories and support our work, please join up now using the button below. We had a slight drop in new subscribers in June following our record-breaking May, so please get us off to a strong start for July by giving us a lift ahead of a hectic election week. 

🌦️ This week’s weather

It’s going to be a bad first week of July, according to our local weatherman Martin Miles, with cold weather and plenty of rain. Next week is looking more promising, so watch this space.

Tuesday 🌦️ A bright start but turning cloudy with a few showers during the afternoon. 17°C.

Wednesday 🌧️ Cool with outbreaks of rain and drizzle. Breezy. 15°C.

Thursday 🌦️ Windy with a mix of bright spells and heavy showers. 16°C.

Friday 🌦️ Breezy and cool with showers. 16°C.

Weekend 🌦️ Remaining breezy and unsettled with temperatures below average for July. 

Fancy working for us? We’re looking for an assistant editor to join our team, and applications close this Sunday! You’ll be part of one of the most exciting teams in journalism and working in Manchester’s prettiest office (we moved into a bigger one on Friday, see the pic below). The role is incredibly varied — you’ll be commissioning, managing, coaching and editing work from staff writers and freelancers. We need someone with at least five years in journalism under their belt, including two years of editing experience. For more info, check out our jobs page, where there are also fantastic staff writing roles on our sister newsletters in Liverpool, Birmingham and Glasgow closing on Sunday. 

The big story: Manchester’s latest joint enterprise trial

Top line: Four teenage boys were convicted last week of the manslaughter and murder of Kennie Carter, a 16-year-old from Stretford. Six others aged between 15 and 19 also stood trial but were found not guilty. It’s the latest in a string of controversial “joint enterprise” trials relating to teenagers — often black teenagers — in Manchester. 

Context: Kennie was killed on 22 January 2022 in a CCTV blind spot in Stretford. The murder was described as a “revenge” attack after a feud between two groups of boys. The day before his murder, some of Kennie’s friends had been in an altercation with a group associated with the defendants. 

• Boy A, charged with Kennie’s murder, said that he was acting in self-defence when he killed him. 

• The other nine boys, some of whom say they were on a different street to the murder and didn’t witness it, were accused of encouraging Boy A.

Over the weekend, Kennie’s mum Joan released a statement. She said: "I dream about him regularly. We are still stuck on the day Kennie was killed and I feel people are moving on and forgetting about our Kennie. Life has stopped for us and will never ever be the same."

Joint enterprise is a contentious legal doctrine that allows multiple people to be charged with the same crime. It has a history in Manchester. Notable cases include the 11 boys jailed for the murder of Abdul Hafidah in Moss Side in 2017, and 10 boys sentenced to prison terms ranging from eight to 21 years for conspiracy to murder in 2022, for allegedly planning a revenge attack after their friend, John Soyoye, was murdered.

In the past, prosecutors have built a picture of defendants conspiring together, often as a “gang”, to commit murder. These narratives have been criticised for leaning on stereotypes of young black men as gang members. 

• In the Soyoye case, one boy who had no history of gang activity was imprisoned for sending text messages to a group that included those who went on to try and “avenge” Soyoye.

There have been multiple anti-joint enterprise campaign groups set up in recent years seeking to raise awareness of the issue, and lodging appeals against the sentences of young men in prison for murders that in some cases they didn’t even witness.

Despite the doctrine’s notoriety, and questions raised about it in a 2016 review by the Supreme Court which said that joint enterprise had “taken a wrong turn”, data obtained by the Guardian showed that more and more people have been convicted as secondary parties in murder cases in the last ten years. 

Bottom line: At the trial into the murder of Kennie Carter, the presiding judge actually warned lawyers against using the phrase “joint enterprise”, as “it raises concern amongst people interested in these matters” But as Maeve McClenaghan writes: “while the phrase was avoided, the principle behind the doctrine was clear”. Even though it was clear that only one boy delivered the fatal stab wound to the chest that killed Kennie, it was deemed necessary that nine others — some just 12 years old at the time of the murder, others with abnormally low IQs, ADHD and autism — should stand trial too, and that three others should be imprisoned. They will be sentenced this month.

Your Mill briefing

🗳️GE Update: Arnold Saunders, a former Rabbi and Conservative candidate in Bury South faced abuse while visiting Bilal Mosque in Prestwich. A worshipper at the mosque shouted at Saunders, calling him a “snake” and saying: “We don’t want to engage with you people, we don’t want to engage with you justifiers of child killers.” Speaking of Bury, BBC Radio Manchester hosted a general election debate on Thursday focused on its northern seat. You can watch that here. Over in Hazel Grove, local Lib Dem candidate Lisa Smart was joined by national leader Ed Davey on the campaign trail in Marple, following criticism that Smart had reinforced stereotypes by making an anti-Liverpool joke on the doorstep. Smart said she was “mortified to have upset somebody”. And finally, while many were out making the most out of the last weekend of campaigning, Andy Burnham was at Glastonbury’s Left Field tent for a panel discussing how to end the housing crisis. His event clashed with Paloma Faith on the Pyramid Stage and the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets on the Park Stage, so it’s impressive the GM mayor drew a decent crowd. 

🌇Weis Group, a property company, is taking the GMCA to court for giving what it believes to be too much money to Renaker, another property company that has prolifically built skyscrapers in the city centre using loans from a combined authority fund. Weis Group says these loans, totalling at half a billion, breach the Subsidy Control Act and have “distorted” the Manchester property market. Renaker is the builder behind the Great Jackson Street development, which includes Deansgate Square. The GMCA has denied the loans were given out unfairly, or that it favours Renaker. It’s notable that the Greater Manchester Housing Investment Loan Fund that Renaker is benefitting from is designed to support housing growth, because Renaker has yet to build any affordable housing, often ducking its Section 106 requirements on the basis they would make its developments “unviable”. We’re working on a bigger piece about Renaker and development in Manchester City Centre — if you want to get in touch with tips or info, email Jack.

🌳On Friday, demonstrators blocked the entrance to Ryebank Fields, a plot of land in Chorlton set to be built on. The group, Friends of Ryebank Fields, has been fighting against the planned development since 2018. Another protest was planned for today to stop diggers and site investigators from accessing the land, which demonstrators say will disturb local wildlife.

❌Finally, Real Housewives of Cheshire star Ampika Pickston has lost an appeal to reopen her children’s home company AP Care Homes Limited, after it was banned from taking new placements by Ofsted due to safety concerns. Last November the watchdog rated the home for vulnerable children in Hale Barns “inadequate” after finding “serious and widespread safeguarding failures”.

Home of the week

This light and spacious stone cottage has three bedrooms over three floors and is a short walk from Ramsbottom town centre. It’s on the market for £300,000.

Our favourite reads

Market forces and malpractice — The London Review of Books

James Meek writes a sweeping essay about Greater Manchester’s housing crisis, visiting residents who have been displaced from their homes due to affordability and unsafe cladding. Those who have moved into the spacious new apartments in Ancoats face rising service charges and buildings covered in scaffolding that are still yet to be safe and insurable. C., a tenant at the Chips building in Ancoats, says: “It was sold as the bigger dream, and that’s where I feel I’ve been missold.”

‘You see it in people’s faces’: out on the doorsteps with a Tory candidate — The Financial Times

The FT’s Northern correspondent Jennifer Williams spends a sunny day knocking on doors with Chris Green, Bolton West’s Tory candidate, and finds “disgruntled voters” and little enthusiasm in an area that should be “very fertile territory” for the Conservatives. “You see it in people’s faces, you just look at them,” Chris Green said. “These things are all rolled up into a frown.”

Hate speech and climate denial: Inside the Facebook network run by Reform candidates — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Investigative journalists dig into the private Facebook groups where Reform UK parliamentary candidates share far-right conspiracy theories and lament the “sickening” presence of Halal shops in the UK. Andy Dawber, the parliamentary candidate for Wigan, was running three Facebook groups at the time of reporting.

Our to-do list

Tuesday

🏛️ There’s a free tour of Platt Hall, the beautiful 18th-century house in Platt Fields that is currently home to Unpicking Couture, an exhibition that celebrates high-end fashion. Book a place here.

🎶 The Northern Quarter bar Stage and Radio puts on a free jazz and blues night on the first Tuesday of every month, find out more here.

Wednesday

🎭 Oscar Wilde’s 1895 comedy play The Importance of Being Earnest will be performed outside the beautiful Ordsall Hall in Salford. Tickets here.

🍲 Diecast offers 40% off food when you book a table between 4pm and 10pm on a Wednesday. Reserve a place here.

Thursday 

🎧 Bask in Stockport is hosting a midweek night out with DJs playing uplifting house and funk until late. Tickets here.

🍷 The natural wine bar Ad Hoc is hosting a tropical wine-tasting night, featuring wines from “windswept archipelagos, tropical paradises, and stony seacrops”. More here.