Bristol will be a sign pointer

It would be easy to forget the local elections in the face of resignations and reshuffles but the result in Bristol will surley be a pointer to how Labour is going to fair.

Out of 23 wards these were the percentages of the votes

Lib Dems, 35.1%; Tories 26.0%, Labour 18.8%, Greens 14.3%, BNP 3.3%, EDP 1.6%, Respect 0.84% the result being that the Liberals have taken it from no overall control.

A surrender in the North

The grim reality of what will happen to Labour in the local elections this week is illustrated in the Independent which focuses on the elections for Lancashire County Council.

Held by Labour since 1981 and only one of four county councils still held by the government,the county is on the cusp of changing colours.

Dr Andrew Russell, of Manchester University, believes that this week's results in Lancashire will prove a turning-point for both the Tories and Labour nationally. If victory in the county's rural fringes offered Labour a springboard into Middle England during its long years in opposition, so too it could signal that the tide has finally turned for the Conservatives.

The party has aleady surrender power in local government in the south and it may well be that this week sees a surrender in its northern heartlands.

Has the right pary won since 1928?

For political students Danny Finkelstein has a good column in the Times today.

He argues that The British voter never gets it wrong. At every election in the past 80 years the right party has won

The 80 years of course takes us back to the first election under universal suffrage and his thesis is established under the 1992 election,when the country rejected Neil Kinnock even in the face of an unpopular Tory party

Neil Kinnock was entirely unsuited to being Prime Minister. His endless whirling speeches showed that. As John Major pricelessly commented, as Kinnock didn't know what he was saying, he never knew when he had finished saying it. And alongside this unsuitability was Labour's programme, still only partly modernised and containing a ragtag of unfunded spending promises and threats of greater regulation.

But are there instances when the wring party one.I tend to agree with Danny over 92 but what about Wilson in 74? Or going back further in time,to the Tory wins in 1950 and 51.

I am sure this debate will run and run today

A warning of support for the far right for Labour

There is a good article in this morning's Independent which is well worth a read.

Julian Baggani reports from Maltby in Yorkshire where the far right made inroads at the local elections

Labour entered the election holding two of the three seats up for election and was wiped out. The BNP's Will Blair took Maltby, with only 23 per cent of the votes cast, but nationalists did well in all three wards, where nearly one in four of those who voted opted for UKIP or the BNP. For those who comfort themselves that these parties only do well in poor, white, working-class areas, this is something of a wake-up call.

And his conclusion?

It has little to do with right wing views and everything to do with the failings of the Labour party.Local people feeling that they are over taxed,anger about the clean up of last year's floods,complaints that local people are not listened to.

It is a warning for Labour.In these areas,people are not going to switch to the Tories or the Liberal Dems.

Eyes down for the next two years

So we are waking up this morning to the news that Boris has triumphed over Ken with a majority of 140,000 votes on second preference.

It caps a bad end to a bad day for the Labour party and the papers and the commentators this morning are revelling in it.All the papers feature the doom laden headlines of massacre,bloodbath,meltdown.

I had to laugh at the Express whose front page says of Brown,

He is the biggest disaster ever and now even failed asylum seekers queue to leave Britain

We can be in no doubt that barring a coup de dat in the party ,of which we will no doubt here more rumours of over the weekend,Labour has two years now to convince the country that it can govern into the second decade.

And the Tories have two years to show that they have some credible policies with which to get elected and are not simply living off Labour's disasters.

Here are just some of the comments this morning.Simon Heffer in the Telegraph who says that

The only comfort Labour can take is that the turnout was so abysmal - 35 per cent, and in some of its heartlands barely in double figures. Many of its voters are sitting at home rather than transferring an allegiance: for the moment, at least.

but in the two years for him the solution may well be that

many MP's will conclude that those aims ( of the Labour Party)would be better achieved without the charisma, decisiveness and genius of Gordon Brown.

Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian says that

Eleven years after it promised a new dawn, Labour's dusk has arrived

and adds

On May 2 2008 it was a wake at City Hall, witnessing a defeat that seemed to confirm what a day of results had already suggested: that after an era of dominance that has endured since the mid-1990s, Labour is about to enter the twilight.
It threatens to be a slow death, as Labour decays steadily towards defeat in 2010. That, at least, is what plenty in the party fear after a horror show of a performance in local elections across England and Wales.

The Independent's leader says

Mr Brown faces an uphill struggle as he surveys this new landscape

and

from traditional Labour heartlands, where the decline in the vote was as sharp as anywhere, the message was that something rather more substantial and immediate would be needed if Mr Brown was to revive the party's fortunes in time for the next general election.

And Steve Richards in the same paper says

More worrying for Labour is that there is no obvious way forward to rebuild an election-winning coalition of support. Listen to the banalities from ministers and you can see how they are struggling to cope with the tide that is sweeping over them. "We will listen and lead" is the most common mantra and one that leads nowhere at all.

Matthew Parris in the Times gives some advice to Labour MP's

give up,Bayonet for the wounded: there's no constructive message in the voters' rejection of Brown

The Sun offers a bit more hope

IT wasn’t so much a punch on the nose. More a complete pasting.
Britain’s verdict on Gordon Brown’s Government leaves Labour on the ropes.
But although down, they are not out.

It is time to regroup, Mr Brown

says the Mirror adding

Certainly it was a good night for the Tories, but behind their triumphant smiles is the knowledge that many core Labour voters stayed away from the polls. And the growing feeling that while Mr Brown is not communicating his vision, David Cameron does not have any vision at all.

Lions led by Donkeys.

John McDonnell is currently on Five live.

His appearence coincided with news that Labour had lost Redditch."I feel sorry for our local councillors who through no fault of their own are being kicked out of office."


He says the losses were partly to do with the fact there wasn't a leadership election to give the party an opportunity to debate policy

It is not the Tories winning but Labour losing.It is not about listening but taking action.Labour was not acting on its own principles citing the 10p tax and its policy on strikes.

The debate is about policy and if the leader cannot lead on those policies then there should be a leadership election.

He followed an exuberant William Hague who described last night's performance as spectacular.

Yes he says voters are angry with Labour but its also a positive endorsement on David Cameron.

Examined what the Tory policies were,he listed the usual Cameron line ob green issues,freedoms etc and that they wont promise anything that they cannot fund.

Labour achieves worst performance since 1968???

Compared with Manchester there is little doubt that Labour has had another meltdown across the country.

As it stands at the moment the National vote equivilents are that the Tories have 44%,which must be higher than their expectations.The Lib Dems have 25% and Labour have been pushed into third with 24%.A repeat in a general election would see the Conservatives have a majority of 138.

Fraser Nelson reckons its the worst showing since 1968 when

the rest of the world was exploding in socialist riots and free love, the Tories took Hackney and Islington with 60% of the London vote – Labour had 28%.

A quick synopis of the results so far.With 99 councils having declared Labour has lost 1454 seats,the Tories have gained 144 and the Lib Dems 10.

That swing constituency Bury has fallen to the Tories as well as Southampton another election battleground as well as Elmbridge, Nuneaton and Bedworth in the Midlands, and Harlow.

Predictions are that the total gains could well reach 200 seats by the time all 159 councils declare and then of cause we have the London Mayoral racewhich is expected this evening.

All the commentators are saying the ame thing

It is a massive rebuff to Gordon Brown on his first test at the polls as Prime Minister.says Adam Boulton

Bad for Labour. Very bad. And with worse likely to follow. For once there can be no spinning, no rival interpretations, no debate about what local elections results mean.

says Nick Robinson

And the recrimintions have started

Jonathan Isaby tells us

Party vice-chairman Stephen Ladyman fired a pre-emptive salvo aimed at backbench malcontents like Charles Clarke.
“Engineering an ego-free politician would be a triumph for biotechnology but it just hasn’t happened yet,” the Kent MP told Labour ginger group, Progress. “If influential figures in the party can’t express their ideas in a constructive tone then we have to isolate them and make sure the public understand they speak for no-one but themselves.”

What happens next ?asks Martin Bright

So what would be so awful about the Tories getting back into power?" Far beyond the Tory heartlands, this question is being voiced without shame by swathes of Middle England - voters who switched to Labour in 1997 and stayed on board because the idea of the Tories in government was laughable.

Over at Sky news,David Cameron tells the world that this is a big turning point for the party

"Voters see a party changed for the better, united with a strong team of leaders.
"They are looking to us to speak out on the issues they care about. This is a very big moment for the Conservative Party.

But makes the point

"But nobody should think we can win elections only on the back of a failing government,"

Harriet Harman meanwhile is disappointed but maintains that the Tories don't have any alternatves.I am sure that this argument will run and run over the weekend.

Little change in Manchester

Not suprisingly little change on Manchester City Council,Labour winning 2 seats but losing two others.

In the Newton Heath and Miles Plating ward,Lib Dem candidate Damien O'Connor unseated Labour's Christine Carroll with a majority of nearly 200.

The Tories are still without a councillor apart from Faraz Bhatti who defected from the Liberal Democrats.

But there was little change across the city.In Longsight,Labour took the seat from the Lib Dems with a majority 1147 but lost in Northenden to the Liberals.

In Greater Manchester, as predicted, Bury was captured by the Tories,but failed to take Oldhamwhich went to No Overall Control and Bolton which also remains in no overall control.

Salford saw Roger Jones one of the champions of the congestion charge lose his seat coming in third in Irlam.Labour lost six councillors in Salford ,two to the Tories and three to the Lib Dems.

The lowest turnout was in the city centre where just 15% decided to bother to vote

It's May Day

Map courtesy of Dave Ottewell

Just out on the way to vote.

Eyes will be on Machester where the Tories will have to start making some in roads if they want to be taken seriously in the next general election.

For Greater Manchester,Bury appears to be on the radar as a place where the Conservatives need to do well.Will Labour voters register a protest and up the Lib Dem representation across the region?

Let's wait and see what happens tomorrow

Forty per cent of British women who go on a holiday to Spain have sex with a stranger within the first five hours of their arrival. Believe this? Then you are ready to follow this week's local election results

says Danny Finklestein

Never mind that though,A few predictions flying around the Blogosphere tonight on the voting tomorrow.

Guido predicts

Boris will win and nothing else will really matter tomorrow. Polly Toynbee and all the rest of the chattering classes will choke on their words. Labour will finally understand in their collective consciousness that they made a terrible choice in replacing the triple election-winning Tony with the triple election-avoiding*

Iain Dale dares nine seperate predictions.He is quite adamant that Boris will win and the Tories will start to make some council gains

Sam Coates meanwhile reminds us that

Before elections, all three political parties give their predictions of what will happen. They frequently bear little reaction to what does happens on the night. That's because these briefings are part of the expectations game. Indeed, if a party's predictions have come true, that's likely because they've done extremely badly indeed

Straw owns up to mistakes

Just when the conroversy starts to die down,Jack Straw makes a ground entrance and aplogises for the 10p tax controversy.

Jon Craig describes how

On a radio phone-in, I'm All Right Jack, touted by some MPs as a caretaker leader in the event of a Labour meltdown on Thursday, said: "Government is not perfect. I'm sorry that this has happened."
And he told one caller: "I'm sorry that you have been placed in this position and it shouldn't have happened."

Meanwhile this morning's papers are full of more bad polls for the government.The Independent shows a 14 point lead in its latest poll,double that of the last

The latest ComRes survey for The Independent, taken between Friday and Sunday, puts the Tories on 40 per cent (up two points since last month), Labour on 26 per cent (down five points), the Liberal Democrats on 20 per cent (up three points) and other parties on 14 per cent (unchanged).

The Guardian predicts

Gordon Brown is heading for crushing reverses on Thursday night and will see Ken Livingstone swept from the London mayoralty, according to two final polls before the local elections published yesterday.
The projections would mean Labour would lose more than 200 council seats in England and Wales.

And on top of all that the Telegraph is claiming

Up to seven million savers will see their pension pots shrink from this month as a result of Gordon Brown's cut in income tax.Millions of letters have been sent out by the country's leading pension providers over the past few weeks telling clients they need to contribute more to their monthly pension schemes because of the change in income tax from 22 per cent to 20 per cent

Big guns turn up to campaign in Manchester

We have had two prominent Tories and an ex leader of the Labour Party all campaigning in Manchester in the last couple of days.

David Cameron revisited the streets of Salford following in the footsteps of his hero Morrissey (Read Ailsa Cranna piece in the Salford Advertiser here)

George Osbourne was in Whalley where according to the MEN,he had some choice remarks for Gordon Brown

Mr Brown was a man who had wanted to be Prime Minister "since he was 10",
but had lost his way in a political fight for survival."He has no clue what his
vision is and no clue about how to run the country," said Mr Osborne, the Tatton
MP. "No one doubts he came into politics with good motives and things he
believed in. But they are lost in the day-to-day calculations he makes in how to
eke out a political advantage.

Meanwhile Lord Kinnock again according to the same paper urged

party members not to react like Corporal Jones from Dad's Army to Gordon Brown's recent woes.
The former leader predicted the prime minister would bounce back in the polls and prove the people's choice when the global economic waters got rough.

Some of the picks from the weeklies

Spectator-Matthew D'ancona on why Boris is the man for the job

Although he admits a personal interest

I write this primarily as a Londoner: someone who has lived in the city all his life (south, north, west, east, in that order), is generally reluctant to leave the place at all, and feels a profound allegiance to what Andrew Neil described in last week’s issue as this ‘21st-century British city-state with the world as its hinterland’.

And in the same journal Kelvin MacKensie on why he is standing as a councillor

It was a strange place for the red mist to descend. A railway car park in the snooty Surrey town of Weybridge. I was putting my £3.50 into the ticket machine when I spotted a notice from Elmbridge Borough Council which told those of us who had the temerity to pay for our parking spot rather than leave our car for free in the street that there was to be an increase from 1 April

.

Dan Hancox writes in the New Statesman that

All is not well at the British National Party. As they seek to secure their first London Assembly member on 1 May, they are being tormented from every side. "Communist-Tory-Labour-Libdem Alliance Reveals its Ugly Face" ran a headline on the BNP website recently.

Not suprisingly Gordon Brown gets a battering

IT IS the sudden and unexpected event, requiring a spontaneous response, that is usually thought to confound Gordon Brown.

says the Economist

Brown must always remain on the side of the working poor says the leader in the New Statesman

The government has not been making it easy to vote Labour with enthusiasm. Never has the divide between the concerns of core Labour voters and those of the media-coached cabinet seemed wider

The Spectator senses the mood on the streets

Spend just a few minutes on the campaign trail for next week’s local elections and it suddenly becomes clear why Labour MPs got into such a mutinous mood.

Bright lights and a bright future for Newton Heath

The bright yellow mural painted on the side of the library tells the story of better times. It shows amongst other things, Blackpool tower which was built just down the road. There are two figures playing football. A reminder that this was the birthplace of Manchester United.

United have long since moved on, as have the once proud companies that employed thousands in this part of East Manchester.

Welcome to Newton Heath. Two miles east of Central Manchester, you can see the Hilton Tower from there and yet it could be an age away from the bright lights and economic activity.

The area today has one of the worst unemployment rates in Manchester with almost half the working age population jobless, including those on incapacity benefit and income support. It has a high rates of crime and is also home to some of the poorest children in the country .It is made of predominantly of the white working class living in 1960’s council blocks or the traditional two up two down housing.

The library stands close to both of the transport links that saw the growth of the area, the Rochdale canal and the Oldham Road.

The former was completed at the end of the 18th century. It was the creation of James Brindley linking the Pennines with the hub of Manchester and the port of Liverpool, linking the coal fields with the mills and ports. At its height it was carrying a million tonnes of cargo annually

The Oldham Road had been a route east of Manchester since Roman Times, but the 18th century saw it turnpiked and with that it became as did the canal a route for weavers bringing their finished goods into Manchester and taking the raw material back to the mills.

Its history goes back further

It took its name quite simply from the Old English translation of the old town on the heath. There were originally four heaths or village greens within its boundaries .Its first real mention was as a place where French Huguenots settled during the 16th century. They had fled religious persecution on the continent and brought with them cotton and linen weaving skills. Linen would be laid out on the fields to dry.

With the coming of the transport routes, Cottonopolis came to Newton Heath. There was a large silk mill which produced a soft silk fabric used for ribbons. The banks of the Canal were lined with weaving mills and dye works

Industrialisation followed along the transport links. Match manufacturing, glass works and rope works began as well as small back to back low cost housing for the migrant workforce.

The opening of the railway in 1840 brought more changes to the area. Two main lines linking Manchester with Leeds and Oldham crossed the area and in 1877, the Newton Heath railways sheds were opening. At their height they employed over 2000 workers and spawned a football team which later moved across the city and became known as Manchester United.

During the 20th century the area became a major engineering centre. Companies such as Mather & Platt, Avro and Heenan & Froude were all based in the area.Mather and Platt found fame in building the Blackpool tower.Avro was the first company to register solely as an aircraft manufacturer and amongst other things built components for the Lancaster bomber in the Second World War.

As with much manufacturing the companies did not survive the 1970’s and 1980’s which saw unemployment rise and the area slid into a rapid decline. It was estimated that 60% of jobs vanished between 1975-85 and this was aligned with a population loss of around 13%

.Unlike other areas of East Manchester such as Ancoats which is seeing the building of new offices or Beswick with the Commonwealth Games stadium and one of the biggest Wal-Mart in Europe, a lot of redevelopment has passed it by.

Take a walk around Newton Heath today and you will see an area badly in need of major renovation.Many buildings are empty and in need of repair.There are a great deal of empty spaces where industrial units once stood.The once proud town hall, its red brick turrets standing on the Oldham Road, is boarded up, its lower floors occupied by a second hand furniture shop and an adult only store.

Old Church Street, its main shopping thoroughfare is home to discount stores with plastic containers piled high, pawn brokers and betting shops.

Work will begin later this year on redeveloping the road. It will include re-laying the road, new paving and street furniture such as benches and the provision of well-lit car parks to the rear of the shops. In addition the area around the canal will be improved with better views.

Eddie Smith Eddie Smith, deputy chief executive of New East Manchester

The enhanced high street will serve the local community better as well as attracting new residents to use the area."

The new residents will come from two new housing developments, both on the Oldham Road. Work is currently taking place on the once derelict site of the L’Oreal factory

Coleen Scott a project for New East Manchester explained to me that

“An important aspect to the future of the high street is to generate greater footfall. Some of this will be achieved by residential development in the area. Planning consents are in place for over 500 new housing units - a mix of houses and apartments in the immediate vicinity. “

Down the Oldham Rd stands the space age design of Central One Transport Interchange. Its gleaming structure bathed in blue light at dusk seems a world away from the urban decay just up the road. It was built as a 21st century transport interchange where commuters would arrive for work at the new business park. The tram lines go nowhere. They were delayed as the government would not fund the costs of the Greater Manchester authority. Its wide open roads are used primarily as a place for learner drivers to practice their skills.

At its opening Tom Russell, the chief executive of the New East Manchester redevelopment agency said

“Central Park is the main economic generator for new East Manchester driving forward the transition from heavy industry to new technology. It is imperative that we have good transport links such as these to attract more global technology businesses.”


Central Park was an £18m venture aimed at nurturing local talent in partnership with Manchester’s top universities. Much of the first phase of the development has been taken up. It is home to Fujitsu’s regional headquarters as well as the new technology institute and Business creation unit of its educational hub. East Manchester estimates that it will provide up to 4,500 jobs over the next 10 years.

It is Saturday night and Old Church Street couldn’t be more distinct from the glitter of Manchester city centre. Youths in black tracksuits are hanging around,their hoods pulled tightly over their heads.Some hassle people to buy alcohol form the local off licence. Children no older that 10 are scrabbling for enough money to buy chips and curry sauce from the Indian takeaway. Inside the pub men in their late fifties are playing cards. They have been in their most of the day and one decides to have an impromptu press up competition. In the background the big screen shows live American horse racing. Further up the street, young and old alike are poised with their dabbers to begin the night’s bingo session in the working men’s club.

How would they be voting in a three weeks time and will it change their life?

A bird's eye view of Newton Heath and its issues


View Larger Map

Hague raises the flag in the city

William Hague paid a visit to Manchester yesterday according to a report in the Manchester evening news

Hague was addressing students at the Kro bar in Oxford Road.

Manchester is a barren place for Tory councillors currently having only one seat and that as a result of a defection and Hague said that

THE Conservatives will continue to target Manchester in a bid to prove themselves the true `national' party,

Meanwhile David Cameron has launched the party's local election campaign this morning with a speech in Dewsbury

On 1st May, voters in many parts of Britain will be going to the polls to decide who runs their councils. These elections really matter. Local people and communities expect their councils to deliver good service and value for money. And to play an active role in improving the quality of life. But this will only happen if people vote – and vote wisely.

During the speech he claimed that Tory councils were better value for money,were greener and concerning crime safer

Local election coverage

Five candidates are to stand in the Miles Platting and Newton Heath ward at the local elections which will take place on the 1st May.

The result last year ended in a narrow win for Labour in a ward which will see a two way fight between the Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates.

Cllr Christine Carroll is standing for Labour again. She currently serves on the communities and neighbourhoods committee and the standards committee on Manchester City Council and is a member of the Manchester Fire and Civil Defence authority.

Up against her is Damien O'Connor for the Liberal Democrats. He stood last time and got within 61 votes of winning the seat. He is editor of the Miles Platting and Newton Heath focus.

The other candidates are Vaseen Valentine for the Conservatives, Jonathan Mercer for the Green party and Joseph Cegla for the British National Party.

The tussle between the top two will centre on two issues. Which of them gets the credit for a number of community initiatives in the area? Secondly the record of Damien O'Connor who has stood for a number of parties including Labour and UKIP as well as allegations of fraud when he was last a councillor.

The sitting Labour councillor will come under pressure due to the backlash against the party at a national level. Her Liberal Democrat opponent is using the national Post office closure programme in his campaign material He claims that the main post office is under threat but this will not be announced until after the elections.

Councillor Carroll stands by Labour’s local record in the past year. Newton Heath’s market was under threat until it was taken under the wing of Manchester Markets following meetings between Councillor Carroll and Chief Executive Sir Howard Bernstein. She has also joined local residents in challenging plans to upgrade the refuse plant in the area.

For the Lib Dems, Damien O’Connor stands by his record as part of the local party’s Focus team in attending to local issues such as fencing schemes, alley gates and new walls.

I asked existing Councillor Marc Ramsbottom what issues the party would be fighting on. Top of the agenda was crime and anti social behaviour but he also cited lack of consultation about improvements in the area as well as measures to eradicate fly tipping and improvements in the quality of workmanship in social housing.

For the Tory candidate any improvement on the number of votes cast last time will be seen as a victory. Manchester is a barren place for Tory councillors currently having only one seat, and that as a result of a defection

Launching the party’s local election campaign in Dewsbury earlier this week, David Cameron claimed that the party in local government were better value for money, greener and had a better record on crime.

“These elections really matter. Local people and communities expect their
councils to deliver good service and value for money. And to play an active role
in improving the quality of life

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague on a visit to the city said the party

“Will continue to target Manchester in a bid to prove themselves the true `national' party”

In reality it is going to be a straight fight between Labour and the Lib Dems on May 1st.

You can read more of the manifesto's here

Liberal Democrat

Labour Party

Conservatives

Government burying bad news according to the Indie

The Independent is carrying a story that Labour is 'burying bad news' of poverty study until after elections

According to political editor Andrew Grice

The figures, normally issued in March, will be disclosed on 2 May, the day after local authority elections in England and Wales, The Independent can reveal. Many results, including the contest for London Mayor, will not be announced until 2 May and they are likely to dominate media coverage, swamping the poverty figures

adding that

Independent experts expect the statistics to show Labour is in danger of missing its flagship target of halving child poverty by 2010 and abolish it by 2020

.

Of course it will not be the first time that the government has been accused of burying bad news

Disenfranchised Locals

I could not help but notice the story on the front of today's Manchester Evening News which claims that

A HOTLINE for people to help decide how Manchester council should spend its £468m budget has received just one call.
Thousands of leaflets were distributed at an estimated cost of £1,300 urging the public to take part. They could give their call the hotline, use email or send a letter.
But the hotline rang only once and just six letters and 21 e-mails were received - all out of a population of 442,000.

Bernard Priest, the council's executive member for finance, said:

"It is always disappointing if there is a limited response to this type of consultation, but it is really important to give taxpayers a chance to let us know their views on how their money is spent.

Disappointing may well be an understatement,but onece agin this shows local democracy at work.People are simply not interested and the consequence is that large spending budgets are left in the hands of people who rarely come under piublic scrutiny,It's not their fault but how many of us bother to vote at local elections.

At the last local electiuons in Manchester in May 2007,turnout in the various wards hovered around the 25% mark.

The electoral commision asked to report on the woeful turnout figures for the 2005 general election concluded that there was a great deal of work to be done by all parties in engaging the electorate.

In this respect then Manchester needs to do a lot more