« September 2006 | Main | November 2006 »

Monday October 30, 2006

Fish heads

I'm beginning to wonder how I filled my life before YouTube.

Continue reading "Fish heads" »

Posted by Richard Butt at 19:48 | | Comments (0)

No comment. Great TV.

SOMETIMES, I have to confess, it’s much better to get a “no comment” than an interview when we’re reporting a story for Channel M. And the ruder the better.

Continue reading "No comment. Great TV." »

Posted by Richard Butt at 19:39 | | Comments (0)

Yes, it LOOKED dodgy.

IT must have looked dodgy. I was walking along Dantzic Street near the city centre looking in the window of every car parked there.

Continue reading "Yes, it LOOKED dodgy." »

Posted by Richard Butt at 19:38 | | Comments (0)

Friday October 27, 2006

Tram rage (again)

I’D have thought that Metrolink would be only too pleased to make it as easy as possible to buy tickets and passes. Of course, I’m wrong.

Continue reading "Tram rage (again)" »

Posted by Richard Butt at 14:13 | | Comments (0)

Corrie's big so what?

SO, Coronation Street MIGHT move. Well, the set might. About two-and-a-half miles to Salford Quays. It would be in another local authority’s patch. And Granada would pay business rates to Salford instead of Manchester. Am I alone in thinking “so what”?

Continue reading "Corrie's big so what?" »

Posted by Richard Butt at 14:11 | | Comments (0)

The integration game

WE keep hearing a lot about how Asian people – and especially Muslims – should integrate with society. Commons leader Jack Straw brought the debate to a head when he said he asked women to remove their veils when they spoke to him. For anyone who can listen to the radio or make a phone call, I fail to see how understanding anyone wearing a veil is particularly difficult.

Continue reading "The integration game" »

Posted by Richard Butt at 14:11 | | Comments (0)

Kim Jong-Il in Newton Heath

IN Newton Heath the other day, I wondered whether I’d stumbled through some sort of break in the space/time continuum and ended up in North Korea. I was at a Manchester Council depot on Grimshaw Lane. The people working there were perfectly pleasant and didn’t look as though they were plotting nuclear bomb tests. Behind them something sinister lurked.

Continue reading "Kim Jong-Il in Newton Heath" »

Posted by Richard Butt at 14:10 | | Comments (0)

Closely-guarded secret

I WENT around Stockport’s fascinating air raid shelters a couple of weeks ago. They’re carved into the sandstone under the town centre. They’re where hundreds of Stopfordians sheltered during the Blitz.

Continue reading "Closely-guarded secret" »

Posted by Richard Butt at 14:09 | | Comments (0)

Sunday October 08, 2006

The snobbery ladder

HOUSE prices have risen by 10 per cent in a year in south Manchester, apparently. This has sent the middle classes into paroxysms of hand-wringing and despair. What about the first-time buyers, they all cry. Well, what about them?

Continue reading "The snobbery ladder" »

Posted by Richard Butt at 15:27 | | Comments (0)

Slippery slope to Satanism

Two weeks ago, Asda already had an aisle devoted to it. And, right on cue, along comes a bishop (the Bishop of Bolton in this case) to denounce it. Young children find it too scary, he wails. They should have bright things and celebrate the eve of All Saints’ Day. For pity’s sake! It isn’t the slippery slope to Satanism.

Continue reading "Slippery slope to Satanism" »

Posted by Richard Butt at 15:26 | | Comments (0)

Double mellow lines

I WAS invited to a well-known local institution to film the other day. We had driven and we didn’t know where to park, so we left it on the double yellows (don’t worry it’s not going to be a boring “woe-is-me-I-was-booked” story) outside and popped in.

Continue reading "Double mellow lines" »

Posted by Richard Butt at 15:26 | | Comments (0)

Voices of the people

PART of my job entails going into the street and talking to people for what we call a “vox pop” (short for vox populi, Latin for voice of the people – and they say television is no respecter of high culture). I was sent to Moss Side to ask about the current gun amnesty.

Continue reading "Voices of the people" »

Posted by Richard Butt at 15:25 | | Comments (0)

Pay for the pleasure of buying

MY partner has just spent £80.25 on the internet getting tickets for one pensioner and two of us to go and see Chicago at the Opera House in Manchester in October. But £10.75 of that is booking charges. It costs £2.75 per full-paying adult and £2.50 for each pensioner.

Continue reading "Pay for the pleasure of buying" »

Posted by Richard Butt at 15:24 | | Comments (0)

Debate? What debate?

I SPENT more than six bum-numbing hours this week listening to a debate over the future of the health service. More specifically, it was the health service in the north east of Greater Manchester (north Manchester, Oldham, Bury and Rochdale). Even more specifically, it was Rochdale. And it wasn’t really a debate at all.

Continue reading "Debate? What debate?" »

Posted by Richard Butt at 15:21 | | Comments (0)