Sinking Ships
Not actually going to say anything about ships great or small, sinking or not, but will just pick out a couple of things from the week so far. Following on from the friendly takeover of MoSI by the National Science Museum, they have a new Director, Jean Franczyk, who I met earlier in the week, and I think she will be a real addition to Manchester's museums and galleries ( and not as an exhibit ). That meeting was followed by the scrutiny of the Council Executive's budget proposals and of proposed amendments to that budget where the best thing I can say about the meeting is the general public showed the good sense to stay away.
In the afternoon I visited the Hotspur Press building down on Cambridge Street and found the former printworks now colonised by a whole host of creative industries companies, artists, designers etc.. The owners and some of the tenants have the ambition of converting the whole of the building to these sorts of uses and I hope that the City Council will be able to assist them in doing that. The bottom line as ever for the Council is jobs, and creative industries remain a vital growth area. Catch-up day yesterday and then started the day today with a welcome to the fourth LGBT discussion day here in the Town Hall. Manchester City Council has been committed to an equal opportunities agenda without wavering for all the time I've been on the Council.Since then the world though has changed, largely for the better, and much of what was seen in 1984 as being looney left is now very much in the political mainstream. But serious challenges remain and the Council is in the middle of reviewing how we deliver our to equalities so that Manchester can continue to benefit from being both a diverse and a cohesive city.