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| It was all white on the night the Manchester Arena arose | |
| (4 months later) | |
| It was a truly triumphant night attended by around 14,000 people – but where was the city’s BAME community? | |
| Mon 11 Sep 2017 14.53 BST | |
| Last modified on Mon 27 Nov 2017 17.13 GMT | |
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| At the Manchester Arena reopening on Saturday night there was a rumour Peter Kay would be appearing, but we knew neither how nor when. It became a guessing game. Surely Rick Astley wasn’t billed on merit, alongside local heroes Noel Gallagher, Blossoms and the Courteeners? Kay must be planning to duet with him, we decided, perhaps as Geraldine from Britain’s Got the Pop Factor. And yet Never Gonna Give You Up came and went, and there was still no sign of the Bolton comedian. | At the Manchester Arena reopening on Saturday night there was a rumour Peter Kay would be appearing, but we knew neither how nor when. It became a guessing game. Surely Rick Astley wasn’t billed on merit, alongside local heroes Noel Gallagher, Blossoms and the Courteeners? Kay must be planning to duet with him, we decided, perhaps as Geraldine from Britain’s Got the Pop Factor. And yet Never Gonna Give You Up came and went, and there was still no sign of the Bolton comedian. |
| It wasn’t until just before Gallagher’s closing set that Kay finally came on stage, wearing the yellow fleece of an Arena worker. I assumed he was in character. He wasn’t. He told the 14,000-strong crowd he had worked there for four years from its opening day, on 15 July 1995. He’d seen a lot of happiness in this hall, he said, both as a worker and a comic: “We can’t let terrorists win.” He went on: “We’ve got to remember the good times and let them outweigh the bad. The victims will never, ever been forgotten. But we have got to move forward with love, not hate, and that’s how we win.” | It wasn’t until just before Gallagher’s closing set that Kay finally came on stage, wearing the yellow fleece of an Arena worker. I assumed he was in character. He wasn’t. He told the 14,000-strong crowd he had worked there for four years from its opening day, on 15 July 1995. He’d seen a lot of happiness in this hall, he said, both as a worker and a comic: “We can’t let terrorists win.” He went on: “We’ve got to remember the good times and let them outweigh the bad. The victims will never, ever been forgotten. But we have got to move forward with love, not hate, and that’s how we win.” |
| Comedians getting all serious can sometimes grate. I want to see Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge, not agitating for the Labour party. But there was something rather lovely about Kay getting up on stage with no script and no jokes, talking from the heart and telling the terrorists to “do one”, as we say in Manchester. | Comedians getting all serious can sometimes grate. I want to see Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge, not agitating for the Labour party. But there was something rather lovely about Kay getting up on stage with no script and no jokes, talking from the heart and telling the terrorists to “do one”, as we say in Manchester. |
| The only uncomfortable bit of the night was its title: We Are Manchester. I looked around the Arena and saw almost exclusively white faces. You could blame it on the guitar bands, to whose charms the BAME community has largely remained immune. But high up on the bill was Bugzy Malone, a young black grime artist who raps about Manchester’s 0161 dial code, despite almost certainly never using a landline. Thirty-three per cent of the local population is not white. Where were they? | The only uncomfortable bit of the night was its title: We Are Manchester. I looked around the Arena and saw almost exclusively white faces. You could blame it on the guitar bands, to whose charms the BAME community has largely remained immune. But high up on the bill was Bugzy Malone, a young black grime artist who raps about Manchester’s 0161 dial code, despite almost certainly never using a landline. Thirty-three per cent of the local population is not white. Where were they? |
| The Brexit club | The Brexit club |
| Also in Manchester this weekend, 51 strangers gathered to talk about what they wanted from Brexit. Dubbed the Citizens Assembly, the participants had been chosen to accurately reflect the UK population and how the nation voted in the EU referendum. The group comprised three non-voters, 25 leavers and 23 remainers. None had applied to be there: the organisers needed to weed out people with a special interest in politics. | Also in Manchester this weekend, 51 strangers gathered to talk about what they wanted from Brexit. Dubbed the Citizens Assembly, the participants had been chosen to accurately reflect the UK population and how the nation voted in the EU referendum. The group comprised three non-voters, 25 leavers and 23 remainers. None had applied to be there: the organisers needed to weed out people with a special interest in politics. |
| The most interesting speaker was David Coleman, emeritus professor of demography at Oxford University. Migration alone cannot realistically keep us with the level of public services and pensions to which we are accustomed, he argued. His most compelling statistic was that to keep the balance between the people of nominal working age (16-64) and those aged 65+, the population would have to rise to 300 million by 2100. | The most interesting speaker was David Coleman, emeritus professor of demography at Oxford University. Migration alone cannot realistically keep us with the level of public services and pensions to which we are accustomed, he argued. His most compelling statistic was that to keep the balance between the people of nominal working age (16-64) and those aged 65+, the population would have to rise to 300 million by 2100. |
| There is technically space in the UK for an extra 135 million people, he said, claiming you could actually fit the population of the Earth on the Isle of Wight, if no one wanted to sit or lie down. But the focus should instead be on improving productivity to increase wages, he said. The assembly gathers again in three weeks, when it will vote for the sort of Brexit it wants. I hope the politicians listen. | There is technically space in the UK for an extra 135 million people, he said, claiming you could actually fit the population of the Earth on the Isle of Wight, if no one wanted to sit or lie down. But the focus should instead be on improving productivity to increase wages, he said. The assembly gathers again in three weeks, when it will vote for the sort of Brexit it wants. I hope the politicians listen. |
| Pride of the Peaks | Pride of the Peaks |
| Driving through the Peak District on Saturday morning, in horrendous weather, I passed a surprising number of cyclists tackling the Brickworks, a famous local climb from the village of Pott Shrigley, near Macclesfield. At the bottom, I discovered why: the Manchester Wheelers were holding their annual hill climb. Never mind that half the road had turned into a waterfall. | Driving through the Peak District on Saturday morning, in horrendous weather, I passed a surprising number of cyclists tackling the Brickworks, a famous local climb from the village of Pott Shrigley, near Macclesfield. At the bottom, I discovered why: the Manchester Wheelers were holding their annual hill climb. Never mind that half the road had turned into a waterfall. |
| Their determination was outdone only by a father and son who had decided to “everest” the hill: going up and down it 60 times until they had ascended all 8,848 metres of Mount Everest’s height. They raised nearly £4,000 for 42nd Street, a young people’s mental health charity. A soggy chapeau to them both. | Their determination was outdone only by a father and son who had decided to “everest” the hill: going up and down it 60 times until they had ascended all 8,848 metres of Mount Everest’s height. They raised nearly £4,000 for 42nd Street, a young people’s mental health charity. A soggy chapeau to them both. |
| • Helen Pidd is the Guardian’s north of England editor | • Helen Pidd is the Guardian’s north of England editor |
| Manchester Arena attack | |
| Opinion | |
| Peter Kay | |
| Noel Gallagher | |
| Race issues | |
| Manchester | |
| Brexit | |
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