Second City

The creative heartbeat of an area has everything to do with it's inhabitants and the people born there.
I chose Carol Anne Duffy because she resides and works in Manchester, I chose Elisabeth Gaskell not because she actually spent much of her childhood in Knutsford and not in her Chelsea birthplace but because she chose Manchester as her home. a place she loved and worked tirelessly in to assist the less fortunate and a place so close to her heart that she wrote the Classic 'Mary Barton' novel and forgive me for not previously affording the book it's full title - 'Mary Barton - A Manchester Tale'.
Should my colleague prefer I am more than happy to limit my future postings only to those born within Greater Manchester boundaries and will happily afford him a similar luxury for Birmingham if he so wishes. This would then render his Lunar Society blog a little ludicrous just as it would his extolling the virtues of Birmingham's car manufacturing magnates, the vast majority of whom were born and lived outside of Birmingham. Lunar Society members for instance, visited Birmingham only once a month when the full moon was apparent and no doubt when Brummie mobs, eager to rid themselves of unwanted intelligencia, were fast asleep.

I'm grateful that you decided, as I thought you might, to refer to our wet weather reputation for not one but two reasons. Firstly it is a myth, no doubt conjured up by Brummies unhappy at our greater popularity, that Manchester is the rainiest city in the UK and I challenge my resourcful friend to show us the proof. Secondly his rather desperate wet weather references served only to remind me that yet another innovator who provided many Brummies shelter from the rain, Charles Mackintosh, forged out a very successful living up here in the "rainy city".

Moving on to Salford's inclusion here, as pointed out in my previous blog 'Noddy's ours - You can keep Neville' and being a Salfordian by birth, I can confidently state that Salfordians as with all neighbouring boroughs that make up our great city, are proud to call themselves Mancunians and unlike Birmingham's neighbouring towns such as Sutton Colfield, you will no doubt, should you ever wish to visit the bastion of northern pride, hear Salfordians, Stopfordians and all those born within the boundaries, refer to Manchester City Centre as 'Town' an affectionate colloquialism that describes Manchester City Centre as the hub and heart of their area.
In fact Salfordians visiting Salford Centre refer to it as 'the Precinct' and acknowledge 'Town' as being the more important centre of the area. Salfordians are indeed proud of their city just as people from Bury, Oldham, Stockport, Rochdale, Wigan, Tameside and Trafford are but they do have an acknowledgement and fierce loyalty to being proud Mancunians.

I do think it fair and honourable that we decide on equal size and population numbers but I am also happy to alter the criteria and base the debate on Manchester and it's suburbs should my friend wish yet he must in return concede that area size no longer be used as a factor to determine our Second City, given the obvious difference. I am also happy for him to incorporate examples born within the greater populaton of Birmingham City should he choose to. Please enlighten me in your next blog and be sure to include who we up here consider to be your greatest Brummie export - Duncan Edwards.


For the record, I am happy to include only links that were written after an agreed date. If January 2008 is acceptable then please confirm.
To update, I have added recent links that shore up the case for Manchester and do little to aid Birmingham's cause.

Vote Manc.