The Greens know that popularity is more about branding than anything else. Take Hannah-the-plumber. She’s not one of those politicians that everyone hates — she’s a plumber! She eats pasties on Instagram and shows up to our interview with a sausage roll.
@manchestermill.bsky.social are cutting through all the crap at the #GortonandDenton by-election. Reporting what they see and hear first-hand. Huge respect for their unvarnished, spin-free truths | Manchester Mill | 21 February 2026:
manchestermill.co.uk/reform-hanna...
#HannahthePlumber
This is such a fun piece about Spencer from @ophiraophira.bsky.social - by miles the best profile written about her. @manchestermill.bsky.social has had an exceptional by-election (with none of my involvement, I should add) 👏👏
manchestermill.co.uk/reform-hanna...
“There’s more shit in politics than I’ve ever found in somebody’s toilet.”
I mean that’s just a great line from Hannah The Plumber.
Who was behind it? Was it a man with a Pomeranian? A homeless man wearing four jumpers? A student? An oddly-clad man with an axe to grind?
I set about finding out.
Over the past few weeks there’s been a spate of graffiti across Manchester and Salford, casting aspersions against various local businesses — crude tags calling Pollen Bakery “Homo-Phobic”, or claiming that The White Hotel “hate Palestine”.
One of our most popular stories of the year, @ophiraophira.bsky.social takes on the surprisingly sinister world of Manchester's tour guides.
Warning: this story involves scheming, theft, impersonation, flag-snapping, people pushing each other off benches, false anecdotes about Oasis, and gimps.
Apparently it was common knowledge that the vans were handed down through a handful of families over the years — and if a new van came in, they never lasted long.
“I’m not sure how bad it got, but it was most definitely territorial.”
Was this true? I went straight to Old Trafford to find out.
Not long ago, I got a tip off from a reader who'd seen my piece about Manchester's warring tour guides.
She told me of a similar battle going on between the burger vans outside Old Trafford - mostly run by women from Odsall: "salt of the earth... but you'd rather have them as friend than foe".
Leandra is one of the longest-serving women at the Old Trafford Burger vans.
Her mum owned her van before her, and brought her to work since she was a baby.
Walk by Old Trafford on a match day evening and you’ll mostly see men eating burgers.
But if you'd passed by a few hours earlier you’d have seen something different: local street traders, mostly women, staking their vans onto numbered pitches, heating vats of tea for the drawn-out night ahead...
Nice hommage to the 192 bus by @ophiraophira.bsky.social:
The bus route that became a cornerstone of Mancunian life manchestermill.co.uk/192-manchest...
This is good from @manchestermill.bsky.social - even if Karney comes across as positively unhinged to the point of being a liability for the Council
3. Bit of a jarring shift in tone from the above, but Ophira Gottlieb's Mill piece about the Christmas-obsessed Councillor Pat Kearney is packed with perfect lines of writing.
manchestermill.co.uk/big-wheel-pa...
Inside Manchester's tour guide turf wars.
If Bill Forsyth can be persuaded out of retirement for a sequel to COMFORT & JOY, then here's the pitch...
This may all seem innocent but, behind the scenes, the people in charge of showing other people around Manchester are engaged in a constant turf war, one of stolen customers, destroyed equipment, false reviews, and the occasional physical scrap.
Read the full story by @ophiraophira.bsky.social here
Some of the most thoughtful social commentary atm is coming via @manchestermill.bsky.social
manchestermill.co.uk/jews-and-mus...
After all the bluff and bluster of the last few days online, this is a personal and quietly moving piece on life in North Mancheter.
More quality writing from @manchestermill.bsky.social
Once again @manchestermill.bsky.social gets to the heart of a thing. I found this moving but also thought @ophiraophira.bsky.social 's honesty about her response to another community's fear important too.
Thank you Dan
If you read one thing today, please make it this by @ophiraophira.bsky.social at @manchestermill.bsky.social.
A moving, honest story about the Crumpsall terrorist attack and the long history of Jews and Muslims in North Manchester.
Another exceptional, thought-provoking piece of writing from #themanchestermill.
This is exactly the kind of journalism we should be seeing after events like last week's heinous attack.
manchestermill.co.uk/jews-and-mus...
More great writing via @manchestermill.bsky.social. Nuanced and personal piece on Jewish and Muslim lives in Cheetham Hill, by @ophiraophira.bsky.social
manchestermill.co.uk/jews-and-mus...
Jews and Muslims in North Manchester: A personal story.
Fantastic piece by @ophiraophira.bsky.social, who has covered the attack for @manchestermill.bsky.social like no other journalist. Read this alongside the other news coverage.
manchestermill.co.uk/jews-and-mus...
The whole Mill team went to Crumpsall yesterday to meet the community affected by yesterday's attack. We spoke with them, and prayed with them - many of whom were so deep in prayer for Yom Kippur, they didn't even know that two people had been murdered just down the road.
Since many of you are distracted by other things or not following any Jewish media, you should know that today, on one of the holiest days of the year, a man drove his car into a crowd gathering to go into a Synagogue in Manchester then got out and started stabbing people. Two people are dead.
My colleague @ophiraophira.bsky.social got into a makeshift synagogue nearby and witnessed this amazing scene.
