City’s historic image becomes the symbol of our defiance

MANCHESTER’S famous ‘bee’ motif has quickly become the image of defiance in the aftermath of Monday’s atrocity at the Manchester Arena – and that is why there’s one on the masthead on the front of today’s M.E.N.

Hundreds of people have been queuing to get a tattoo of the symbol, with tattoo artists giving profits to the appeal.

But why a bee? The symbol was born during the industrial revolution and celebrated Manchester’s position as the world’s first industrialised city – inhabited by ‘busy worker bees’ in the form of the working classes manning the mills.

If you look around the city, you’ll see the emblem everywhere, from litter bins to mosaics in some of Manchester’s finest buildings.

Now it has taken on a whole new meaning – a message to the world that Manchester’s spirit will never be broken.