City’s great people made our trip so memorable
VIEWPOINTS
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CAN I say a big thank-you to the warm people of Manchester for such a memorable trip.
Having saved up all year and travelling from my home town of Glasgow, I took my disabled daughter to my favourite childhood city, Manchester, for her 21st birthday.
I spent my childhood summers with my grandmother in the 1970s who religiously brought me to the city, so I have fantastic memories of my first dose of sunburn and first curry with poppadoms and of course Vimto. My preference for long life milk in coffee was initiated by these trips.
My first job was in the glorious Midland Hotel where I was overwhelmed by the grandeur then, today I see it as the friendliest hotel in the city.
The lovely comic Liam at front desk, Kamila and Eleanor at The French who made my daughter feel special and grown up by treating her to champagne cocktails and chocolate. The famous Adam Reid who took time out to let Sara meet him, take photos after she watched him make the Golden Empire on Great British Chefs.
In the scorching sun she splashed about with other families in the inspiring, innovative fountains. I so wish Glasgow City Council was innovative, alas they are not!
Piccadilly Gardens made me realise just how community spirited the patrons of Manchester are, from Roy who gave her a cold drink, the young lad who gave her a tortilla to feed the over-indulged Mancunian birds, with educated palates.
The lady who assisted when she needed support down the stairwell, from the lovely couple who gave her a seat at the Nile Rodger concert and the couple who brought me a glass of wine when they knew I couldn’t leave her on her own to go to the drinks tent.
Then there was Oresolya, who provided towels for picnicking and gave Sara a birthday cake.
My grandmother could never have imagined how it would look today, with the glamour and glitz, glass buildings, too many pubs and restaurants, the huge influences of wags, new money, materialism and social media on young people.
However, what Manchester has is a huge, giving heart and it will remain so.
Thirty years from now when all the fake tan, false eyelashes, hair extensions, botox, overpaid footballers and all the other things the patrons of the city complain about are stripped down, gritty Manchester will reinvent itself yet again and I hope I will be there with my daughter sipping a prosecco with afternoon tea in the Midland.
My many sincere thanks to Manchester for such a memorable time! Caroline and Sara Stevenson North Lanarkshire
So right to stop squabble
I COULDN’T agree more with B. Price that we need to stop squabbling over Brexit (Dangers of trade deal; Viewpoints, 25 June).
After the biggest voter turnout in British history, a clear decision was made and urgently needs implementing, but misinformation continues to spread confusion and fear.
The (CETA) mentioned is a trade deal between the EU and Canada, negotiated secretly, applying to the UK while in the EU and poses a major threat to our democracy, public services and the environment: big business could sue our government if they see their profits threatened by new laws and standards and this would be a race to the bottom.
If EU intransigence forces us to rely on the World Trade Organisation, this wouldn’t apply. The 1995 WTO was formed to help international trade by settlement of commercial interests, with 193 member states and accounting for 95pc of world trade; while allowing governments to meet social and environmental objectives.
Like any other organisation it has shortcomings but recognises that protectionism and trade wars are self defeating.
Twelve thousand six hundred and fifty EU import tariffs are not exactly war, but they suppress a level playing field for international trade and keep prices unnecessarily high for consumers; mainly the less welloff. As for EU checks and balances, our prime minister was sent home with his tail between his legs like a naughty school boy after asking for reasonable changes and there is no indication that the EU establishment is willing to reform an increasingly flawed organisation. Bill Newham Worsley
Airport slow lane is misery
YOU’VE got to love Manchester Airport. They deliberately make the security check so slow, and such a misery, that you have to pay them extra to go through the fast lane. Manchester corporation rewarding themselves for their own inefficiencies.
I hear Manchester are going to roll this philosophy out across all their divisions. Education will still be free, but if you want lessons conducted by a teacher rather than a student, that will be £5 extra per lesson. Refuse collection will be free, but if you want the bins collected every week, that will be £15 extra per collection.
Ah, the delights of running a monopoly… Rod Elliot, Chester
Nature gets chance at last
I WAS pleased to read about the Manchester Festival of Nature/ Green Jigsaw (M.E.N., June 25).
Over the past year we’ve seen pictures and car stickers of bees everywhere, while numbers of real bees are under threat. Piccadilly Gardens used to be a blaze of colour with flowers and trees, all of which would have encouraged, and been a safe haven for, many types of wildlife but the council chose to reduce the Gardens to virtually a concrete slab.
Every spare bit of land is being built on and now Green Belt is also under threat, adding to further losses of habitat.
However, I suppose we should be grateful that the council is at long last now beginning to realise just how important nature is and is attempting to do something about it.
Now that the penny has dropped, would it be too much to ask that Piccadilly Gardens receives some much-needed attention by adding flowers and trees so that they actually resemble a garden, something many Mancunians have been asking for over the past few years with the request falling on deaf ears? Observer, Moston