Ian

Unbearable LFC season ticket holder for over 30 years, and far too long (as per my wife). Owner of mental Dalmatian. #80s Rd End

[Ian @ianrow29]

@RoyalMail how about getting the people delivering parcels to knock on the door without using a sponge?

We’re both in, I’m at my desk in a room just next to the front door, with the window open. Got an email saying ‘delivery attempted’ @ 13:08, yet Evri managed one @ 12:55!!

[Ian @ianrow29]

@montysbiscuit @GBNEWS

[Jim Chimirie 🇬🇧 @JChimirie66677]

The Manchester Model. What It Actually Looks Like Up Close.

Andy Burnham is asking the country to trust him with Downing Street on the strength of what he calls the Manchester Model. Eight years of integrated public services and progressive governance that he says Britain should adopt nationally. Before the country decides, it should know what that model actually produced.

Start with the money.

£578 million in public money was lent by Burnham's Greater Manchester Combined Authority to a single developer, Daren Whitaker of Renaker. A tribunal found that GMCA failed to obtain a statement of assets and liabilities from Whitaker before lending, exposing taxpayers to a risk the tribunal described as potentially wiping out the public funds. A meeting between a senior GMCA officer and Whitaker at which loan terms appear to have been agreed produced no minutes or notes. Court papers allege Renaker presented high profit figures to the GMCA when seeking loans and low profit figures to Manchester City Council when seeking exemption from affordable homes requirements. The Court of Appeal is considering judgment on whether the loans were lawful.

Out of 11,000 homes built with that public money, 503 are classed as affordable. Less than five percent. Whitaker's personal fortune grew from £140 million to £698 million during Burnham's mayoralty. The luxury towers were marketed to Chinese buy to let investors through Hong Kong estate agents. Hundreds of flats have been sold to Asian investors according to Telegraph analysis of Companies House filings.

Now the transparency.

In April 2026 the Information Commissioner issued a practice recommendation to the GMCA for failing to publish Freedom of Information compliance statistics. Greater Manchester Police, under Burnham's authority as Police and Crime Commissioner, was separately issued with an ICO enforcement notice for 850 overdue FOI requests, more than 800 over six months old. The oldest had been waiting two and a half years.

Now the transport flagship.

The Bee Network has absorbed a £30 council tax precept increase in two years to subsidise its operation. The £115 million Clean Air Zone was scrapped after £211 million in public funds was received and only £22.5 million returned. Burnham's own transport commissioner acknowledged the network remains twenty two years behind London. The board of Be.EV, the company holding the Bee Network's public EV charging contract, includes Burnham's wife, who joined the company six years into his mayoralty and was appointed to the board as his Westminster ambitions became increasingly visible.

Now the promises.

Burnham pledged to end rough sleeping by 2020. Rough sleeping rose. Today 18,000 people across Greater Manchester have no permanent address. He promised Platt Bridge a flood solution by 2018. The area flooded in 2015, 2021 and on New Year's Day 2025. The projected solution is now 2028. When asked on Question Time why he would not apologise, he said it was before his time. He became Mayor in 2017. The promise was made in 2018.

Now the politics.

Labour's candidate to replace Burnham as Mayor is Bev Craig, leader of Manchester City Council, the body that accepted Renaker's low profit figures and granted the affordable homes exemption. The mayoral by-election on 30 July will be fought under the supplementary vote system rushed through the Lords two days before Burnham's Makerfield victory, designed to consolidate left of centre second preferences and lock out Reform.

108 Labour councillors lost their seats in Greater Manchester in May's local elections. The region Burnham governed for eight years delivered the most devastating local election result in Labour's history.

This is the Manchester Model. These are its documented facts. The country is being asked to implement it nationally. It should read the small print first.

Bev Craig. Labour's candidate to replace Burnham. Leader of the council that granted Renaker's affordable homes exemption.

[Ian @ianrow29]

@FlyFifer10 Can remember the center of the Monopoly board having a solid blob of candle wax from when we played it by candlelight during a power cut back then.

[Ian @ianrow29]

@LegacySiu York City

[Dogs 4 Rescue @Dogs4Rescue]

After decompressing with the gang at Rescue World Bluebell went to Irlam to see how she coped with a busier environment.

For a dog who hasn’t experienced a lot in life, and not socialised much she did brilliantly 🐶🤩

[Dogs 4 Rescue @Dogs4Rescue]

She sat by the door all day and night waiting for her family to come back. Loyal and frightened, she waited and waited.

Local dog lovers brought Bluebell to our rescue when the dog warden couldn't collect her, being the weekend. She hasn't had any training and not much experience of life, but to see her melt into Tracy's arms tells you everything about her sweet nature.

We will never stop helping these poor dogs, the most misunderstood and the most likely to get euthanised if they end up in a council pound.

https://t.co/QsqDZuyMaa

[Ian @ianrow29]

@intel_lady @tonymc39 It’s all about her. The people who voted for her are gullible mugs.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

British Army Major Chris walked 700 miles barefoot across the UK to fund research for his daughter’s rare disease. This is the moment they reunited at Edinburgh Castle.

[Gms @G_ZBR_9]

Every day Forrest watches other dogs leave... while he keeps waiting. 💔
He doesn't need a miracle—just one person willing to give him a chance.
Please share his story. The right share could become the reason he finally finds a forever home. 🐶❤️

[Henshi @HenshiG]

In the dead of night, 1944, inside a Gestapo cell in occupied France…

The most wanted woman in the Resistance stripped bare and forced her slender body through iron bars no one thought possible. Dress clenched in her teeth, she dropped to the street and vanished into the darkness.
Her name was Marie-Madeleine Fourcade — the Hedgehog. 🦔

Born in 1909 into privilege, she flew planes, raced cars, and defied every rule made for women. When France fell, she took command of a tiny spy network at 31 — a mother of two — and turned it into the largest and most vital Resistance ring in occupied France. The only one led by a woman.
She built a secret army of nearly 3,000 agents — men and women from all walks of life — feeding Britain critical secrets, including a stunning 55-foot map of Normandy’s beaches for D-Day.
The Gestapo hunted a brutal man. They never imagined the elegant woman before them was their greatest threat.
But the cost was devastating. 💔 Hundreds of her agents were tortured and killed — including the man she loved. She moved constantly, changed identities, and while pregnant, made the heartbreaking choice to send her children away without even saying goodbye — watching silently from a window as they disappeared from her life.
Captured twice. Escaped twice. She rebuilt her network from ashes every time.

After the war, she devoted her life to honoring her fallen agents. Yet France overlooked her, awarding honors to her husband instead.
They forgot the Hedgehog.

She outlasted the Nazis. She outlasted the silence.
Now we remember.
Marie-Madeleine Fourcade — the fierce little woman who led 3,000 from the shadows and helped turn the tide of history. Even a lion would hesitate to bite.
Say her name. Share her story. Never forget.

[Ian @ianrow29]

@childhoodsen @aroundliv @LpoolGuardian You’ve got to be on the wind up.

[Hillel Neuer @HillelNeuer]

Watch closely new video showing the U.N. reaction: as courageous former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky confronts October 7th denier Reem al-Salem—by recounting the horrific abuse she suffered from Hamas—the U.N. rapporteur on violence against women sits there stone-faced. No empathy.

[Essex Patriot @Essex_Patriot]

Andy Burnham not even warmed the seat in Parliament & already its come out he gave his wife a 4 million contract for EV vehicles.

How much more corruption do we have to put up with?

[The Heartlands Tribune @Labourheartland]

Suprise, surprise... Andy Burnham’s pride and joy, the introduction of Bee Network buses in Manchester, has been widely promoted as a flagship green transport initiative. But look a little closer at the connections behind it.

This is Marie-France Van Heel, appearing on Blind Date with Cilla Black in 1992.

Today she is rather better connected: Chief Customer Officer at Be.EV, the electric vehicle charging company backed by Octopus Energy Generation. She is also on the Be.EV board and is listed as a director of Iduna Infrastructure.

Be.EV secured the contract to supply EV charging infrastructure for Greater Manchester’s bus project, while Octopus Energy Generation is the investor behind Be.EV.

She is also the wife of millionaire “socialist” Andy Burnham.

Funny old world, isn’t it, with a "lorra lorra laughs"... From Blind Date to the green infrastructure gravy train.

Old Blairites never change... they just get older...

[Ian @ianrow29]

@MyArrse This country is so screwed up.

[Ian @ianrow29]

@SamanthaNiblet4 @DVanLangenhove If you know it wasn’t that figure, you must have an idea of the true number. Not going to share that info? Wonder why not.

[Transalpino(official) @TransalpinoO]

New boss the same as the old boss ?
The Who

#dontbuythesun

[SOI media 🇬🇧 @MediaSOI]

This is Marie-France van Heel, she is a director of Be.EV & Iduna Infrastructure, she is also Chief Marketing and Customer Officer for Octopus Energy. In her capacity on both these rolls she secured a contract to supply EV infrastructure and supply energy to Greater Manchester Combined Authority, the famous “Bus” project the now ex mayor of Manchester keeps banging on about. One thing that he possibly fails to shout about is the this woman that got this contract is in fact Andy Burnham’s wife

[Ian @ianrow29]

@MagpieMediaX @MailSport You know what’s coming…..