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Last year, we launched a membership campaign: if we got 1,000 new members in a few weeks, we’d fulfil six pledges (chose...
18/06/2026

Last year, we launched a membership campaign: if we got 1,000 new members in a few weeks, we’d fulfil six pledges (chosen by our readers) to make Manchester a better place. One of the most popular pledges was going into local schools to teach fact-checking.

We’ve kicked things off at Loreto College in Hulme and Xaverian College in Rusholme, and we’d love to keep the momentum going. The talks have covered misinformation, disinformation and how to kickstart a career in journalism. If you’re a teacher in Greater Manchester and would like us to pay your school a visit, please send us a message!

It’s Wednesday afternoon, the day before one of the most consequential by-elections in British history, and outside a pu...
18/06/2026

It’s Wednesday afternoon, the day before one of the most consequential by-elections in British history, and outside a pub on the southern outskirts of Wigan, the atmosphere is feverish. A Restore Britain meeting is underway: around 40 people mill around benches wearing party paraphernalia, while campaign leaflets are piled high on tables between them.

But I’m encountering a problem: nobody will talk to the media. “We’re busy. We need space,” one of the campaign team tells me, as I’m ushered towards the car park where journalists have been corralled.

Reticence towards the press is characteristic of Restore Britain, the insurgent hard-right party that is threatening to play kingmaker in the Makerfield by-election. The party was officially registered by MP for Great Yarmouth Rupert Lowe in February, following his expulsion from Reform UK last year under bitter and contested circumstances.

He set up Restore as a result of the public spat, with Lowe’s party positioning itself to the right of Farage’s. Restore combines a hardline anti-immigration message with a fierce anti-establishment ethos. Journalists are typically cast as part of the same elite consensus that the party claims has failed ordinary voters — hence, it seems, the persistent attempts to banish me to the carpark.

How might this party shape the Makerfield by-election, and what does its rise mean for the left and right of British politics?

🔗 Read the full story via the link in our bio

15/06/2026

30 years on, we ask: who was behind the 1996 Manchester Bomb? Our two-part investigation is out now, click the link in our bio to read.

Kevin Lee is the most important person in Greater Manchester that you (probably) haven’t heard of. He’s Andy Burnham’s c...
12/06/2026

Kevin Lee is the most important person in Greater Manchester that you (probably) haven’t heard of. He’s Andy Burnham’s closest advisor and praetorian guard for 16 years.

Polling day in Makerfield is now just a week away, and we thought we would try to answer a question lots of people have been asking us recently: who are the people who are close to Burnham? Who does he listen to?

Lee is the first name on the list. We’ve also come up with a half dozen other names who have been influential in the mayor’s northern court, whispering to him from behind the throne. They offer an insight into the way he governs — and who he might gather around him in Downing Street, if the voters of Makerfield give him that chance.

🔗Full story via the link in our bio

06/06/2026

When Jasmine was targeted by an anonymous call in the middle of the night, the man on the other end of the line knew her name and what building she studied in. He asked her to make sexual noises for him — the kind she’d made when “they last met.” On a later call, a different man told her to kill herself.

Jasmine didn’t recognise the men’s voices and still has no idea who phoned her. But she was already aware of these kinds of incidents: students being phoned on No Caller ID numbers by men who sexually harassed them or, at the very least, deeply unsettled them. These men all seemed to know information about the women that only fellow students could be privy to.

Now another student, Charlotte Buttercase, has written an open letter to the university about the allegations, urging a formal investigation.

GMP has confirmed it’s looking into reports of malicious communications and harassment, though no cases so far have passed the threshold for a criminal investigation.

The university told The Mill that misogyny and harassment are inconsistent with university standards and the medical profession, and that they’re grateful for those who have brought the issue to their attention. They’re encouraging students to report this behaviour if they experience it.

A spokesperson said: “We have launched a formal investigation into the specific incidents raised and will report findings through the University’s appropriate formal processes. And we will undertake a comprehensive review of the cultural and systemic issues raised.”

🔗 Read the full story via the link in our bio

When Jasmine was targeted by an anonymous call in the middle of the night, the man on the other end of the line knew her...
06/06/2026

When Jasmine was targeted by an anonymous call in the middle of the night, the man on the other end of the line knew her name and what building she studied in. He asked her to make sexual noises for him — the kind she’d made when “they last met.” On a later call, a different man told her to kill herself.

Jasmine didn’t recognise the men’s voices and still has no idea who phoned her. But she was already aware of these kinds of incidents: students being phoned on No Caller ID numbers by men who sexually harassed them or, at the very least, deeply unsettled them. These men all seemed to know information about the women that only fellow students could be privy to.

Now another student, Charlotte Buttercase, has written an open letter to the university about the allegations, urging a formal investigation.

GMP has confirmed it’s looking into reports of malicious communications and harassment, though no cases so far have passed the threshold for a criminal investigation.

The university told The Mill that misogyny and harassment are inconsistent with university standards and the medical profession, and that they’re grateful for those who have brought the issue to their attention. They’re encouraging students to report this behaviour if they experience it.

A spokesperson said: “We have launched a formal investigation into the specific incidents raised and will report findings through the University’s appropriate formal processes. And we will undertake a comprehensive review of the cultural and systemic issues raised.”

🔗 Read the full story via the link in our bio

For at least three years, female medical students at the University of Manchester say they’ve been subjected to sexual h...
01/06/2026

For at least three years, female medical students at the University of Manchester say they’ve been subjected to sexual harassment and verbal abuse, taking the form of anonymous calls in the middle of the night.

Charlotte Buttercase, 24, a final-year medical student, wrote an open letter to vice-chancellor Duncan Ivison last month urging the university to respond to the allegations.

The university said they’re treating the issues raised “with the utmost seriousness”, having undertaken a formal investigation and cultural review. “We will continue to take whatever action is necessary to address the issues identified and deliver meaningful, lasting change,” they added.

🔗 Full story via the link in our bio

Today’s compendium of news is of a particular flavour: Good. It’s not, like all of the other news, Bad, or just about An...
27/05/2026

Today’s compendium of news is of a particular flavour: Good. It’s not, like all of the other news, Bad, or just about Andy Burnham. This news is good, or wonderful, heart-warming, smile-inducing, just what you needed, and so on.

It was one of our campaign pledges at the end of last year to publish a monthly Good News Edition, and in it you’ll find an ex-convict painting gang culture, Manchester’s deaf disco, an urban haven transformation and even a surprise padel match with former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp.

🔗 Read the full story via the link in our bio

“Watching the mayor up close in Manchester, I’ve seen his unusual gifts and glaring weaknesses. Would he make a good pri...
26/05/2026

“Watching the mayor up close in Manchester, I’ve seen his unusual gifts and glaring weaknesses. Would he make a good prime minister?”

Catch up on the profile that “everyone in Westminster is reading.”

🔗Full story via the link in our bio

The Mill can reveal that five arrests have been made following our investigation into claims that fake independents were...
21/05/2026

The Mill can reveal that five arrests have been made following our investigation into claims that fake independents were put forward by Tameside Labour in May’s local elections, in order to split opposition votes.

Four men and a woman aged between 23 and 47 were arrested this morning in the Ashton-under-Lyne area, as a result of what the police are calling ‘illegality and criminality’ in the run up to the St Peter’s ward election on May 7th. The arrests were made on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud, and police investigations are ongoing.

🔗 Read the full story via the link in our bio

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