Often friends and family come to visit and ask “where can we go and what can we do?” They often get an initial look that says ‘I really don’t know what to tell you’. That’s not because, it’s a dull place with nothing to do. I need more information before I can gift you with that knowledge – you might have been better asking ‘what can’t we do?’ then my answer would simply have been “nothing”

We may once have been known for our cotton mills and textile manufacturing during the Industrial Revolution but this gave us one of many world firsts; the world’s first industrialised city. 

The first British soap, the atom was first split here, veganism started here, Rolls met Royce, the ice-cream cone was invented here, we invented graphene, the first computer called ‘ baby’ was invented here, the first free public library, the suffragette movement started here. 

We have a have habit of invention; not just in science but us – we reinvent ourselves and that makes Manchester successful and a cultural capital. We did it after the Industrial revolution, we did it after Madchester, we did it after the IRA bomb and then again after the 2002 Commonwealth games.