As Manchester City Council cuts services and grants to various events, it’s essential that the public is able to have an honest debate about what should be funded.

The organisers and City Council exaggerate crowd numbers for this parade enormously, probably by a factor of ten, while the media fail to scrutinise and report accurately.

These photographs below show the true level of attendance at the 2012 Manchester Irish Festival Parade as it passed through the city centre on 11 March.

On the event’s website, the organisers claimed: “100,000 people are expected to flock to the city centre and line the three mile route” and that this was “one of Europe’s biggest St. Patrick’s Day Parades.”

Since the parade, they’ve continued. Claiming that: “Organisers said an estimated 12,000 were packed into Albert Square alone — with more than 100,000 lining the full parade route.” See below for more analysis of these figures.

It isn’t surprising that the spin has continued after the event. I was first alerted to this last year by a fellow photographer who had gone along and afterwards expressed amazement at the low turn out, as compared to the misleading hype. So the small crowds this year aren’t anything new…
(more…)

Ken Loach made the keynote speech at the 54th BFI London Film Festival. He said television has become the ‘enemy of creativity’.

The BBC reports on the latest video footage that has emerged, showing G20 protesters being hit by police.

The video, by Camp for Climate Action, shows IT worker Alex Cinnane being banged with a shield on the side of his head. In a second incident a man is punched in the face by a police officer.

The BBC adds: (more…)

Every call made, email sent and website visited is now being logged under new regulations and automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) tracks the movement of vehicles.

Investigative journalist Duncan Campbell thinks that the ‘truly dangerous’ moment will come when the police and security services are able to monitor journies in real time.

Read more at The Guardian