Strong women, vicars and tarts

Good news this morning for Manchester's 'strong women', who already have my boundless respect, including the one shown above beside my cosy self. The PR legend Lynne Franks, she of Ab Fab inspiration fame, has chosen the city for her first business women's club outside London. She tells North West Business Insider : "As a critical mass I think Manchester has an incredibly large number of women starting businesses, not only because creatively, women want to do more, but in some cases they have had to do more. Their husbands are being made redundant and these woman have to make sure they've bread on the table." Manchester has always traditionally been run by men, she adds, for all that the Pankhursts were born and raised here, "and it's time we saw a change." Her B.Hive club opens on March 30 and I am urging Helen to sign up. Cruise missile from Southampton Insider also has news of Southampton trying to diss Liverpool's growing success as a cruise port. Boo, hiss. And also of a buyout in Eccles at Chat Moss Herbs , who supply pesto, among other nice things, to Betty's Tearooms and Manchester United. The firm has built up nicely to 20 staff, a rebuke to those who persist in thinking that it's all pie and chips up here, not that there is anything wrong with either. Or pea wet, for that matter. Jobless figures and facts Lynne Franks' reference to unemployment strikes a chord. I've been thinking of starting a jobswatch on the blog, but need a few more technical lessons first. Meanwhile, The GMB union has done the job for us, partially: they've produced a tally of public sector jobs under threat, which makes an interesting point about the north. The national total so far – 226,472 over the next three years – needs to be treated with caution, as the GMB is the first to say. The figures are based on the 90-day warnings of possible redundancy which employers have to send out. Thus the total of 2000 for Sheffield contrasts with the figure of 278 (this coming year to March 2012) actually approved by the city council. That said, the disparity between the northern totals of 10,307 (North), 30,005 (North West) and 21,433 (Yorks and Humber), with London (17.797), the South East (14,547) and the South West (12,146) is instructive. Being obsessed with proper balance re bad news between England's two main halves of north and south, I must add this morning's news that seven of the worst ten constituencies for child poverty in the UK are in London. The others are Manchester Central, Liverpool Riverside and Birmingham Ladywood. A mad world, my masters Do you like those puddings you sometimes get in restaurants called 'trios'. A bit of everything, in other words. Here's a trio of oddly compelling stories from North News, the excellent agency run in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Middlesbrough by illustrious northern photographer Ted Ditchburn. I'll give you the headlines: Show Crowd Hurled Chairs at Faltering Folk Band. Fish Swallower Case Dropped. Vicar Who Dressed as Tart Quits. There isn't room to tell each saga in full (although surfing the Newcastle Journal and Evening Chronicle and Darlington's Northern Echo will be worthwhile). But a quote from each gives the flavour. Faltering folk band The Emerald Thieves were driven off the stage at Stanhope agricultural show by a hail of beer cans, cups and chairs after the chairman seized the mike and branded them an effing disgrace. The fish swallower was going to be charged with 'failing to provide a safe environment' for a guppy in a pet shop at Newton Aycliffe. And the vicar of St Leonard the Martyr had the traditional No Comment, but a friend says: "Yes, he has retired. He's looking forward to a long and happy retirement." Trivia, some say. But they tell you a lot of Britain today, do these tales from the courts. Remember our greatest court reporter was Charles Dickens. On that score, I think it's time the north developed a tourist attraction to rival London's endless production of Agatha Christie's Mousetrap. After all, our eponymous friends at the Durham Performing Arts Center have done A Christmas Carol for 39 years, the longest run in North Carolina's theatrical history.