The Mayor of Manchester and his gofers spent £56,000 on the combined authority’s credit cards in the second quarter of the year as the Cock of the North was strutting his way into Number Ten.
These payments include the obligatory £4,670 at Amazon, £1,027 to Facebook, £284 with Deliveroo and plenty of ‘subsistence’ at purveyors like Tesco, McDonald’s, Morrisons and so on.
They’re a well-travelled lot, these Greater Mancunians. They’ve even been to Birmingham where they spent £1,050 at a Premier Inn. They paid £675 to Lufthansa, £359 on parking at Heathrow Airport, £3,009 at Hampton by Hilton (in Manchester), £1,338 with Jet2 but a mere £146 with Ryanair. Another £1,485 went on ‘travel training’ with the University of Essex.
They generous, too, spending £1,830 with One4All, who supply multi-store gift-cards, and £215 with Huggg (yes, 3Gs) who supply ‘gifts your team and clients will actually want’.
Some people remember the old metropolitan county councils. They were axed as a waste of space in 1986.
They were replaced by regional development agencies in 1999. These, in turn, were designated pointless and abolished.
Then we had local enterprise partnerships, which were an even greater cunis. Now we have elected mayors like our national saviour.
The Cock of the North is to give us more of pointless, provincial, pettifogging panjandrums and wants to throw more money at them as if, by some miracle, they will transform their regions into economic powerhouses if only the taxpayer would cough up a bit more blood from the stone.
Or they can just use the nation’s credit card. Until we can’t keep up the monthly payments any more.
Thursday, August 20, 2026
Wednesday, August 12, 2026
How the Cock of the North likes to spend your money
The Cock of the North’s spending spree as Mayor of Manchester may have come to an end but the bills are still coming in. In the three months to the end of June, the glorified quango forked out £316 million. This splurge included:
• £70,000 on a ‘green summit’;
• £6.6 million on consultants and professional fees;
• £240,000 on agency staff including one payment of £21,940 (plus £90,000 on recruitment);
• £5.8 million on traffic lights;
• £170,000 on private medical care including £6,000 on counselling and psychotherapy;
• £267,000 on research.
Other spending went on such vital schemes (with some explanations of what they do taken from their guff-laden and impenetrable websites) as:
Work
• Mantra Learning £1.2 million ‘We are providing Government-funded HGV Skills Bootcamps to address the driver shortage’;
• Back to Work Training Ltd £692,000;
• Bright Direction Training £315,000;
• Standguide Ltd £232,000 ‘Standguide has supported individuals and employers for over 35 years, helping over 13,000 people across the UK in the last 12 months to retrain, find new careers or grow their own businesses’;
• Ingeus UK £621,000 ‘Every day our teams across the UK help people improve their skills, employment, health and wellbeing. We’re purpose-led, passionate and proud to work with customers and communities to drive social change’;
• Learning Curve Group £62,000 ‘Gain new skills and confidence with an accredited online course. Study for free with Government funding.’
Media
• Carbon Creative £25,000 ‘We aim to be at the intersection of art, technology and sustainability where we combine pure imagination with digital engineering to create engaging dynamic and effective work.’
• Carbon Trust Advisory £30,000 ‘We partner with leading businesses, governments and financial institutions to accelerate their route to Net Zero. We are your expert guide to turn your climate ambition into impact’;
• Best Asian Media £18,000;
• Media coaching £17,000;
• Doodledo Motion Ltd £30,000 (they make videos);
• Jaguar Press £15,000.
Research
• Brand Edge £20,000;
• DJS Research £191,000 ‘We’re an employee-owned, B Corp Certified™, mid-sized market research agency with a proven track record of delivering actionable insight for clients across the UK and internationally’;
• Little Lion Research £56,000 ‘We undertake research that helps our clients to understand and demonstrate the impact of their plans and projects.’
Transport
• New and refurbishing traffic lights £5.8 million;
• Cyclescheme Ltd £30,000 ‘The UK’s number one, free to join, Cycle to Work scheme provider’;
• Prestige Chauffeurs £8,700 (they will be sorry to see Andy rolling about in his state-sponsored limo).
IT
• Dell Computers £192,000;
• Phoenix Software £1.5 million ‘We don’t just supply technology – we listen first, then work alongside your teams as part of the solution, not just the supply chain’;
• 6B Digital £6,300 ‘We deliver intelligent digital and technology solutions for critical applications across complex and innovative sectors’;
• Kaleidoscope Consultants £50,000 ‘has worked with national, regional and sub-regional bodies to create data management frameworks and governance arrangements that work to deliver data-enabled public services to citizens’;
• Shaping Cloud Ltd £17,000 ‘Azure. Done brilliantly. For organisations that can’t afford mistakes’;
• Telent Technology Services Ltd £197,000 ‘Telent designs, builds, manages and maintains the UK and Ireland’s critical digital infrastructure, helping to keep the country connected, moving and safe’;
• Accenture £50,000 ‘Our wide range of capabilities, ecosystem partnerships and unmatched industry expertise can help your business become the next best version of itself.’
General do-gooding
• Catch 22 Charity Ltd £228,000 ‘For over 200 years, Catch22 has designed and delivered services that build resilience and aspiration in people and communities’;
• Collaborate Out Loud £18,000 ‘Creating Surprising, simple and social spaces for social change and innovation’;
• Creating Effective Generations £10,000 ‘We specialise in supporting those vulnerable to Child Criminal & Sexual Exploitation’;
• Stitched Up Community Benefit Society Ltd £13,000 ‘Promoting creative expression through clothing + textiles + working to make sustainable clothing choices more accessible’;
• The Big Life Company £1 million ‘Fighting for equity in health, in wealth and in life’;
• Talk to Sara £15,000 ‘We exist to support survivors of sexual violence through trauma-informed care, advocacy, and community connection’;
• The Pankhurst Trust (incorporating Manchester Women’s Aid) £187,000 ‘We have 3 strands to our work – a Suffragette museum contributing to the city's heritage offer, a number of equalities projects promoting and supporting women, a number of domestic abuse services positioning us as the city's largest independent specialist provider’;
• Greater Manchester Immigration Unit £49,000 ‘Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit is a voluntary organisation supporting people subject to immigration control for over 35 years. We offer free legal advice, representation and support services to people seeking asylum, refugees, children and vulnerable adults’;
• Greater Manchester Women’s Support Alliance £217,000 ‘The Alliance is committed to funding and providing high-quality services to support, safeguard and empower all women’;
• Hideaway Youth Project £46,000 ‘Dedicated to the welfare of young women and men in Moss Side and surrounding areas’;
• LGBT Foundation £50,000;
• Manchester Camerata £108,000 ‘The world’s first orchestra with a mobile phone section.’ (Ode to Joy, the EU anthem, naturally). Introducing the AO Simphony | The UK's First Mobile Phone Orchestra;
• Manchester Rape Crisis £64,000;
• Rochdale Women’s Welfare Association £10,000;
• Soil Association £14,000 ‘We are the leading food and farming charity. We're on a mission to fix food and farming for all, the nature-friendly way’;
• Mosscare Housing £841,000 who are ‘Busting the myths around Social Housing and Asylum Seekers’;
• Workers’ Education Association £596,000;
• Noise of Angels £1,000 ‘Emerging as a distinctive new voice in the UK's left field electronic space’;
• Oasis Hub Oldham £163,000 ‘We are actively engaged in creating a community that is characterised by trust, safety, cohesion, mutual support, vibrancy, health, and opportunity, where individuals feel included, connected, and supported and in which they feel happy and proud to live’;
• Paws for Kids £19,000 ‘We are a community based domestic abuse service in Bolton offering a number of projects providing practical and emotional support to help break the cycle of abuse. We support individuals and families in their home and in temporary accommodation. We run the YPDVA service for 16-19 year olds representing the young person at MARAC. Each project is supplemented by group work and in-house counselling. We also offer a pet fostering service covering the Northwest for those fleeing abuse’;
• Pupils Profit £25,000 ‘Our goal is to teach pupils how to set up and operate sustainable Healthy Tuck Shops and Eco refill shops, which will contribute to a school's overall well being’; • Breaking Barriers (Meaningful Employment for Refugees) £24,000;
• Zion Arts Centre £75,000 ‘The UK’s only dedicated arts centre for children and families.’
Business development
• Future of Greater Manchester Ltd £24,000 ‘We build better places through connection, knowledge and leadership’;
• Greater Manchester Business Support £733,000;
• MIDAS Manchester’s inward investment agency £449,000;
• The Growth Company £2.7 million ‘We drive innovation across place promotion and investment, business support, skills and careers, people focused services, and insight led impact’;
• The Innovation Unit Ltd £214,000 ‘Our mission is to reduce inequalities and transform systems by growing people-powered innovations.’
The spreadsheets also show £50,000 for the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, £100,000 on uniforms, £349,000 of payments where the recipient’s name has been redacted and £64,000 to Click Travel Ltd. Then there’s Delicious Catering £3,000; Lunch in the City £630; and Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust £430,000.
My personal favourite is the £22,000 grant to Hey Little Cupcake. ‘For over 16 years, we've been creating freshly baked cupcakes, celebration cakes, wedding cakes, afternoon tea experiences, baking classes and corporate cupcakes from our Manchester baker.’
• £6.6 million on consultants and professional fees;
• £240,000 on agency staff including one payment of £21,940 (plus £90,000 on recruitment);
• £5.8 million on traffic lights;
• £170,000 on private medical care including £6,000 on counselling and psychotherapy;
• £267,000 on research.
Other spending went on such vital schemes (with some explanations of what they do taken from their guff-laden and impenetrable websites) as:
Work
• Mantra Learning £1.2 million ‘We are providing Government-funded HGV Skills Bootcamps to address the driver shortage’;
• Back to Work Training Ltd £692,000;
• Bright Direction Training £315,000;
• Standguide Ltd £232,000 ‘Standguide has supported individuals and employers for over 35 years, helping over 13,000 people across the UK in the last 12 months to retrain, find new careers or grow their own businesses’;
• Ingeus UK £621,000 ‘Every day our teams across the UK help people improve their skills, employment, health and wellbeing. We’re purpose-led, passionate and proud to work with customers and communities to drive social change’;
• Learning Curve Group £62,000 ‘Gain new skills and confidence with an accredited online course. Study for free with Government funding.’
Media
• Carbon Creative £25,000 ‘We aim to be at the intersection of art, technology and sustainability where we combine pure imagination with digital engineering to create engaging dynamic and effective work.’
• Carbon Trust Advisory £30,000 ‘We partner with leading businesses, governments and financial institutions to accelerate their route to Net Zero. We are your expert guide to turn your climate ambition into impact’;
• Best Asian Media £18,000;
• Media coaching £17,000;
• Doodledo Motion Ltd £30,000 (they make videos);
• Jaguar Press £15,000.
Research
• Brand Edge £20,000;
• DJS Research £191,000 ‘We’re an employee-owned, B Corp Certified™, mid-sized market research agency with a proven track record of delivering actionable insight for clients across the UK and internationally’;
• Little Lion Research £56,000 ‘We undertake research that helps our clients to understand and demonstrate the impact of their plans and projects.’
Transport
• New and refurbishing traffic lights £5.8 million;
• Cyclescheme Ltd £30,000 ‘The UK’s number one, free to join, Cycle to Work scheme provider’;
• Prestige Chauffeurs £8,700 (they will be sorry to see Andy rolling about in his state-sponsored limo).
IT
• Dell Computers £192,000;
• Phoenix Software £1.5 million ‘We don’t just supply technology – we listen first, then work alongside your teams as part of the solution, not just the supply chain’;
• 6B Digital £6,300 ‘We deliver intelligent digital and technology solutions for critical applications across complex and innovative sectors’;
• Kaleidoscope Consultants £50,000 ‘has worked with national, regional and sub-regional bodies to create data management frameworks and governance arrangements that work to deliver data-enabled public services to citizens’;
• Shaping Cloud Ltd £17,000 ‘Azure. Done brilliantly. For organisations that can’t afford mistakes’;
• Telent Technology Services Ltd £197,000 ‘Telent designs, builds, manages and maintains the UK and Ireland’s critical digital infrastructure, helping to keep the country connected, moving and safe’;
• Accenture £50,000 ‘Our wide range of capabilities, ecosystem partnerships and unmatched industry expertise can help your business become the next best version of itself.’
General do-gooding
• Catch 22 Charity Ltd £228,000 ‘For over 200 years, Catch22 has designed and delivered services that build resilience and aspiration in people and communities’;
• Collaborate Out Loud £18,000 ‘Creating Surprising, simple and social spaces for social change and innovation’;
• Creating Effective Generations £10,000 ‘We specialise in supporting those vulnerable to Child Criminal & Sexual Exploitation’;
• Stitched Up Community Benefit Society Ltd £13,000 ‘Promoting creative expression through clothing + textiles + working to make sustainable clothing choices more accessible’;
• The Big Life Company £1 million ‘Fighting for equity in health, in wealth and in life’;
• Talk to Sara £15,000 ‘We exist to support survivors of sexual violence through trauma-informed care, advocacy, and community connection’;
• The Pankhurst Trust (incorporating Manchester Women’s Aid) £187,000 ‘We have 3 strands to our work – a Suffragette museum contributing to the city's heritage offer, a number of equalities projects promoting and supporting women, a number of domestic abuse services positioning us as the city's largest independent specialist provider’;
• Greater Manchester Immigration Unit £49,000 ‘Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit is a voluntary organisation supporting people subject to immigration control for over 35 years. We offer free legal advice, representation and support services to people seeking asylum, refugees, children and vulnerable adults’;
• Greater Manchester Women’s Support Alliance £217,000 ‘The Alliance is committed to funding and providing high-quality services to support, safeguard and empower all women’;
• Hideaway Youth Project £46,000 ‘Dedicated to the welfare of young women and men in Moss Side and surrounding areas’;
• LGBT Foundation £50,000;
• Manchester Camerata £108,000 ‘The world’s first orchestra with a mobile phone section.’ (Ode to Joy, the EU anthem, naturally). Introducing the AO Simphony | The UK's First Mobile Phone Orchestra;
• Manchester Rape Crisis £64,000;
• Rochdale Women’s Welfare Association £10,000;
• Soil Association £14,000 ‘We are the leading food and farming charity. We're on a mission to fix food and farming for all, the nature-friendly way’;
• Mosscare Housing £841,000 who are ‘Busting the myths around Social Housing and Asylum Seekers’;
• Workers’ Education Association £596,000;
• Noise of Angels £1,000 ‘Emerging as a distinctive new voice in the UK's left field electronic space’;
• Oasis Hub Oldham £163,000 ‘We are actively engaged in creating a community that is characterised by trust, safety, cohesion, mutual support, vibrancy, health, and opportunity, where individuals feel included, connected, and supported and in which they feel happy and proud to live’;
• Paws for Kids £19,000 ‘We are a community based domestic abuse service in Bolton offering a number of projects providing practical and emotional support to help break the cycle of abuse. We support individuals and families in their home and in temporary accommodation. We run the YPDVA service for 16-19 year olds representing the young person at MARAC. Each project is supplemented by group work and in-house counselling. We also offer a pet fostering service covering the Northwest for those fleeing abuse’;
• Pupils Profit £25,000 ‘Our goal is to teach pupils how to set up and operate sustainable Healthy Tuck Shops and Eco refill shops, which will contribute to a school's overall well being’; • Breaking Barriers (Meaningful Employment for Refugees) £24,000;
• Zion Arts Centre £75,000 ‘The UK’s only dedicated arts centre for children and families.’
Business development
• Future of Greater Manchester Ltd £24,000 ‘We build better places through connection, knowledge and leadership’;
• Greater Manchester Business Support £733,000;
• MIDAS Manchester’s inward investment agency £449,000;
• The Growth Company £2.7 million ‘We drive innovation across place promotion and investment, business support, skills and careers, people focused services, and insight led impact’;
• The Innovation Unit Ltd £214,000 ‘Our mission is to reduce inequalities and transform systems by growing people-powered innovations.’
The spreadsheets also show £50,000 for the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, £100,000 on uniforms, £349,000 of payments where the recipient’s name has been redacted and £64,000 to Click Travel Ltd. Then there’s Delicious Catering £3,000; Lunch in the City £630; and Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust £430,000.
No wonder shop-keepers are clicked-off
If the Cock of the North’s love of the High Street was so great he’s happy to wipe out vape shops and bookies, why didn’t he require his own employees to shop in Manchester rather than buy stuff on Amazon when he had the chance?
Admittedly, shopping on-line is easier, saves parking costs and fines and we know the item we want is available, whereas shops these days often say it’s not in stock but you can get it from their website.
Even so, you’d think our glorious leader’s anxiety to save the ‘hollowed out High Street’ would start with shoppers and money he has direct control over.
But when he was Mayor of Manchester, credit-card users in his employment shopped at Amazon 149 times in the first three months of this year, spending £6,231.87.
Not all that much, you may think, but add in £299 at Sainsbury’s on-line, £426 to Asda on-line and £3,556 at Screwfix Direct and you might think the poverty-stricken shopkeepers of Greater Manchester – who, after all, pay for much of this – would have appreciated a little support from their local squire. What about leading by example?
Still, as Andrew Burnham’s fiefdom paid £14,330 to Google, £4,920 to Facebook and £854 to Mailchimp, they have clearly gone digital. Luckily, they did manage to pay £125 to Flowers by Bethany , £202 in a restaurant, £819 at Premier Inns, and £110 at Mcdonald’s, so that’s nice.
(Annoyingly, credit card data for Andy’s last three months as Mayor are supposedly available on-line but if you try to read or download them, they don’t work. Wonder if they have something to hide?)
https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16044211/Former-M-S-boss-brands-Andy-Burnhams-plan-save-high-streets-lot-b-s-nothing.html
Admittedly, shopping on-line is easier, saves parking costs and fines and we know the item we want is available, whereas shops these days often say it’s not in stock but you can get it from their website.
Even so, you’d think our glorious leader’s anxiety to save the ‘hollowed out High Street’ would start with shoppers and money he has direct control over.
But when he was Mayor of Manchester, credit-card users in his employment shopped at Amazon 149 times in the first three months of this year, spending £6,231.87.
Not all that much, you may think, but add in £299 at Sainsbury’s on-line, £426 to Asda on-line and £3,556 at Screwfix Direct and you might think the poverty-stricken shopkeepers of Greater Manchester – who, after all, pay for much of this – would have appreciated a little support from their local squire. What about leading by example?
Still, as Andrew Burnham’s fiefdom paid £14,330 to Google, £4,920 to Facebook and £854 to Mailchimp, they have clearly gone digital. Luckily, they did manage to pay £125 to Flowers by Bethany , £202 in a restaurant, £819 at Premier Inns, and £110 at Mcdonald’s, so that’s nice.
(Annoyingly, credit card data for Andy’s last three months as Mayor are supposedly available on-line but if you try to read or download them, they don’t work. Wonder if they have something to hide?)
https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16044211/Former-M-S-boss-brands-Andy-Burnhams-plan-save-high-streets-lot-b-s-nothing.html
Sunday, August 02, 2026
Pork-barrel scratchings with Andy and John
When the Cock of the North and his new best friend, Chancellor John Healey, took time out to debate the relative merits of pork scratchings and scampi fries in a nauseating video, did they also mention Britain’s defence spending?
Mr Healey resigned as Defence Secretary supposedly because he couldn’t get enough money from Rachael Reeves’s treasury. Then, in what came as a surprise to most people – notably Ed Bacon-sandwich-eater – the military’s champion is now its paymaster.
Yet no-one – not our Glorious Leader, his Chancellor or even new Defence Secretary Wes Streeting – is willing to say we will hit Mr Healey’s target of three per cent of GDP to go on guns and bombs by 2030.
What’s going on? Is it possible Mr Healey was lined up as Chancellor all along? Is it perhaps the case that his supposedly principled resignation just a week before Andrew Burnham became an MP again had nothing to do with the defence of the realm and everything to do with undermining Keir Starmer?
Mr Streeting, with terminological inexactitude, claimed he had enough support to mount a leadership challenge but that fizzled out. Now he says it’s more than his new job’s worth to say how much his new department should get.
Maybe Mr Healey really is a man of principle and will give Mr Streeting enough to secure Britain’s defences though it means finding £10 billion from the magic money tree which is already supposed to deliver £15 billion more for defence on top of all the other perks and promises Andy makes every day.
Or maybe Mr Healey’s resignation was simply part of the plot (which the Cock of the North claims to he had nothing to do with) to stitch up Keir Starmer and crown Burnham without a fight. In which case, it was just you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours and keeping the country safe from attack is just an unfortunate casualty of this summer’s coup.
Andy Burnham's pub video slammed - 'patronising to Labour voter!'
Mr Healey resigned as Defence Secretary supposedly because he couldn’t get enough money from Rachael Reeves’s treasury. Then, in what came as a surprise to most people – notably Ed Bacon-sandwich-eater – the military’s champion is now its paymaster.
Yet no-one – not our Glorious Leader, his Chancellor or even new Defence Secretary Wes Streeting – is willing to say we will hit Mr Healey’s target of three per cent of GDP to go on guns and bombs by 2030.
What’s going on? Is it possible Mr Healey was lined up as Chancellor all along? Is it perhaps the case that his supposedly principled resignation just a week before Andrew Burnham became an MP again had nothing to do with the defence of the realm and everything to do with undermining Keir Starmer?
Mr Streeting, with terminological inexactitude, claimed he had enough support to mount a leadership challenge but that fizzled out. Now he says it’s more than his new job’s worth to say how much his new department should get.
Maybe Mr Healey really is a man of principle and will give Mr Streeting enough to secure Britain’s defences though it means finding £10 billion from the magic money tree which is already supposed to deliver £15 billion more for defence on top of all the other perks and promises Andy makes every day.
Or maybe Mr Healey’s resignation was simply part of the plot (which the Cock of the North claims to he had nothing to do with) to stitch up Keir Starmer and crown Burnham without a fight. In which case, it was just you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours and keeping the country safe from attack is just an unfortunate casualty of this summer’s coup.
Andy Burnham's pub video slammed - 'patronising to Labour voter!'
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)