MM Magazine - May 2021

E-EDITION
M A Y
2 0 2 1
One Party Race? A look at Manchester’s
voting systems
Exploring alternatives...
Narrowboat life across Greater Manchester

A unique partnership between News Associates and
Plymouth Marjon University
Officially the UK’s top NCTJ journalism degree course!
www.schoolofjournalism.co.uk
Page 4 - Meet the Manchester councillor
pushing for better representation
Page 5 - In the theatrical wilderness:
The rise of audio-walking plays
Page 6 - COVID in India: Crisis worsens
as Manchester-based families are helpless
Page 8 - Old Trafford’s Art Trail brings life
to borough
Page 10 - Meet the new mothers
isolation
tackling
Page 12 - One-party race? A look at Manchester’s
voting systems
Nar-
Page 14 - Exploring alternatives:
rowboat life acorss Manchester
Page 16 - Alan Turing: His life, his logic,
his legacy
Page 18 - Over half of UK workers to
change career due to COVID-19
Page 20 - Resident Evil celebrates 25 years
of chills and thrills
Anna Brocklehurst
Sub-editor
Matt D’Henin
Sub-editor
Jordan Baker
Sub-editor
From the editor...
Harry Benbow
Welcome to the May edition of
Mancunian Matters e-zine! I’m guest
editor for this issue, with an amazing team
of sub-editors pulling the strings behind
me and doing all the hard work. It’s been a
hectic month in the city, with elections for the
mayorship and local councils, the reopening of bars
and restaurants and all the unstable weather that comes
with spring in Manchester (shorts and an umbrella
weather?!) We’re delighted with the work our dedicated
reporters have produced for this issue, and I hope you are too.
With the end of restrictions visible on the horizon, it looks like
we’re due an unforgettable summer in the best city in England.
CONTENTS

Meet the Manchester councillor
pushing for better representation
In the theatrical wilderness: The rise
of audio-walking plays
By Anna Willis
Marcia Hutchinson MBE isn’t your average local
councillor. Elected as Ancoats & Beswick’s councillor
in early May, she’s a born campaigner and has been
fighting for justice and black and African heritage
representation for years.
She quoted MP Afzal Khan when we spoke: “If you’re not around
the table when the decisions are being made as to how to divvy up the
money, you won’t get any. Simple as that.”
She’s now got herself a seat at the table, both to represent her ward
and to push the council to improve
their support for the city’s most vulnerable
inhabitants. She’s passionate
about her ward and has spent the last
few months knocking on doors daily
to listen to residents’ concerns.
“Green spaces were a really big deal”,
she said.
“I identified areas that could be
turned into parks and actually identified
not one but five new parks. I managed
to get Richard Leese, the leader
of the council, to come down to the
area and be recorded by me on video,
agreeing in principle to these parks.”
A huge amount of work went into
this, using Ms Hutchinson’s background
as a planning solicitor. “I did
outlines of the parks, I got an artist to do an artist’s impression. It took
weeks of walking around, outlining areas, talking to lots of stakeholders,
and then presenting the report.”
But becoming a councillor is not easy, especially from a minority
background. That’s why she founded the Pipeline Project in 2017, to
get more black and African heritage councillors onto Manchester’s
96-member council. When Ms Hutchinson moved to Manchester nine
4
years ago, she discovered only one councillor was visibly black, and
two had African heritage.
“I thought, well I don’t know how to become a local councillor, but it
seems like no-one else does either, so why don’t we learn together,” Ms
Hutchinson said.
In the end, six people joined the course, including Ms Hutchinson
herself. Local councillors delivered sessions on speaking, campaigning,
how councils work, and most popular of all, interview practice for the
local councillor application. Three members are now councillors in
Greater Manchester. Her drive to increase black and African heritage
representation is exemplified by the treatment of the Windrush
generation. Lucy Powell, Manchester Central’s MP, is a vocal supporter
of the Windrush generation. In February 2020, she told the House of
Commons she’d taken on over 70 cases in the past two years within
her constituency. Manchester Central has some of the largest numbers
of Windrush cases in the country. Ms Hutchinson is passionate about
providing support for these people and their families. She told me
about Sharon, who was living in Jamaica when her son in the UK died:
“The Home Office had turned her down for a visa to come to her
own son’s funeral, on the grounds that she might abscond. Now this
woman, Sharon, was both blind and a wheelchair user. It was just
gratuitous.”
Ms Hutchinson, not yet a councillor, found the constituency’s
MP, who eventually reversed the Home Office’s
decision and granted her the visa. Sharon made it to the
funeral, but due to stress and travelling alone without
anyone to care for her, she died two days later.
“She’s not the first person who has died when it should never have
happened, these people are just not getting any help. And because if
you can’t prove you’ve got a right to be here you can’t get access to any
public services, including education, employment, housing, health.
You’ve got people who have lived here all their lives, worked all their
lives and have suddenly been told by their
employers, ‘you can’t prove your documentation?
We’ll have to fire you’.
“It’s brutal,” Ms Hutchinson said, shaking
her head.
“And the council are the ones who are
enforcing this. Because there are no African
and Caribbean councillors, and no-one with
an interest, nothing’s happened.”
Things are turning around, as Ms
Hutchinson has persuaded the council to
create a lead officer for Windrush. The role
can start a liaison between all the council’s
groups and committees to support those
needing help.
“There are lots of people, like Doctors
Without Borders, who are saying they’re not
checking immigration status but just going
to treat people. Some councils are doing it as well, saying: ‘We’re not
going to evict people, this person has lived here for 40 years, we don’t
care if it’s against the law, the law’s wrong.’”
It’s only the start of a four-year councillorship, but with the energy
and zeal Ms Hutchinson has shown in her campaign, and her work
with the Pipeline Project, she’s on course to improve local politics in
Manchester for years to come.
By Anna Willis
“Breathe in. Smell the day. Smell the sky. Smell where the sky
meets the paving stones. Smell day hitting concrete. That tiny
moment. Breathe out.”
I do as I’m told, breathing in the smells of Manchester as I walk
out of the Royal Exchange tunnel and into St Ann’s Square. I’m following
Keep Going Then Vanish, the first episode in the location-based
audio series #WalkThisPlay that takes listeners around the city.
Created by Manchester theatre company
ThickSkin, the audio-walking experience
layers the voices of a rat and a falcon with
a hypnotic, atmospheric soundtrack and
sound effects to create a tale of a young rat
searching for its mother before it’s too late.
The project is a feat of combined technology
and theatricality: each section of
the story is triggered by your movements
as they’re tracked by an apps geo-location.
Audio-walking plays have become
increasingly popular over the last year as
theatres remained closed.
“We traditionally make work for the
stage, and the pandemic forced us to
change and think about how we might
present our work in different ways,” said
Neil Bettles, Keep Going Then Vanish
director.
“Quickly we started thinking about ways
we could interact with actual theatres that might be closed.”
#WalkThisPlay is in partnership with the Royal Exchange, and Keep
Going Then Vanish begins and ends outside the theatre, reminding the
listener of the theatre’s physical presence. Neil worked closely with the
playwright Jack Nicholls, ensuring the listener was constantly driven
forward, trying to achieve something.
Not all audio-walking plays need such a driving plot or structure.
HERstory, a new project by Arch 468 for Brighton Festival, is about
celebrating women’s stories during the pandemic. Through 18 stories
located throughout Brighton and its outskirts, listeners scan a QR code
in a particular location and are taken to an online audio story. Each
story was written, directed, and voiced by three different women, as
part of the project’s determination to highlight women’s experiences
during the pandemic.
“I feel like community is at the heart
of all art,” HERstory’s executive producer
Sofia Stephanou told me.
The team put on local writing
workshops which inspired
some women to write their
own stories for the project.
“There is something quite magical that
happens when you’re in those rooms
because you just get this real sense of
rootedness to Brighton.”
This community focus is something
ThickSkin are preparing for in the next
episode of #WalkThisPlay, based in
Ancoats.
“It’s about the area, it’s about the history
but also about community stories,” Neil
said.
“This one feels much more about people
and places, rather than an immersive story.”
Sofia thinks audio has a unique intimacy, as it’s right in your ears.
“When you get your headphones on, you’re literally focusing on one
thing. There’s a real quietness to it.”
Audio walking plays and theatrical experiences are an exciting, innovative
way for audiences to experience theatre, to connect with their local
communities and to immerse themselves in story.
5

COVID in India
Crisis worsens as Manchester-based families are helpless
My father was hospitalised with Covid. My
best friend’s entire family got Covid. My
younger sister, my brother, my mother, my
brothers-in-law. My husband’s entire family
also got Covid,” she said.
“It was stressful for me. I believed everybody
was safe in February when the numbers
were low, but by March, the Covid cases were
exploding and it was very, very stressful.”
Mrs Gupta last saw her family in February
2019. She has since had a baby girl.
“My mum, my aunts and my sister have
not seen my baby, who is 18 months old,” she
glumly reflected. “They are always complaining,
‘Now she’s grown up and we haven’t seen
her’.”
There is also a feeling of responsibility. “My
husband feels he should be there to support
his parents and family,” she added. “We have a
very big family and everyone misses us. When
I missed my cousin’s wedding, they said, ‘Why
are you there? Why are you not here?’”
By Andrew Dowdeswell
“24 March was my most difficult
day.” That is what Dr Anil Sharma,
Professor and Head of Cardiology at
Bombay Hospital in Mumbai, told me
when reflecting on his experiences of Covid
in India.
This was Dr Sharma’s first encounter with
Covid. One day later, India was thrust into
nationwide lockdown.
“When I was coming home, around 6 pm,
I was in my car with the sun setting,” he
recounted. “I got a call from Casualty showing
an ECG of a 50-year-old male showing myocardial
infarction.”
The man had suffered a heart attack. Dr
Sharma returned to the hospital immediately
and examined him. A relative informed him
the man had a cough, fever, and breathlessness
for the past seven days. Looking to
conduct further investigations, Dr Sharma
wanted to admit the man to ICU. 20 minutes
later though, he had died.
India’s Covid situation has since spiralled
out of control. “It is quite graphic,” one Indian-based
source said. “We are in a situation
where crematoriums are completely filled up.
I don’t think the numbers are accurate either.
From my perspective, it could be two or three
times more.”
Even if they are underplayed, the numbers
are still staggering. India topped 400,000 daily
cases and 4,000 deaths earlier this month.
Only the United States has had more total
cases over the pandemic.
On Tuesday, The World Health Organisation’s
Chief Scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan
described the numbers as “of great concern”,
adding that they were “underestimates”.
Dr. Swaminathan urged the Government to
investigate the true number.
The Indian casualties extend to more than
just cases and deaths. “As a cardiologist, I
had a problem getting beds in the wards,” Dr
Sharma said.
“A significant number of the beds were
reserved for Covid. And because of the
lockdown, a lot of staff were unavailable, so
the total capacity of the hospital was reduced
from 630 beds to around 300 beds. Throughout
April and May, we were all horrified.”
Dr Sharma also had to take drastic action to
care for his patients. “For two of my patients,
I arranged my own temporary ICU in the
general ward,” he explained.
“That was very difficult. I could not sleep
and I was worried about what would happen
to the patients, what the moral and legal repercussions
would be if something happened
to the patient in the ward. But we had no option
because there was no ICU bed available.”
The impact that Covid is having across India
specifically is also being felt across the world;
even here in Manchester.
Supriya Gupta (below), who lives in Cheadle,
has her whole family still suffering at
home.
“My grandmother, my mother, my father.
All my aunts. The situation is very stressful.
Back in India, Dr Sharma (right) explained
Covid has spread beyond the
cities and into the rural areas, where
health services are far less rigorous
and a higher rate of deaths is expected. There
is a growing fear that, while the worst may be
behind, many more deaths are ahead.
“People are disappointed,” one source said.
“There is a general sense of being let down by
the way things are being run. Our frontline
workers are putting their all into it. They are
doing everything they can, but they don’t have
the resources and are struggling.
“A lot of these cases could have been cured
but they don’t have the resources.”
They continued: “No matter who you are as a
country, mismanagement and poor governance
will cause the exact same consequences.
There are very few governments globally that
have stepped up to the plate.”
The source told of a story of the Federal
Government, run by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, stealing vaccines from State Governments
despite having already delegated
the vaccine rollout to each State Government.
Meanwhile, BBC reports have repeatedly
been quashed, with the filming of hospitals
conducted secretly and criticism strongly
suppressed. There are also cultural elements
at play.
“There is a significant part of the country
that is illiterate,” the source added. “We tend
to have a ‘follow the herd’ culture.”
They also explained how many people in
India believe they have a stronger immune
system. This, of course, is true. Delhi belly,
also known as Travellers’ Diarrhoea, exists
for a reason. But it also creates an element of
complacency.
“People became confident when the numbers
were very low,” Mrs Gupta surmised.
“They stopped wearing masks, they were
meeting in big groups. They thought, ‘this is
the end, now we are free’. They should have
been more careful.”
India is still a developing country and large
swathes of the population live in poverty. Pew
Research Center estimated 134 million Indians
live in extreme poverty, which is defined
as earning less than $2 per day. This has more
than doubled in the last year due to Covid,
with India now called a “country of mass
poverty” for the first time in 45 years.
“People here can barely make it from one
meal to the other,” the source added. “When
you try to tell them why don’t you buy masks
that are 100 or 200 rupees, that’s a lot. It’s a
massive amount, and there is no help from
the Government to provide them with the
resources they need, neither an education
system in place or any social welfare.”
It is a melting pot for a hugely transmittable
virus to thrive.
But this issue is not unique to the sub-continent.
While India may have set world records
in daily cases and deaths, other countries,
some of which are far more developed and
well-equipped to deal with the virus, including
the UK and US, have struggled mightily
too.
“The situation is a lot more similar than
people perhaps realise. To assume that
Western people are better disciplined or more
culturally developed is not true. Just two
months ago, we were watching the situation
in England and thinking, ‘Woah, what’s going
on?!’ when we were actually okay.”
They explained that Western media has reported
the story very differently, sensationalising
the Indian problems and suggesting that
such issues would never happen in the West.
They said: “It is not that different. The context
that surrounds it is different but the core
of what is happening is the same and the way
people behave is the same no matter where
you come from. It is a little bit of Western
arrogance.”
But there is hope for the future. “With
increasing vaccination, I think we are ready
to fight against the third wave,” Dr Sharma
proclaimed.
Whether India’s increasing vaccination is
happening quickly enough is debatable. As of
May 2, Our World in Data shows just 2% of
India’s 1.4 billion people have been fully inoculated.
Less than 10% had received one dose.
There has been growing criticism of Modi
as vaccine supplies fail. India announced last
week it intends to vaccinate all 18-44 yearolds,
equating to around 600 million people,
but a lack of supplies means many are waiting.
“People want to get it but there are not the
supplies,” a source added.
But for all the criticism of Modi, India has
embarked on its Covid challenge in a global
manner. It has exported 66 million doses.
Contrast that to the UK, where it has been
reported that no vaccines have been exported.
“The British Prime Minister has made it
clear to me that, oviously, his first priority is
to vaccinate his people,” Irish Prime Minister
Micheál Martin said via BBC News on March
9. “Until then he won’t be in a position to give
vaccines to anybody, and he has made that
point to me.”
India is now paying the price for its generosity.
But its generosity is a fundamental
belief. “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,” Mrs Gupta
and Dr Sharma both said. It means: “the
world is one family”, and right now, India
needs its family.
6 7

Old Trafford’s Art Trail brings
life to borough
By David Adamson
Lynda Sterling, the director of OT
Creative Space, had seemingly been
in six places at once for the past few
weeks, overseeing a collection of
murals that have been gradually growing
around the area and which will form the OT
Art Trail.
I found her on Norton St, stood across from
a cherry picker in hi-vis, watching a tree take
shape on the gable end of a terrace house.
Before she could be called away to another
part of this quiet corner of Manchester, I
asked her some questions about the trail,
the community, and her hopes for the area.
Sterling explained: “As an art space we want to
be bringing art to where people are, whether
that’s on the streets, or the ends of houses,
or parks. Then obviously with lockdown we
thought the more stuff we can do outside the
better. As people start to go outside and walk
around the area, we wanted them to see new
art that celebrates the community coming
together after being separated for so long.
“We would love the children, the people
of Old Trafford, the whole neighbourhood,
to take ownership of the murals and to feel
that they are theirs. It’s something for them to
celebrate, and to show off, of course.”
A result of Arts Council funding, the
project continued through the depths of lockdown
by sourcing ideas from the community
in inventive ways, seeking contributions from
primary schools to care homes.
Lynda described the process: “We gave out
300 creative packs, which had illustrations of
the locations, materials and worksheets from
the different artists, to get people thinking
about the different ways they could come up
with designs, as well as words that represent
Old Trafford to them.
“We gave them out
through a variety of different
means; for older people
through extra care, through
the food bank, and through
giveaways in the park to
reach as broad a demographic
as possible.
“We also ran online
workshops, from making
origami houses and drawing
maps of the area to poetry
workshops and videos from
our artists showing a skill
that people can learn. Any
way of people putting their
ideas down on paper.”
An early suggestion was
something that reflected the
diversity of the cultures here
and the languages spoken,
so OTCS asked people to say ‘Hello, how are
you?’ in their language, and looked to get as
many as possible. Now a mural on the side of
a corner shop greets people with the phrase
in several different languages, something
Sterling hopes people will feel is theirs as well
as everyone else’s. When choosing locations
OTCS looked at key places in the area - such
as Seymour Park - and approached people, as
well as having residents enthusiastically approach
them with the offer of their gable ends.
These offers continue even now, and Sterling
hopes the future will bring opportunities for
more murals to spring up.
She added: “More generally we just want to
keep the area bright and clean, so we can have
pride in it, and it be a nice place for people to
live in and engage with, and somewhere to be
creative.”
Equipped with my trail map - courtesy
of a QR code - I set off on a walk
around the neighbourhood in search
of the artists at work. On Gladys
Street I found local artist Jamie Rennie,
known professionally as JME-DZYNZ, who
since 13 has grown from one of Manchester’s
first graffiti artists to become a prominent
name in the world of street art. An Old
Trafford local, he described how when hip
hop culture hit the north, it brought with it
unforeseen opportunities.
Rennie explained: “Seymour Park was a
huge spot for graffiti, not just in this community
but in the whole of Manchester. We had a
massive crew, not just with artists but dancers,
DJs, beatboxers, loads of people were involved
in it. It was a pretty amazing time to grow up
in.
“A lot of us had pretty chaotic childhoods,
and it was a way of getting out of the other
nonsense that was happening, because there
was a heroin epidemic here at the time.
“Old Trafford as a community, as people,
is very much what hip hop culture is about.
That idea of diversity, shared experiences,
amalgamation, cut and mix. Old Trafford is
that, it’s cut and mix and has been since the
early days.”
Rennie described how while ordinary people
have often had a soft spot for street art, the
real change in attitude over the years is as a
result of a change in the authorities’ mindset.
That some of those who grew up enthralled by
hip hop are now high up in local councils and
public bodies.
Rennie added: “Typically street art has
tended to be slightly out of the way because of
that inherent risk of being caught if you’re not
doing it legally, so once you start going into
the legal realm, all this kind of stuff becomes
possible.”
“Once you go into
legal realm, all this
kind of stuff
becomes possible.”
As well as being a
long-time illustrator of
the area, Rennie is also
effectively a walking
history of the place,
adding to his own lived
experience an extensive
knowledge of Old
Trafford that goes back
much further than the 1980s. He explained
how this has informed his mural, a girl called
Gladys growing from the earth alongside
strawberries:
“It’s been about working out what kind of
history we can put on this. If you go back 1000
years, this area - and right through Hulme up
to Castlefield was Strawberry Fields.
“This was pretty much a wild strawberry
patch. The first people who came to settle in
this area were the Danes and they used strawberry
farming as a way of subsiding. Obviously,
there was no sugar in those days, so jam
was a way of making a living. You could just
come and pick the wild strawberries, live in an
idyllic, bucolic countryside setting, and make
some money out of it while living in a small
community, which was maybe a few families
by the sounds of it.”
Rennie praised Old Trafford’s ancient reputation
as a melting pot of all peoples, from the
Celts that mingled with rural Lancastrians to
the many diverse and disparate communities
that have settled since the end of WWI.
He added: “It’s changed its face many times.
There’s a fascinating history to the area and
I’m just building on that.”
A short walk from Gladys Street I spotted
another cherry picker and found Russ Meehan
- better known as QUBEK - climbing into
a harness, ready to continue his work from
above. Most likely known for his work in the
Northern Quarter, I asked him how painting
in such a dense residential area compared to
the busy warehouse district of NQ.
Meehan said: “For me it’s really nice to
paint here, because I live here, so I really feel
like a part of this community and painting
this mural has solidified that even more.
“Most of the time when I paint in the
Northern Quarter it’s my
own stuff, with the odd
commission, but generally I
go there to have the ability
to paint what I want to,
so this is a nice step away
from that. This design
mainly was done by someone
round here, most of it
has come from their actual
sketch. I’ve just accentuated their sketch.”
Meehan pointed to the bird in the middle
of the mural and noted their popularity in
street art, explaining that they’re often seen
as transcendent, and that they carry different
senses and symbolic meanings to different
people.
The Old Trafford Art Trail is like all good
art; it has no fixed point of interpretation and
is for everyone.
8 9

Meet the new mothers
tackling isolation
By Olivia Stringer
Throughout the pandemic,
national lockdowns have put
constraints on everyone’s lives
For expectant mothers this has
meant attending ultrasounds and appointments
alone, and spending their maternity
leave isolated from family and friends.
Clinical director of HealthHero Dr Brigit
Lundgren notes how for each family, this has
been a different experience.
She said: “We have all managed the best we
could in our unique circumstances, it is so
important that we don’t judge what we did in
an unknown situation, with the knowledge we
have afterwards.”
Emily, a 33-year-old woman who is
originally from Australia but now resides in
Sweden, gave birth to her first baby at the start
of April and although Sweden never went into
a full lockdown, her pregnancy was still affected.
She told me how she asked her husband to
work from home during the last few weeks of
her pregnancy to ensure that he would be well
enough to be able to attend the birth.
“I was terrified of him getting even the
slightest sniffle because I thought ‘I cannot
deal with going to the hospital and going
through this childbirth all alone’”, she said.
Emily described the isolation she felt after
her daughter was born: “It’s not what anyone
expects really, you think you have a baby, and
all your family and friends are going to come
and visit and you’re going to do coffee with
other new mums and yoga and all these kinds
of things, and then you just end up being
alone.”
Emily’s parents live in Australia and were
supposed to visit Sweden around the time
of her daughter’s birth. However, due to the
pandemic she now believes they will not be
able to meet their granddaughter until she is
almost two. Despite not being able to meet
their granddaughter in real life, Emily regularly
video chats with her parents and is thankful
this technology exists as this allows her family
to virtually follow the development of her
daughter.
She also said WhatsApp and Facebook
groups have been great in terms of her allowing
her to connect online and share tips with
new mums. Emily feels this is no replacement
for being able to get out and meet new people
and is curious to see how her daughter, who
has had limited interaction, will cope with
socialising when she is able to start playgroup.
Whilst Emily longs to be able to take her
daughter out to a children’s science museum
or a mother and baby group, most of all, she
wants her family to be able to visit.
“I have a lot of sympathy for other expat
mothers, especially those that don’t have a
lot of family, who are completely isolated and
don’t have any support networks at all.
“I think it’s a tough time for mums who are
adjusting to this really big life change and having
to do it in a really isolated way,” she said.
Claudia, 33, gave birth to her first baby in
October last year. Due to covid restrictions,
she too was forced to attend all of her scans
and midwife appointments alone.
“I’m quite lucky that for all of my appointments,
there was never really any bad news or
anything shocking or horrible”, she said.
“Even so, it was still isolating really, it was
hard actually just not having anyone else
there.”
Claudia was not the only one who suffered
with feelings of isolation. Her husband struggled
with being unable to attend important
meetings and felt very left out of the pregnancy.
Last June, in a bid to help him feel more
involved, Claudia booked a private ultrasound
scan as a Father’s Day present so that her husband
could see their baby for the first time.
Although Claudia’s husband was able to be
present for the actual birth of their baby, who
was born by C-section, he was made to leave
an hour after meeting his first-born, which
further added to his feelings of isolation.
Claudia and her husband made the
decision to attend NCT antenatal
classes over Zoom. She described
this as a ‘real godsend’ as the couple
had just moved house and this allowed Claudia
to connect virtually with local
mothers, who are now able to
meet for walks. Although Claudia’s
parents were able to meet
their granddaughter when she
was born in-between the first
and second UK lockdowns,
they have been unable to see
her since.
“Babies change so much in
their first year, my daughter
is a completely different person to who she
was six, seven months ago, so I’m eager for
my family to be able to meet her again,” she
exclaimed. Maternity leave in lockdown is a
far cry from what Claudia initially imagined.
She added: “I thought the pandemic would
be over by the time I’d given birth and I’d be
doing cheesy stuff like sitting in coffee shops
and going to mum and baby yoga…I feel like
I’ve been a bit robbed.”
Claudia describes her baby as being pretty
content, however, she is concerned about how
the pandemic will affect her daughter later in
life: “I’m very aware of the fact that she’s only
really ever seen me and my husband, when
she finally meets family members and goes to
nursery it’s going to be a big surprise for her.”
“I don’t necessarily feel that new mums have
been neglected specifically, I think we’ve all
kind of made the best of things as much as we
can. It’s been completely world changing for
everyone,” she said.
Alex, 33, living in Manchester, suffered with
anxiety throughout her pregnancy and was
referred for cognitive behavioural therapy
(CBT) by her midwife. She feels her anxiety
has been made much worse by the pandemic.
Teddy, born in August 2020, is Alex’s’ second
baby and her experiences of pregnancy
this time round have been entirely different to
her first pregnancy.
“I thought the
pandemic would
be over by the
time I’d given
birth.”
“I think not having my husband there with
me this time really fed into my anxiety,” she
said.
She also added: “I had a really difficult
conversation with a consultant about having
a C-section, and when I asked if I could bring
my husband in with me to discuss it, he tutted
which was quite insensitive.”
Alex gave birth in the same hospital for
both of her pregnancies, however both experiences
were very different.
“Because of all of the restrictions this time
the hospital felt quite eerie…before you even
get to the scan department you are questioned
about where you were going, if you’ve got
symptoms, can you use hand sanitizer — it
was a really strange experience.”
Despite the initial conversation about her
birth plan being upsetting, Alex feels that
knowing exactly when she was going to go
into labour, worked out better in the circumstances.
“We knew when it was going
to happen, and we knew that he could come
with me and we sort of had a bit more control
around how the birth actually happened and
the birth experience itself was really good. The
staff were fantastic, and everybody was really
friendly,” she said.
During her first pregnancy, Alex was able
to attend antenatal classes and
make friends with other new
mothers. However, although
she tried to attend virtual
classes this time around, she
feels this wasn’t the same.
“I was doing a playgroup
online and it just felt really
stilted…you can’t have the
natural conversations that
you’d have being face to face in a room with
someone, so I stopped attending that because
it just didn’t feel right.”
Now that lockdown is finally being eased,
Alex has decided to extend her maternity
leave so that she is able to enjoy going to
mother and baby groups.
Although maternity leave spent trapped
inside has been in many ways isolating for
these mothers, they also acknowledge that
lockdown has in some ways been beneficial
for their babies.
Both Emily and Alex noted that
because both of their husbands
have been working from home,
they have been able to spend a lot
more time with their children and parenting
responsibilities have been shared more evenly.
As lockdown continues to be eased, it will
be interesting to see how mothers and their
babies have been affected by the pandemic.
Dr Lundgren added: “A huge concern as we
move forward is the many new parents whose
mental health has suffered during the pandemic
and who may continue to struggle as
we move into this next phase…remember that
seeking help and advice is never a sign that
you’re failing, it’s merely recognising where
you need more support, be it with childcare or
in your mental health, and that is a strength
not a weakness.”
10 11

One-party race?
By Daniel Goldstraw
Election season in Manchester
brought with it little surprise after
a years delay, with incumbent Andy
Burnham winning the mayorship
by a landslide.
Mancunians went to the booth to vote in
local councils and mayorship, with the results
not coming as much of a shock, and not much
really appears to have changed in the makeup
of local government in Manchester as a result.
Burnham had been the favourite to win
throughout, after already holding the position
for four years. His party, Labour, have also
maintained their control over Manchester
City Council. This has been in spite of the
party struggling nationally, with most of the
headlines during the election focusing on
their historic loss of Hartlepool in the North-
East.
This is nothing new. Recalling the 2004
elections, when Labour performed poorly
nationwide, Sir Richard Leese, CBE, leader
of Manchester City Council since 1996, says:
“Electorally, we went against the national
trend. We were one of only two major cities
that maintained a Labour majority. We actually
gained seats in that period of time rather
than losing them.”
The level of dominance Labour has on the
City Council is overwhelming. Of its 96 members,
only two councillors are not members
of the party. After this election, which saw
the number of Liberal Democrat councillors
reduced from two to one, there is no longer
any official opposition within the council.
Cllr Leese credits this to the work Labour has
done in the region, and their tackling of local
issues.
“We’ve developed the brand of Manchester
Labour, and what it stands for. We stand up
for the city – even when we had a Labour government,
if the government was doing things
that we didn’t think was in Manchester’s
interests we said so in no uncertain terms. We
haven’t taken it for granted, and we’ve kept
working at it.”
Critics from other parties have argued it’s
not healthy for democracy for one party to
have such dominance, and often the deck is
stacked far too strongly against smaller parties
being represented at all. Rob Nunney, the new
Green Party councillor for Woodhouse Park,
is the first from the party Manchester has seen
since 2008. While Labour are clearly popular
across the city, Nunney has argued that many
elections results are warped by the voting
system used in local elections.
Known as first past the post (FPTP), this
system, also used in general elections, means
that seats are allocated on the basis of who
wins in each individual ward, rather than
in proportion with the overall votes cast
throughout the area as a whole.
As such, Nunney explains, smaller parties
have to concentrate much of their campaigning
on those more marginal wards, rather
than attempting to rival parties like Labour
across the entirety of Greater Manchester.
“It’s such a shame,” Nunney states, “it disenfranchises
so much of the population. They
feel their votes don’t count in areas that aren’t
marginal.”
This, he says, is why the Greens, along with
most major parties besides Labour and the
Conservatives, are campaigning for a voting
system based along the lines of proportional
representation, where numbers of seats are
allocated in line with the overall balance of
votes. While Labour would remain the biggest
party in the region, this system would likely
give much greater representation to smaller
parties.
According to Chris Ogden, Co-Chair of the
Manchester Greens, the figures from the most
recent election would have given the Greens
around eleven councillors under proportional
representation, as opposed to just one under
the current system.
This, he adds, doesn’t even take into consideration
how people might vote differently
under an alternate system, pointing out that
the nature of FPTP often means people will
vote tactically, rather than for who they really
side with.
“The votes that we have are determined by
first past the post,” Ogden states. “People are
voting, or thinking in that kind of tactical way
that first past the post pushes you into.”
In all likelihood, he adds, their share of
votes as well as seats would increase under
proportional representation, since people
would no longer be concerned that a vote for
Greens would be wasted. Ogden compares
the situation in this country with that in
Germany, where the Greens have managed to
overtake the Social Democratic Party.
“I’d wager that the only reason that hasn’t
happened in the UK, to the same extent, is
because of first past the post, because it holds
Labour in that position where they can’t fail,
they’re too big to fail, but at the same time
they’re too weak to succeed.”
These kinds of estimates have been
supported by others. Emma Knaggs,
from the campaign group Make
Votes Matter, asserts that Labour’s
overwhelming popularity would mean that
they’d remain the largest party in Manchester
overall. “About two thirds of people did vote
for Labour – but then that still gives you a
third to represent everyone else.”
This kind of disparity is even greater in
other councils, she adds. In Redditch, West
Midlands, the Conservatives got just under
half the vote, yet the council is almost entirely
Conservative. Over the past few years, Make
Votes Matters has worked with numerous
different parties and organised grassroots
campaigns to try and raise awareness and
boost engagement on electoral reform.
Knaggs says: “Sometimes it is hard to get
across how big of an issue it is, so many of
the decisions made at government level on
policies that affect healthcare and housing and
education, and everybody’s lives, are largely
affected by this.
“A lot of people feel that their vote is not
represented at all. Democracy is degrading,
and the UK’s satisfaction in democracy has
gone down significantly in the last few years.
And part of that is to do with the fact that
people’s votes just are not going anywhere
really.”
John Leech, the one remaining Liberal
Democrat councillor for Manchester City,
states that he’s personally experienced how
harmful the current system can be for fostering
democracy. He explains the tiny number
of opposition councillors means they were
given virtually no resources or office space,
and were deliberately withheld information
on numerous occasions. He’d even received
verbal abuse from some Labour councillors,
on one occasion going before the standards
committee over what an independent investigator
described as “bullying.”
Leech says: “It’s that sort of one-party state
behaviour that goes on at Manchester Town
Hall. The leadership of the council are an appalling
cabal that don’t even have the support
of a lot of their backbench members.
“But in Manchester, Labour think they can
get away with that, and they can. For anyone
to suggest that having a council made up of
94 Labour councillors, one Liberal Democrat,
and one Green councillor, is good for
democracy or promotes good governance is
just frankly barking mad.”
In spite of the criticisms of first past the
post, the week since the elections has brought
news that more elections are to be run using
this system. The recent mayoral elections used
a supplementary system, allowing voters to
give a second preference. But according to
plans by the government this is to change,
with future mayoral elections, as well as for
Police and Crime Commissioners, to be
selected via first past the post.
While, according to Cllr Leech, this “won’t
make a jot of difference in Manchester,” considering
Burnham’s overwhelming popularity,
he argues it has real potential to skew the
results in other mayoral contests.
These concerns have also been echoed by
Make Votes Matter. The plans “wouldn’t have
made much of a difference in Manchester
because Andy Burnham got two thirds of the
vote on the first preference,” Knaggs states.
“But in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
for example, the result actually changed with
the second preferences.
“Where I am in Bristol, on the last mayoral
election, the candidate would have got
through with just 27% of the vote. So it’s a
case where someone is elected into a position
which usually holds an awful lot of power,
and a lot of budgetary responsibility, but only
a really small proportion of the electorate has
actually voted for them.
“We really think it is a huge backward step
in our democracy, because first past the post
will really warp elections. It’s a really outmoded
system.”
In response, Make Votes Matter (below)
have launched a petition against the government’s
plans and, with the easing of
lockdown, are planning to be much more
active in the next few months. “Hopefully
by July we’ll be able to do some big demonstrations.
We’re trying to mobilise our local
groups, who are in quite a few of the major
cities, including Manchester.”
It seems likely therefore that as lockdown
eases this is an issue that will only grow in
prominence. With the groups Action Day set
for Saturday 17 July, and plans to get motions
on reform presented at the Labour Party Conference
in September, this may be a debate
that’s only just begun.
12 13

Exploring alternatives...
Narrowboat life across Greater Manchester
By Fin Acland
Narrowboat living has never been
more popular. 15,000 people
in England and Wales live on
waterways, and it seems the
pandemic has only accelerated the trend of
people abandoning dry land. MM spoke to
three people who call a narrowboat home.
Emily Quinn, 29, grew up on The Wirral
before leaving to study in London. 10 years
later in 2016, her father was diagnosed with
Alzheimer’s, and for the first six months Emily
returned to Birkenhead every weekend to help
care for him.
Her father later moved to Kent to be closer
to Emily, who spent all her spare time caring
for him. When the pandemic hit, visits were
made impossible and, as Emily explained,
without regular interaction Alzheimer’s sufferers
can very quickly deteriorate. In April 2020,
Emily’s father died suddenly.
Keen for freedom to further explore Britain,
and a means of beating the rent trap, Emily
began looking seriously at buying a boat: “It’s
drilled into us that rent is dead money and
that you shouldn’t rent and you should buy a
house,” she said. “I felt that I was never going
to be able to afford a place, especially as a
single woman.”
She moved back north over the summer
and began searching, but just as the housing
market was surging, so were narrowboat
prices.
Competition was fierce on Apollo Duck, the
narrowboater’s equivalent of AutoTrader, and
boats were snapped up almost immediately.
“They were going before you could even see
them,” Emily said. Her £20,000 ‘project boat’
only became available after another buyer
pulled out. She bought it on the 1st of October
2020 and moved in a week later.
She spent the winter in a marina splitting
her time between working remotely and
renovating the boat. “Doing anything takes
infinitely longer on a boat, and it’s definitely
more expensive,” she said. “I had to have the
boat rewired, solar panels installed on the
roof, and a new controller put in. Everything
had to be marine quality.”
Licence fees, insurance, and diesel costs
must be factored in too. Boaters joke that boat
stands for ‘bung on another thousand’.
Mooring fees can also be expensive, but
Emily avoids them as a ‘continuous cruiser’
– someone who moves on every two
weeks. There’s no hard and fast rule, but the
Canal and River Trust advise travelling 20
kilometres a year, with enforcement officers
responsible for moving on particularly resolute
boaters.
In London especially, more young people
are drawn to narrowboats by the promise
of cheap, minimalist city living. Prices
range from a £20,000 second-hand boat to
a £150,000 custom-built vessel. But Emily
thinks what’s most important is a desire for
the lifestyle.
“It probably works out a bit cheaper than a
house but it requires way more maintenance
and movement. It’s basically like a part-time
job.”
Emily plans to travel down to London for
September and continue to cruise the capital’s
waterways. She loves it so much she can’t
imagine returning to land any time soon.
“I would definitely put myself in the bracket
of being someone who could live on a boat for
the rest of their life. But who knows?”
For 53-year old magician Paul
Storey-Smith, the decision to sell
his house and buy a narrowboat was
three years in the making. Both Paul
and his partner Anthony, 48, wanted a more
minimalist lifestyle, and the narrowboat seed
was planted by a conversation with an elderly
boater while walking the dog.
Paul and Anthony mulled it over for close
to a year before eventually deciding to sell
their house. “When my partner texted me and
said, ‘sod it, let’s do it’, I had to phone the boat
builder and order the boat. I put the phone
down three times! I thought, what are we
doing?!”
The couple waited a year for their 57ft boat
to be built, and in October 2020, Morning
Star was launched from Fettler’s Wharf, Ormskirk.
After a winter in a marina adjusting to
life onboard, Paul and Anthony have ventured
out to tour the canals of the North West.
They ‘bridge hop’ (one person driving the car
ahead to the next mooring spot) so Anthony
can get to work at the Rochdale and Oldham
Hospital.
They’ve journeyed through Manchester,
moored outside the Etihad, tackled the
Rochdale Nine (a famous set of locks on the
Rochdale Canal) and stayed in Castlefield.
“Manchester’s got a bit of a bad reputation -
you hear of drugs, vandalism, and graffiti. But
we loved Manchester, coming through Worsley
into Manchester was one of the best things
we’ve done on the boat,” he said. “To moor
up right in the city centre with a community
of boats felt really safe. And to get up in the
morning to see all the high-rise buildings, it
was such a contrast from the countryside. We
loved it.”
The pandemic put a stop to magic shows
for Paul, instead he began selling artworks
(above) and producing videos for his YouTube
channel which documents life on the boat.
Paul is enjoying the adventure. “We wish we’d
done this five years ago,” he said. “It feels like
we’re doing something different every week.”
He admits life on a narrowboat is not
without its challenges, and that people can
have romantic ideas of what it’s like. “In a
house you take for granted a constant gas,
electric, and heating supply. And you’ve got to
be conscious of power if you’re continuously
cruising,” he said.
“You have to remember to turn things off
and night. And it’s mad the amount of water
you consume.”
And though it’s physically demanding work,
as long as they’re fit and able, Paul imagines
doing it well into the future.
Sara Connaway, 34, came to the UK in
2009 from South Africa. Initially she
arrived in London to study, before
a trip to visit friends in Manchester
convinced her to join Manchester Met.
After university, she travelled the world
working on superyachts, but kept a narrowboat
in Manchester to return to on leave. For
Sara, a narrowboat
felt like a
natural choice.
“I’ve always
liked quirky
spaces. I’ve
always liked an
off-the-beaten
track lifestyle.
I’ve always moved around a lot, worked
abroad, and lived in different countries.
“I didn’t want to have a mortgage, and didn’t
want to be tied down to anything I couldn’t
move on from if I wanted to move.”
Three years ago, Sara suffered a freak
accident in Hamburg. A bungee cord holding
heavy parcels onto her bicycle split, which
resulted in her losing an eye.
A week after her accident she returned to
Manchester for surgery, planning to eventually
return to the yachts, but she ended up
staying for good.
She converted her boat, Moonshadow
(below), into an Airbnb moored in Castlefield
Bowl. She then bought a second boat, Wandering
Star, which she lived on while running
the business.
Before the pandemic hit, business was
booming, and Sara moved into a house share
to expand her business by letting her second
boat. She was forced to return to South Africa
when lockdown restrictions made letting the
boat impossible, but has since returned to
Manchester, and business is beginning to pick
up again.
Sara admits she’s not an especially well-travelled
boater — she’s still to do her first lock
— and has generally stayed in the Castlefield
Bowl, occasionally journeying up the Bridgewater
Canal.
She loves the community she’s met in Manchester
though.
“I feel so blessed to have tapped into this
lifestyle. I’ve never met more weird and
wonderful people. I feel like I’ve tapped into a
crazy, colourful world.
“There’s a crazy community spirit. We ring
each other every day, we hang out on each
other’s boats, we decide to travel up the canal
and get away together.”
Sara has noticed more and more younger
boaters, with both Castlefield and New Islington
Marina’s brimming with life.
“At one point in our section of the canal I
was the youngest
“I feel so blessed
to have tapped into
this lifestyle.”
person here, and
that’s definitely not
the case anymore.
There’s been a good
few boats of people
younger than me
now.”
There’s sometimes
a feeling of not wanting to let people into the
secret. But Sara says the community is welcoming
of newcomers and is always willing
to help.
“Everyone loves to help a newbie out. When
I was new here I was completely clueless and
had to call on people for all sorts of favours.”
With expanding her business, it is challenging
to manage without a washing machine,
and Sara has decided to leave her boat and
move into a flat in Castlefield. She still wants
to stay close to the marina, and dreams one
day of moving onto a widebeam.
“This apartment I’m moving into is tiny by
anyone else’s standards but for me, it’s like,
what am I going to do with all that space?”
14 15

Alan Turing: His life,
his logic, his legacy...
By Richard Price
Alan Turing leaves behind a legacy
that is every bit as fascinating
and complex as the codes and
mathematical problems he engaged
with during his life.
He is renowned the world over for his
codebreaking efforts at Bletchley Park during
WW2, where his work is estimated to have
shortened the war by years. 2014 saw a
Hollywood retelling of his story, with
Benedict Cumberbatch earning an Oscar nod
for playing the heroic scientist. But the reality
is much more nuanced and far more
interesting than the rose-tinted cinematic
portrayal of the man who’s come to be known
as the father of computer science. Turing’s
(next page, top right) contribution to the
nation is set to be prominently recognised
when he is featured on the revamped £50 note
from 23 June, which would have been his
109th birthday. The note is the most valuable
of the four
denominations printed by the Bank of
England and is the final one in the series to
make the transition from paper to polymer.
So what is it about the man that’s led to him
being featured on our most valuable bank
note? What makes the Cambridge-educated
16
scientist’s story such a fascinating one? And
why has he become the stuff of Hollywood
legend?
Turing was undoubtedly an incredible
individual. He was a visionary as well as a
revolutionary. The fact that his work and
thinking is still relevant to huge swathes of
everyday life in modern Britain is testament
to how radical his approach to problem-solving
was. His contribution to codebreaking at
Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire is widely
credited with shortening the Second World
War by at least two years and his work, alongside
others, undoubtedly helped save many
lives as a result.
What is equally remarkable is that the
questions posed by aspects of his personal life
are equally relevant and worthy of discussion.
Alan Turing was a gay man, and this wasn’t
legally acceptable in 1950s Britain. In March
1952, he was convicted of gross indecency
for his relationship with another man, and he
only avoided prison by submitting to chemical
castration. His security clearance was revoked
and a promising career as a consultant for
GCHQ was brought to a close as a result. It
wasn’t until 2009 the government formally
apologised for the treatment Turing received,
with Prime Minister Gordon Brown describing
his ordeal as horrifying and utterly unfair.
Brown said in his statement at the time:
“We’re sorry, you deserved so much better.”
It then took a further four years for Turing
to be granted a posthumous royal pardon,
and finally in 2017 a law was passed in his
name allowing tens of thousands of other
men convicted of historical gay sex offences
to also apply for a formal pardon. Turing died
by suicide in 1954, and yet well over seven
decades since his passing, society has only just
begun to correct the wrongs that he and those
like him faced. For a man who was officially
recorded as being a criminal until very recently,
to be featured on a bank note (next page,
bottom) is a turnaround so swift that Turing
himself would surely be impressed if he’d been
around to witness it. The important point this
raises however is that the tragedy of his treatment,
and that of thousand of other gay men,
is still something that is being faced today.
Society has moved on. Modern Britain
is more inclusive. Groups like Stonewall
and initiatives like Pride demonstrate
there has been huge progress
towards creating a society in which everyone
can be themselves. But we’re not quite there
yet. That’s why Turing’s story is so important.
In many ways it isn’t about him. It’s about the
power it has to inspire and the strength it has
to give confidence to those who follow in his
footsteps.
In telling Turing’s story, there are other
injustices to note too - most obvious of all is
that history and Hollywood have given him a
spotlight some may argue should shared with
the large collective of talented individuals who
worked Bletchley Park.
His nephew Dermot Turing discusses the
point frequently in his writing and lectures,
and believes that sometimes perception can
creep in as source of reality when talking
about Turing.He said: “There’s an element of
sort of over-inflating what his contribution
was. I don’t deny that he had an important
one, but he was part of a team.
“That gets sort of turned into some kind of
myth about Alan Turing personally saving
millions of lives in World War Two, which is
clearly nonsense.
“The amazing machine that he partly
invented wasn’t exclusively his brainchild.
The fact is that he wasn’t the engineer on the
project.”
He cautioned: “I think we have to just be a
little bit wary of what we see when we go to
the movies.”
Dermot is cautious of the way
women have been written out of
the popular narrative surrounding
his uncle. He said: “There were
plenty of women who were doing the same
codebreaking jobs as the men, really high
powered stuff which was difficult and required
imagination and all those kinds of skills that
you associate with people like Turing.
“The problem has been that when the
historians goes to the National Archives and
they look at the records they see the job titles
that were given to women were things like
translator and clerical staff and typist.
“And that’s only because women were on
a different pay scale, and the codebreaker
grades were reserved for men, so the women
who were doing codebreaking couldn’t be
called codebreakers. So you get a false impression
about what people were doing.”
I put this same point to Kirstie Whitaker -
the programme lead for open source
tools, practices and systems at The
Alan Turing Institute, an organisation
committed to ensuring data science
and AI changes the world for the
better.
She said: “I think that’s another
great example of where historically
we haven’t paid attention to, and
supported, both women but members
of other underrepresented groups as
well.
“There were so many women -
working on shifts, and literally 365
days a year - supporting that effort,
breaking the codes, doing the translation.
“It’s great to remember them, and
in our work at the Turing Institute
we do focus on making sure that we tell those
stories.
“One of the things that I’m very, very
passionate about is the importance of invisible
work. So, that’s work to train people to support
and empower - to make sure that others
have the information that they need.”
But recognising that he was part of a team
shouldn’t diminish the impact Turing had.
He was a truly remarkable figure and wasn’t
confined in his work to just one discipline.
Whitaker added: “As a scientist, he moved
around different domains to find the most
challenging questions.”
“He wrote about the concept of computational
numbers and was part of creating the
first computer.
“He then also worked on the war efforts
in terms of encryption and decrypting the
enigma code which a lot of people will know
about applying skills from mathematics, and
then later on in his career he switched to
studying biology and biochemistry.”
She explained: “I think what he was doing
was basically saying: ‘I have some skills, I’m a
smart person, and I’m very, very curious, so
I’m really interested in trying to work on the
most interesting problems and I’m not really
limited by what specific domain boundaries
exist’.
“I think that’s exactly what The Turing
Institute is trying to do, trying to break down
some of those boundaries, and to share that
innovation and encourage everybody to focus
on the mission, on the purpose of the research
rather than what has been done before, or
being constrained by who has done it.”
Before making its decision to include
Turing on the new £50 note, the Banknote
Character Advisory Committee received
227,299 nominations, covering almost 1,000
eligible characters. It said the 12 shortlisted
options demonstrated a breadth of scientific
achievement in the UK - and it’s clear Turing
was at the pinnacle of that. The new bank note
was revealed at an event hosted by the Science
and Industry Museum in Manchester.
The museum is now reopening its
doors with an exhibition entitled
Top Secret, which chronicles the
history of espionage and is being
organised in collaboration with GCHQ. Associate
Curator Abigale Wilson told me: “Alan
Turing is a really key figure in the history of
communications intelligence for his work at
Bletchley Park, under the government code
and cypher school which is the predecessor of
GCHQ.
“He’s also really important for Manchester,
because after the Second World War he
came to the city and joined the University of
Manchester.”
“Turing did some of his most creative
thinking while he was in Manchester thinking
about artificial intelligence, the Turing Test
and also sequences and patterns in nature.
“He used one of the early computers, part
developed at Manchester University and Ferranti,
to do some of that work on sequencing
in nature.
Alan Turing is one of those rare people
whose legacy is both personal and
professional, and he also connects north and
south - with both Bedfordshire and Greater
Manchester having strong links to his life and
work.His inclusion in the Bank of England’s
set of bank notes helps chart how far we’ve
come, as well as how much further we still
have to go. But, perhaps it’s best to let Alan
Turing have the final word: “This is only a
foretaste of what is to come and only the
shadow of what is going to be.”

Over half of
UK workers to
change career
due to Covid-19
By Annie Owen
As we enter the next phase of
reopening the UK economy and
easing lockdown restrictions,
many are returning to work in
different jobs and new industries.
A study conducted by Aviva shows more
than half of UK workers (53%) plan to change
their careers as a direct result of the Coronavirus
pandemic. The ‘How We Live’ study
also suggests people aged 25-34 are amongst
those most likely to want to re-train or change
career. 28-year-old Emma Bolton (right), who
was a professional Bollywood dancer working
in Mumbai before the pandemic now works
from her kitchen table in Swansea.
Last year she was surrounded by glitz and
glamour, little did she know that in a couple of
months’ time she would leave behind her Bollywood
dream and return to her Welsh roots.
Trained at Performers College in Essex and
originally from Sketty in Swansea, Emma
reluctantly left Mumbai in April 2020 on a
repatriation flight ordered by the UK government.
“I didn’t want to come back at all, I was
adamant it was only going to be for a month
and then we’d all get back to work,” said Ms.
Bolton.
She originally planned to stay in India for six
months but ended up working in Mumbai for
two years. When the pandemic hit, she was
faced with the difficult decision of what to do
next., go home or stay in India?
“I just felt that if the government are coming
to save us, then it’s probably time to go,” she
said.
Her time in India included performing at
events, music video shoots, and starring in an
advert for Pepsi India.“I did one job where we
thought it was just a small photo shoot and
the next day my friend sent me a photo of me
on a giant billboard, which was very strange
to see…there was never an average day, I was
once asked to greet guests with a lampshade
on my head,” she laughed. The realisation set
in that COVID-19 wasn’t going anywhere
quickly, Emma was forced to explore other career
options.“I had been a dancer for ten years
and all of a sudden I needed a plan-b…I’ve
gone from a super-busy manic lifestyle to a
stay-at-home office job.”
Fast-forward to June, Emma successfully
earned a role working for a London-based
PR company. “I didn’t think I would enjoy it,
because I’ve spent my whole life saying I’ll
never get a 9-5 job - sitting at a desk all day is
strange,” she added. Emma explained how the
pandemic forced her to take a risk and leave
behind the only industry she had known.
“I think I always knew dancing wasn’t going
to be my forever job but didn’t know what was
going to be.”
She joked: “It would’ve been nice if it didn’t
take a global pandemic for me to have a career
change.”
Now forging a successful career in PR and
communications, Emma is grateful things
worked out for her in the end.
“It’s paid off for me, luckily, I know not
everyone has been so lucky,” she said.
The Office for National Statistics
confirmed young people were
disproportionately affected by the
labour market crisis caused by the
pandemic. As hospitality and retail are the
largest employers of young people, they bore
the brunt of widespread industry cuts. The
pandemic saw the loss of 355,000 jobs in
hotels, restaurants and pubs, and more than
171,000 in shops. The government’s furlough
scheme is said to have protected more than 11
million jobs since March last year, by assisting
employers to pay wages
to their staff.
However, there are
questions around the
impact of the scheme’s
planned end in September.
Head of economics
at the British Chambers
of Commerce,
Suren Thiru, said: “Although the furlough
scheme will limit the peak in job losses,
the longer-term structural unemployment
caused by COVID-19, particularly among
young people, may mean that the road back
to pre-pandemic levels lags behind the wider
economic recovery.”
Aviva’s ‘How We Live’ report also found that
almost half of the nation’s adults (45%) tried
their hand at new hobbies in 2020, with more
than three million workers planning to gain
a second source of income through their new
side-line. Gareth Hemming, MD, Personal
Lines, for Aviva said: “The additional time
at home and the temporary closure of many
services has meant that people have found
different ways to use their time, and in some
cases developed new skills.”
With the travel industry being one of the
worst affected, Keziah Clive was placed on
furlough in her role as a travel agent in March
2020. As those around her were made redundant,
Kez was asked by her employer to sign
a contract stating she wouldn’t seek alternative
employment while receiving furlough
payments.
“I wasn’t a fan of signing the contract, but
I loved my job so would’ve done anything
to keep it,” she said. “I don’t want to sound
ungrateful but going from a full wage to 80%
when you’ve got bills to pay, it can be quite
tough, so I did want to get a little side job.”
Surviving two rounds of staff cuts, Kez was
made redundant at the end of October. Unfortunately,
with less than two years’ service,
there was no redundancy pay to fall back on.
She said: “Luckily, I saw it coming and made
sure I was applying for jobs and had an interview
on the day I lost my job, so it worked out
in the end.”
Now working as an administrator for an
independent retailer, Kez has turned a crafting
hobby into a successful business.
“I think it impacted my
mental health…I was really
anxious and on edge all
the time because I was in
this pit that I couldn’t get
out of.”
She now crafts personalised keyrings and
ornaments using resin and is hopeful her
creative passions will eventually become her
full-time job.
“If it wasn’t for lockdown, I don’t think I
would have ever started the business because
you get too comfortable in your everyday job
and you think you don’t have time.
“I think being in my own company for so
long during lockdown, I realised how much
time is actually in the day and how much you
can fit in,” she said.
Emma Vickers (below), a 23-year old graduate
from Oldham, struggled with her mental
health whilst working for the NHS during the
pandemic, but hopes a new job as a prison
officer will be a fresh start. After graduating
from Leeds Beckett University with a degree
in Criminology in 2019,
Emma hoped to pursue
a career in the criminal
field but like many new
graduates, struggled to
find work.
With no luck pursuing her
dream job, Emma started
working for a company
within the NHS in Manchester,
booking medical appointments.
As the months progressed and Coronavirus
took hold, the company took on a new contract
handling calls from those with COV-
ID-19 symptoms. She said: “There were a lot
of opportunities during that period because it
was a 24/7 role, so there was a lot of overtime
and I was actually making more money.
“But I also had no time for myself and it
was a really stressful time, I think it impacted
my mental health. I was really anxious and on
edge all the time because I was in this pit that
I couldn’t get out of.”
Unemployment is now at 4.9% and the
number of people claiming out-of-work
benefits has almost doubled to 2.7 million in
March 2021 compared to the previous year.
Acutely aware of the declining job market,
Emma felt she had no other option but to stay
in the job.
“I think that’s why I stuck with that job even
though I hated it so much. I knew a lot of people
around me at the time were losing their
jobs or being made redundant,” she added.
To Emma’s delight, a prison officer vacancy
became available and she secured the role.
Excited for the future, she said: “It’s the type
of job I’ve always wanted to get into because
you’re working with people from all walks
of life and you’re always on your toes — I
need to be stimulated and I need to make
a difference,” she said. Like many that have
gone through a career change, Emma hopes
the new role is a turning point for both her
career and mental health, as the nation slowly
returns to normality.
18 19

Resident
Evil
celebrates
25 years of
chills and
thrills
By James Walters
The Resident Evil franchise has
been a staple across a host of mediums
since it first burst onto our
screens in 1996. This year marks
the 25th anniversary of the original game
that kickstarted the series, with last week
seeing the release of latest entry, Resident
Evil: Village, the eighth mainline game
which continues the story of Ethan Winters
from 2017’s Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.
The series has come a long way since its
inception, spanning multiple console generations,
platforms, spin-off titles and mediums.
With more content releasing later this year,
Japan-based developer Capcom are investing
more and more time and effort into the franchise
going forward.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary, here are
six of the biggest moments from the franchises
history that have shaped the series into
what it is today.
Resident Evil (1996)
Developed for the original PlayStation, the
first entry (next page, top left) went by the
name Biohazard in Japan.When it was localised
for western audiences, it was renamed
Resident Evil and eventually released in the
UK on August 1 1996.
The groundbreaking game takes place in
the Arklay Mountains near Racoon City, a
location that has become synonymous with
the series. It followed a group of police officers
from the Racoon City Police Department,
called Special Tactics and Rescue Service
(STARS), who are sent to investigate a series
of strange events in the mountains, as well as
the disappearance of Bravo Team who went to
investigate first.
The player chooses from two main protagonists,
Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, each
offering a slightly altered version of events
to the games story, as they take refuge in the
Spencer Mansion and have to fight to survive
the zombies found within. Along the way
they uncover the truth about the Umbrella
Company, a pharmaceutical company that has
secretly been developing bioweapons.
The game helped popularise the fixed
camera style of gameplay. This combined
with the tank style movement controls meant
that enemies could appear just off-screen and
surprise players when the angle changes to
reveal them.
Upon release it received critical praise
and went on to sell 5.08 million units across
multiple editions on PlayStation, making
more than $200 million. The sequels, Resident
Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, released
in 1998 and 1999, kept the same fixed camera
style gameplay, continuing on from the events
of the first instalment.
Resident Evil (2002)
2002 saw Hollywood get its hands on
the franchise, with a big screen adaptation
written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson.
The director had a track record of adapting
video games, having led the 1995 adaption
of Mortal Kombat. Milla Jovovich (top right,
next page) and Michelle Rodriguez starred in
the franchise, with the later being dubbed “the
reigning queen of kick-butt” by VH1 for her
involvement in the franchise.
It was loosely based on the games, using the
series lore and creatures rather than directly
adapting the story and characters. Jovovich
played Alice, an original character and series
protagonist who awakens with amnesia in
a mansion above the Hive, a secret underground
facility operated by Umbrella. The
films received negative reviews from critics,
however the first entry went on to make $102
million worldwide and has recently gained a
more prominent cult following. Six films were
released in the series, with a reboot scheduled
to be released later this year titled Resident
Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.
Resident Evil 4 (2005)
Resident Evil 4 marked the biggest change
for the video game series at the time, swapping
the traditional fixed camera perspective
for an over-the-shoulder angle that the series
popularised.
Released in 2005 for the GameCube, it
featured the protagonist from Resident Evil
2, Leon S. Kennedy, as he is sent to rescue the
President’s daughter Ashley Graham from a
remote village in Spain after she is kidnapped
by a cult calling themselves Los Illuminados.
The game featured a greater focus on
action and combat over the traditional horror
elements the series was known for, including
inventory management, quick-time events,
and escorting Ashley to safety. It has been
released on 11 different game systems across
multiple generations, the most recent version
being on Nintendo Switch in 2019.
The game is the second best-selling game of
the franchise, with a combined total of 10.4
million units sold and in 2012 it was awarded
the title of Best-selling Survival Horror Game
in the Guinness World Records Gamer’s
Edition. After the success of the new direction
for the series, Capcom would later release
Resident Evil 5 in 2009 for next generation
systems, followed by Resident Evil 6 in 2012.
RE6 was a critical flop and Capcom put the
series on hold for several years afterwards in
order to refocus their efforts.
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
(2017)
Released in early 2017, Resident Evil 7:
Biohazard (centre) was the series first entry to
be set in the first-person and featured a mode
to play the whole game in virtual reality with
PlayStation VR. It told a completely new story
separate from the series established lore and
had a greater focus on the horror elements the
series is known for, while keeping some action
sequences newer fans would be familiar with.
The story followed new character Ethan
Winters who receives a message from his wife
Mia, who has been missing for three years.
This leads him to a farm in Dulvey, Louisiana
where he encounters the Baker family, the
game’s main antagonists who hunt Ethan as he
attempts to escape with Mia and uncover the
truth behind their strange behaviour.
RE7 takes inspiration from the 1981 horror
film The Evil Dead with its single location
setting, focus on more enclosed environments
and sense of unease in a traditionally normal
environment. By the end of the game, there
are connections drawn to the wider series
lore including the Umbrella Corporation,
bioweapons and the return of fan-favourite
character Chris Redfield.
Well received upon release, the game averaged
around 85/100 on Metacritic, selling 8.5
million units as of 2020 and being nominated
for 29 awards, ten of which it won including
Best VR Game from the Golden Joystick
Awards 2017.
Resident Evil 2 (2019)
A remake of the original Resident Evil 2
was revealed to be in early development in
2015, being officially unveiled during an E3
conference in 2018.
The game retold the core story of the original
title but was built using the same game
engine as RE7 and used the over-the-shoulder
gameplay style from RE4.
It featured the same two playable characters
as the original release, Leon S. Kennedy
and Claire Redfield, and offered players four
versions of events, as each character has an ‘A’
side and a ‘B’ side to their story.
The remake was very well received, being
given the Metacritic ‘Must-Play’ banner as
well as a nomination for Game of the Year at
The Game Awards 2019. Capcom would go on
to remake the next game in the series, Resident
Evil 3, in 2020, adding upon the style and
mechanics implemented in RE2 remake but
cutting the games overall length down from
the original 1999 version, choosing to keep a
tighter narrative focus with more replay value.
Resident Evil: Village (2021)
Resident Evil: Village (right) is the latest
game to released from the franchise and
highlights Capcom’s desire to move away from
traditional numbered entries. It released on
7th May 2021 and at the time of writing has
already sold 3 million units, receiving very
high praise from critics and fans.
The story follows on three years after the
events of RE7 as Ethan and Mia are raising
their daughter Rose and trying to move on
from what happened at the Baker farm. One
night, Chris Redfield shows up at their home,
kills Mia and takes Rose away, prompting
Ethan to track them down. He arrives at a
remote village where everything is not as it
seems, as the villagers are being hunted and
killed by mysterious creatures, ruled over
by four lords and worship a woman called
Mother Miranda.
As far as anniversary celebrations go,
Capcom has other projects planned for release
later this year. A new animated Netflix series
is set for July, bringing back Leon and Claire
in a brand-new story and featuring the voice
actors behind their portrayals in the RE2
remake. During a livestream where Capcom
revealed information about RE: Village, an
online multiplayer arena shooter game called
RE: Verse was announced to be releasing for
free for owners of RE: Village later this year.
The original RE4 is also set to receive another
port, this time to be playable entirely in VR on
the Oculus Quest 2 sometime in 2021.
The Oculus Quest 2 is one of the latest VR
headsets to release, featuring two hand
controllers and no wiring. Finally, a new
live-action film is currently in development,
separate from the older movies and more
faithful to the source material. The official title
was revealed as Resident Evil: Welcome to
Racoon City and will recreate the story from
the first two games, set to release towards the
end of the year.
20 21

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