In what was a genuinely touching moment earlier on today, one of Manchester’s most iconic cultural landmarks came to life.
Well, not quite – but it was recreated in a way that made for a truly sombre sight.
Stopping commuters in their tracks and drawing in crowds of on-lookers in their dozens just after 10:30am this morning, a military charity took the unique and memorable approach of marking the anniversary of a statue it installed in Manchester city centre five years ago with a special “living statue” display.
If you’ve been to Manchester Piccadilly station before, then there’s a good chance you’ve come across Victory Over Blindness before.
We’re of course talking about the bronze sculpture outside the front of the station that depicts seven life-sized soldier figures wearing blindfolds and guiding one another – which has been well-received by many for its “moving” subject matter since it was first erected back in October 2018, and has been described as “striking” for its interaction with passers-by at eye level.
ADVERTISEMENT
The ‘Victory Over Blindness’ statue outside Manchester Piccadilly station / Credit: Wikimedia Commons | David Dixon (via Geograph)
The now-iconic statue was unveiled half a decade ago by Blind Veterans UK – a national charity supporting the thousands of vision-impaired ex-Service men and women nationwide – to commemorate 100 years since the end of the First World War, but also serves as a monument to all the veterans the organisation has supported since then too.
The industrialised nature of WWI – which lasted from 1914 to 1918, and saw the deaths of an estimated 886,000 British and Commonwealth military personnel, as well as countless more injured – made for unfathomable human suffering.
ADVERTISEMENT
Around 30,000 of the wounded were discharged with damaged or defective eyesight, and of these, 3,000 were left permanently blinded.
Blind Veterans UK was then founded in 1915 in a bid to support those 30,000.
The sculpture was installed by charity Blind Veterans UK back in October 2018 / Credit: Flickr
The sculpture’s name, Victory Over Blindness, was a phrase used by the charity’s founder, Sir Arthur Pearson, and it’s a phrase the organisation says continues to guide its principles to this day.
ADVERTISEMENT
Conceived and designed by artist and sculptor Johanna Domke-Guyot, as mentioned, the sculpture shows seven blinded soldiers leading one another with their hands on their comrades’ shoulders – and this was exactly how it was recreated today.
After a symphony of trumpets and bagpipes sounded, the ‘living statue’ of actors dressed in WWI uniforms then made their way through the station and on throughout city.
Blind Veterans UK said it not only chose to recreate the sculpture as a ‘living statue’ today to mark the fifth anniversary of its installation, but also to highlight to that, although it currently supports thousands of blind veterans across the country, it knows there are thousands more who still need help to rebuild their lives after sight loss.
The charity hopes the ‘living statue’ display today showed the Greater Manchester public going about their day how important its support can be.
Know someone who served in the Armed Forces and is now struggling with sight loss? You can get in touch with Blind Veterans UK on 0800 389 7979 or via its website here.
Featured Image – The Manc Group
News
Royal Mail fined £21m by Ofcom failing to meet its delivery targets
Emily Sergeant
Ofcom has fined Royal Mail a whopping £21 million for failing to meet its delivery targets in the last financial year.
Each year, it’s the watchdog’s job to look at and measure Royal Mail’s delivery performance against nationwide annual delivery targets, and for the 2024/25 season, the company was required to deliver 93% of First Class mail within one working day of collection, and 98.5% of Second Class mail within three working days.
If Royal Mail misses its annual targets, Ofcom will first consider evidence of any ‘exceptional circumstances’ beyond the company’s control, and whether it would have achieved its targets had those events not occurred.
However, even after accounting for extreme weather events, Royal Mail was still found to have fallen short of its targets… and this time, they’ve been fined their highest sum so far.
We have fined Royal Mail £21m for missing its 2024/25 delivery targets, without justification.
The company must now urgently publish, and deliver, a credible improvement plan.
This is the third time in a row that Ofcom has found the company to be in breach of its regulatory obligations, after it was first fined a substantial £5.6m in November 2023, and then a further £10.5m in December 2024.
Royal Mail only delivered 77% of First Class mail and 92.5% of Second Class mail on time between April 2024 and March 2025.
Ofcom says it has therefore decided that the company breached its obligations by failing to provide ‘an acceptable level of service’ without justification, and took ‘insufficient and ineffective’ steps to try and prevent this failure.
“Hiding behind the pandemic as a driving factor in failures at Royal Mail does not cut it.”
Royal Mail has been fined £21m by Ofcom failing to meet its delivery targets / Credit: Royal Mail
The watchdog says this is likely to have impacted millions of customers who did not get the service they paid for.
“Millions of important letters are arriving late, and people aren’t getting what they pay for when they buy a stamp,” explained Ian Strawhorne, who is the Director of Enforcement at Ofcom.
“These persistent failures are unacceptable, and customers expect and deserve better.
“Royal Mail must rebuild consumers’ confidence as a matter of urgency, and that means making actual significant improvements, not more empty promises.
“We’ve told the company to publicly set out how it’s going to deliver this change, and we expect to start seeing meaningful progress soon. If this doesn’t happen, fines are likely to continue.”
Featured Image – Royal Mail
News
Thousands of elderly and disabled people to get free 24-hour bus travel across Greater Manchester
Emily Sergeant
Hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled people in Greater Manchester are set to benefit from round-the-clock bus travel for free.
Currently, as part on an ongoing pilot scheme, people with a Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM)-issued concessionary travel pass have free unlimited travel on Bee Network buses between 9.30am and midnight during the week, and all day on weekends and public holidays.
The rule was lifted in August on a trial basis for a month, meaning older and disabled residents in Greater Manchester had access to unlimited free bus travel any time between the allocated hours.
During the August trial, more than 100,000 journeys were made by older and disabled people – with up to 6,000 people a day making use of the pilot.
But now, after proving to be a huge success, the pilot is being extended even further, so that 400,000 eligible residents will now get free bus travel 24-hours a day, seven days a week, starting from 1 November.
If you travel with a TfGM-issued concessionary travel pass, from 1 November you’ll be able to use it on #BeeNetwork buses before 9.30am as part of a second month-long trial.
As well as free early-morning bus travel, during the trial starting in November, eligible residents will be able to board the Bee Network’s night buses for free too.
TfGM says allowing concessionary pass holders to travel at any time will ‘better connect’ them to healthcare, leisure, and retail opportunities.
“The last trial in August was a brilliant success, which saw more than 100,000 journeys made by our older and disabled people before 9.30am,” commented Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.
“We are now carrying out this second trial, at a busier time of year, to see whether we can safely remove the restriction permanently and help our older and disabled people to get to work, go shopping, and get to medical appointments.
“We want the Bee Network to be the best public transport system possible and this means it needs to support all of our residents and communities to make the journeys they need to make and use the bus more.”
Emily Sergeant -
18th October 2023 
