Newly-formed campaign group UnitedCity has installed billboards across the city today to bring awareness to its calls for weekly tiered restrictions reviews.
The large festive-themed billboards – which have been spotted at a number of locations across Manchester city centre, including the Printworks, Manchester Piccadilly Station, and City Tower – are branded with the words: “All Mancs want for Christmas is two… (Tier 2)”, alongside the UnitedCity logo.
The billboards form part of a wider campaign which sees the group “calling on the government to review the region’s tier allocation weekly, rather than fortnightly”.
Group members believe “the data simply does not support [Greater Manchester] being in Tier 3”.
UnitedCity is aiming to “bring the vibrancy back to Manchester”, and the collective of business leaders want to encourage people to return safely to towns and the city centre.
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Today, we're calling on the Government to review the region's tier allocation weekly rather than fortnightly. The data simply does not support us being in Tier 3. We want to bring the vibrancy back to Manchester #unitedcitypic.twitter.com/wqBFMj2HgW
The group – which is founded by Gary Neville of Relentless Group, Chris Oglesby of Bruntwood, Lisa Morton of Roland Dransfield PR, Will Lewis of OBI and Frank McKenna of Downtown in Business – says increasing footfall is “critical to the success” of the entire region, and will campaign to get Greater Manchester on the road to economic recovery.
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It is aiming to fix Manchester’s “broken ecosystem”, and also commission independent research to back up its messages, with hard data and use findings to negotiate with central government.
The group hopes to get the region “back on its feet” and back to supporting retail, leisure, culture, and sports businesses, as well as provide support and advice for business owners to make sure workforces are welcomed back safely.
Raising funds for vulnerable citizens is also included in the plans.
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UnitedCity
United City‘s strategy plans – which looks to creating COVID-secure environments – include input from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Manchester City Council, and its privately-funded research will help to bridge the gap by providing clear data to manage safety in workplaces, hospitality venues and on transport.
The research will also allow Greater Manchester leaders to negotiate with the government on local lockdown restrictions and navigate their own way out of them.
The calls for weekly restrictions reviews are believed to be part of the latter-mentioned plans.
Speaking on the launch of UnitedCity last month, Gary Neville – Founder and Director of Relentless Group – said: “Manchester is built on community and entrepreneurial spirit [and] it’s imperative that this crisis doesn’t remove that from our DNA [so] United City will create a clear path forward for the region and will help to effect genuine change for the people and businesses that are based here.
“To make this happen, we need as much support from the business community as possible.
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“We are looking for business leaders to step up and lead the change to our working habits, to get our teams back into the office, and back together again.”
You can find out more about the UnitedCity campaign and objectives here.
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Ruben Amorim reportedly paying for staff members flights ahead of the Europa League final
Danny Jones
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim is reportedly covering the cost of flights for several staff members and families around the club ahead of this month’s Europa League final.
Taking place on Wednesday, 21 May, Man United take on Spurs in UEFA’s second-string continental competition, giving the Red Devils a chance at lifting the trophy for the second time and, more importantly, getting into the Champions League next year.
Not only is this European final in a United manager’s maiden season a feat only previously achieved by Jose Mourinho, who also won it in his inaugural campaign at the club, but it also happens to be the first of Amorim’s career full stop.
With that in mind, the Portuguese head coach is hoping to rope in as much positivity and support as possible, so despite cost-cutting measures around the club over the last 18 months, Amorim is reaching into his own pocket to pay for staff and some of the family members to be at the final.
Ruben Amorim has paid for 30 of his Man United backroom staff to take their families to next week's Europa League final in Bilbao, Spain, after being told by the club that his coaches, physios and support team would have to pay for their own tickets, sources have told ESPN. pic.twitter.com/rC2GkGsvZb
Now this is the kind of leadership supporters like to see.
According to ESPN sports writer Mark Ogden, at least 30 members of his backroom staff have seen their travel to the final paid for after the club said they would not be covering the increasingly inflated prices, with flights to Bilbao unsurprisingly skyrocketing.
The Athletic‘s Mark Critchley has gone on to detail that “coaches, physios and support staff would instead be able to purchase up to two tickets”, while only two complimentary family tickets have been granted per player.
If you’re wondering why fans continue to make his name echo around the Theatre of Dreams in spite of poor performances, gestures like this should tell you why.
The 40-year-old’s debut Premier League season might be one to forget, with his team set to record United’s worst-ever finish, but a final at the first time of asking, even with a squad that’s visibly struggling to adjust to yet another period of overhaul, is still an achievement – especially a European one.
In addition to admitting that he’s been left “embarrassed” by the league form, he says one of his biggest fears is that everyone around Old Trafford is “losing the feeling of being a massive club”, both inside and out. Obviously, he’s hoping that potentially winning another European title will help fix that.
United played out a forgettable 2-0 loss to West Ham this past weekend in what should have felt like a bit of a free hit, but ultimately resulted in starting centre-back Leny Yoro picking up another injury and key players exerting a lot more energy than many would have hoped.
Most fans were expecting to see the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Harry Maguire, Amad Diallo and so on rested to keep that balance between sharpness and recovery, but many first-choice players played far more minutes than was arguably necessary.
Whether or not this is all in line with his thinking, we’ll have to wait and see when the Reds rock up to the Basque Country a week from now
Announced on Tuesday, 13 May, ITV confirmed that work on the first-ever Coronation Street and Emmerdale collaboration is now underway.
The flagship serial franchises both have huge nationwide followings in their own right, attracting more than 8 million viewers every week.
Moreover, with both Manc’s much-loved Corrie and its Yorkshire counterpart having faced financial struggles in recent months, this announcement couldn’t have come at a better time.
Writing in an official joint press release, the two shows revealed they will “join forces in an unprecedented, one-off special episode to launch the broadcaster’s new power hour of soap, which begins on ITV1 and STV in January 2026.”
The ‘power hour’ is part of the channel’s plans to readjust its approach to its regular programming laid out earlier this year, with this serving as an eye-catching way to promote the new schedule.
Put it this way, provided they keep the crossovers up North and avoid you know where, this is the kind of thing we can get behind…
Corrie characters reacting to the mere thought of heading to London 🤝 Manc parents whenever one of their kids mentions leaving 0161. 😂
The statement goes on to read: “The distinctive worlds of Emmerdale and Coronation Street will merge for one night only in a ‘mash-up’ of our two favourite communities.”
ITV believe they have come up with an “ingenious way of linking the two universes” before having them return to Greater Manchester and the Dales, respectively.
The episode will be a self-contained one-off special, but one that sees them canonically grounded in the same entertainment world forever and, you never know, if the idea is a hit then it could be the first of many to come.
As if that wasn’t enough, to make the prospect even more interesting, the producers are inviting members of the audience to choose which two characters they would like to meet and interact with in the scene – keep your eyes peeled on their social media for more information.
Coming in January 2026 (specific release date yet to be confirmed), this is not one you want to miss.
We’re also glad to see the pair of long-standing soaps and institutions of British telly have got off to a strong start this year, raking in 124 million streams on ITVX with each episode now available on the streaming platform ahead of each night’s episode.
You can expect a big viewer spike when this one goes out, that’s for sure.
Emily Sergeant -
1st December 2020 
