Points of pride

Manchester’s ‘can do’ attitude has always driven it on to achieve, something reflected in its list of notable ‘firsts’:

The first passenger railway service. The first programmable computer. The first successful attempt to split the atom.

It was there in 1996 after the IRA bomb blast, spurring not just a recovery but a renaissance in the city’s fortunes.

And again during the commonwealth games of 2002, the largest multi-sport event ever staged in the UK.

Manchester people are proud of the impact its musicians have had on the world scene down the years. And of its sporting heroes, both home grown and adopted.

In recent years, Manchester’s creative arts community has even managed to wrest the spotlight away from London after The Boho Creative Index rated it the capital for creativity in the UK.

And in 2006 it was voted Britain’s best city for business in a national survey of over 5,000 of the country’s employers.

Manchester. What’s not to be proud of?