Manchester is hardly a recognised seat of culture, and barely a week goes by without someone who lives their (or very close by) being involved with something nasty. Manchester has (or certainly had until recently) the highest drug death rate in the UK. As a result, it has areas which are virtually no-go, according to the UN, and it is compared to Mexico and Brazil in this respect. Manchester’s annual bill for dealing with alcohol abuse is more than £1.2 billion.
This normalisation of drug and alcohol use perhaps explains why so many people are wetting themselves over this photograph, which went viral in the last few days.
Some are claiming it is art, having gone so far as you explain that it conforms to the so-called golden ratio – a mathematical condition which, when applied to art and design, results in aesthetically pleasing products. Some guy at the BBC – who was apparently responsible for it going viral – sees it as an opportunity to write another article about it, filled with as many social networking clichés he can muster.
I’m sure many people will remember the story about the Emperor’s new clothes. I do.
So, let us put this pretentious crap to one side and regain sight of what the photograph REALLY shows: a group of Mancunians in various poses of drunkenness and lawlessness. Like this guy, who simultaneously manages to break the law (by having a glass bottle of beer in the street), and demonstrate why the law is there in the first place (by being pissed out of his idiot skull).
And this one, whose peanut-sized brain appears to prefer violence rather than laying down in traffic when it is soaked in alcohol.
Then there are the bit players – the woman who appears to be offering the standard “advice” to police as they arrest what is quite possibly her boyfriend. And another woman behind her, who is probably doing much the same to another officer.
Finally, let’s just remember that this photo represents the tiniest fraction of innumerable similar events across Manchester and most other cities on New Year’s Eve – and on pretty much any other night of the year, come to that.
The BBC guy is full of himself, and boasts that his original tweet has been picked up by French, Australian, and New Zealand commentators. But no one is commenting on how bad it makes the UK look.
Just me.