observer7
My distaste for most things Manchester is well documented and needs no further elaboration. As to hurling negative observations about Toronto (where 50% of your family live) is your entitlement and may give us residents an opportunity of rectifying any of those problems that you might bring to light. So please feel free to criticize.
As for those Britons who don't know that Manchester was the only bidder for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, it was most people I spoke with, but that was really only a sarcastic reply to the sarcastic reference to Toronto's (realistic) bid for the 2008 Olympic Games. Also, if Manchester doesn't have the wherewithall to host the Olympics, whether rich enough or otherwise (as you infered, dishonest enough) why did they bid? And do you think that Toronto needs to bribe the Olympic Committee? This is one of the reasons I have a dislike for Mancunians, they always seem to throw inuendos of wrongdoing by others, without furnishing proof of same. And yes Montreal is still paying for their games and I expect Toronto will, if selected, be paying for generations to come, but we do have a realistic chance of staging them.
And boy are you ever correct, Manchester is no "mini London" and after 2200 hrs it isn't even a mega Timmins.
"Manchester is an airport with a city attached"
(from 'Notes from a Small Island' by Bill Bryson)