Week Ending: ‘England is the future’; Memories of Owens Park; and more

IT must be the first time that the second world war has been evoked at a Regional Growth Fund event.

Maurizio Bragagni, chief executive of Knowsley-based Tratos, which is expanding in Merseyside, yesterday compared the economy of mainland Europe to the political situation before the second world war.

Mr Bragagni said he was investing in the Italian group’s UK business because he doesn’t see any future in Europe.

He said: “In 1939 Italy made the wrong decision and the people that thought differently moved to England. We see great growth in England and don’t see any future for Europe, Europe is not a democracy, it is an oligargic structure where people have no vote and the Governments have no power in every part of Europe.”

Tratos received £3m in the fourth round of RGF and a £3m loan from the Chrysalis fund which it will go towards a £20m expansion at its base near the M57.

He added: “The European Union structure is only for the banks and big companies, not for the people or small companies like ours. We want an alternative business in England strong enough to carry on with our business whatever happens in Europe. England is our future.”

He said England was a good place for business because it has a strong tradition of parliamentary democracy, its own currency, and a tradition of fighting for freedoms.

“My country has not got that.” he said.

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SO, the University of Manchester is planning to redevelop its Owens Park campus in Fallowfield.

Owens Park will have a special place in many hearts – for those who lived there and those who visited the hedonistic Friday Night Bop.

This correspondent was a barman at Owens Park in the mid-90s and well remembers negotiating the throng to collect used pint pots that were sometimes full of vomit.

If Chuka Umunna’s revelations about a similar night at Manchester Metropolitan University are anything to go by, most of the punters are probably now junior Cabinet members.

The university wants to redevelop the site, which has 2,200 beds, and add 800. It will be a big undertaking but student accommodation is going upmarket and the university needs to compete.

There was a telling line in its statement. “Today much of the site is in poor condition and does not meet the expectations of students, or indeed their parents.”

Forty years of hedonism has taken its toll on Owens Park. The landmark tower will be demolished along with Oak House and Ladybarn House.

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‘The referee’s a banker!’ Yes you heard right…. And in this case the referee is Warrington-based Karl Kirkpatrick of Shawbrook Bank.

Karl, a respected referee in both codes of rugby, is now a regular too on the after-dinner speaking circuit, and recently formed a great double act with former Premier League ref Mark Halsey at a function hosted by Duff&Phelps.

For someone used to handling hulking rugby players, Karl soon had the professionals in good order, even taking time out to caution one exciteable insolvency lawyer for asking more than his fair share of questions.