Week Ending: Direct China flights; Poetry corner

DIRECT flights from Manchester to China can’t come quickly enough for one North West company boss.

Darren Mercer, chief executive of Cheshire-based DJI Holdings, a growing  company which runs online lotteries in China, spends around 20 days a month in Beijing and in the company’s offices on the mainland, so a direct Manchester link, would be welcomed to say the least.

“At the moment there is a Hong Kong flight planned, but we would welcome the mainland route. I seem to have as many air miles as Buzz Aldrin.”

Last week Chancellor George Osborne appeared to let the cat out of the bag when he revealed publicly that China Hainan has been authorised by the Department for Transport to run a direct flight between Beijing and Manchester.

Eager not in any way to have their thunder stolen, airport PR bosses quickly clarified that this was not a done deal.

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WEEK Ending felt the poet Tony Walsh deserved a special mention for his appearance at the lauch of Citylabs in Manchester several weeks ago.

Walsh, who goes by the nom de plume of Longfella, provided an unexpected and unsual ending to the event with a stirring poem about Manchester.

The gist was that “silver sparks” of creativity fired the minds of the city and powered it to creative heights.

But in this new era of Northern economies working together, he went off message with one couplet which ended: “… and we love the way the signal won’t reach Liverpool or Leeds.”