Kate Smurthwaite on Facebook:

Credit to Jack Edward Mitchell for assembling this data and making these excellent points. (And he is happy for others to share, please do):

3. The number of Accident and Emergency departments closed in Manchester since the Conservatives entered government.

4. The number of Greater Manchester Police stations sold off to plug funding gaps since 2010.

10. The number of Police station front desks Greater Manchester Police have had to close because of budget cuts in the same period.

2246. the number of officers Greater Manchester Police have had to let go since 2010, formerly 8200, now cut to 5,954.

£134,000,000. the cut applied to Greater Manchester Police’s annual budget between 2011 and 2015.

Soraya Chemaly nails it in one paragraph.

Ariana Grande’s audiences aren’t just filled with children but specifically with free, loud, public girls. This is a strategy and it’s explicit. It’s not only about targeting spaces filled with young people in hedonistic settings but very focused on the role and presence of girls in these spaces. Recruiting disaffected young men is enabled by misogyny and toxic masculine ideals everywhere. Most of the on-air public commentary that I’m hearing is ignoring what this means and what it means in terms of our own governance and lack of women in our governance. It’s very frustrating and one of the reasons why our attempts to address the threats represented by all kinds of

From the BBC:

Twenty-two people, including an eight-year-old girl, have been killed and 59 were injured in a suicide bombing at Manchester Arena, at the end of a concert by US singer Ariana Grande.

A man set off a homemade bomb in the foyer at 22:33 BST on Monday…

Armed police have arrested a 23-year-old man in Chorlton, south Manchester, in connection with the attack.

Mancunians did what they could to help:

As hundreds of people fled Manchester Arena following the explosion, taxi drivers began taking people to safety.

Driver AJ Singh said he tried to help wherever he could.

“I’ve had people who needed to find loved ones. I’ve dropped them off to the hospital. They’ve not