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Leslie Kerwin

[He/him/his]

I'm a final year Multimedia Journalism student based in Manchester, currently working as a freelance journalist. I specialise in news reporting and feature writing, and am currently learning teeline shorthand. I also speak Spanish.

The Northern Quota •

David Conn calls for ‘duty of candour’ on officials ahead of Hillsborough Law

Reporter of the year David Conn has called for a ‘duty of candour’ to be placed on police as campaigners call for a Hillsborough law to be introduced within the year.


Conn was joined by legal experts from Garden Court North Chambers at a memorial lecture in the University of Manchester on Thursday, honouring of Hillsborough barrister Mark George, who represented 22 families following the disaster.


The lecture discussed failures in the legal system in the years after the disaster. Named the...
The Northern Quota •

No justice no peace: campaigners call for end to police pursuits of young people

Grieving families in Manchester are calling for an end to “unnecessary” police chases which end in the deaths of young people.


They claim police disproportionally target working class people from ethnic minority backgrounds in police pursuits on the streets of Manchester.


Figures from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) show there were three deaths involving police vehicles between April and December 2023, as well as four incidents of serious injury. They also reveal that comp...
Stockport Nub News •

Stockport left ‘begging for scraps’ for government aid in New Year’s floods, council says

The leader of Stockport Council has said he thinks Stockport may have received government aid after last year's New Year's floods if it were located in the South. 
Councillor Mark Roberts made the comment in a Cabinet meeting last night (10 February), in which councillors approved an investigation into severe flooding in Stockport last January. 
The 24-hour deluge was declared a major incident, with hundreds of people evacuated from their homes as roads became submerged across the borough.
Oldham Reporter •

Hundreds of historic child grooming gang cases to be re-examined

A national task force is expected to reopen 287 closed cases relating to child sexual abuse.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper made the comment to a committee of MPs on Tuesday, months after vowing for a local inquiry to take place in Oldham, where she says work is "well under way".

Five suspects were arrested this morning (04/06/2025) in Oldham and Tameside as part of an investigation into historic child sexual exploitation.

GMP has confirmed the men are being held in connection with alleged offe...
Tameside Reporter •

Ashton's Ukrainians stand tall for Independence Day

It was a day for both solemnity and hope for Ukrainians across the globe on Sunday (24th August) as the country observed their 34th Independence Day - their third since the current Russian invasion was launched in 2022.

Since the start of the invasion, Russia is now said to occupy 20% of the country, with at least 49,431 civilian deaths being recorded by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), as of the start of August.

The day commemorates the landmark 199...
The Northern Quota •

DJ Paulette: From the living room to Europe and back

From the minute she could stand, Paulette Constable knew her place was above the crowds. As a little girl, she spent her days on her miniature typewriter writing weekly zines into the backs of cornflake boxes – and spent her evenings on the stage, performing for her seven sisters on the little step in the living room. “And I’d fall off the step and my sisters would laugh at me and I’d look at them and go, ‘you’ll pay to come and see me one day’.”


Now 58, DJ Paulette couldn’t have been truer t...
Quays Life •

Sadiq Ali on using circus to challenge outdated beliefs about HIV

When Sadiq Ali was diagnosed HIV+ during his circus training at NCCA, he witnessed the fear and ignorance that still surrounds the virus. He talks to Leslie Kerwin about his new work, ‘Tell Me’, created in consultation with HIV charities Positively UK and CHIVA (Children’s HIV Association) as an open letter response to his experiences told through Chinese Pole, aerial artistry and physical theatre.

Now wrapping up the final week of rehearsals, award-winning performer and activist, Sadiq Ali i...
The Northern Quota •

Man Met journalism student hosts BBC radio show about taking the night bus around Manchester

A Man Met journalism student is featuring on his own podcast episode on BBC Radio 4 about his journeys on Manchester’s night buses.


Speaking exclusively to NQ, student Ian Burke shared his journey to becoming the latest voice of Radio 4’s Illuminated, where he celebrates Manchester’s night buses in a trip across the city.


“It’s like an experimental documentary, there’s all sorts of weird and wonderful things on there,” he said.


For his podcast, Ian travels on Manchester’s V1 bus from Ox...
Stockport Nub News •

Stockroom unveils Christopher Isherwood exhibition as part of LGBTQ+ History Month

"Come and wallow in voluptuous sin: Christopher Isherwood's 'Berlin Stories' now read almost like vignettes of nearly forgotten history. They blaze into life only because of his enchantingly wicked heroine, Sally Bowles." 

So reads a scrap of long-forgotten news review, carefully clipped by a superfan to whom a gay immigrant who rejected his nationality was a more enchanting hero than the star of 'I Am a Camera'.
The Northern Quota •

Sunak promises shorter NHS waiting times moments after Brianna Ghey trans jibe – but in Manchester it’s trans people who have to wait longest

Sunak’s promises came moments after making a transphobic comment while Brianna Ghey’s mother attended the Commons during PMQs.


Rishi Sunak attracted widespread condemnation for his refusal to apologise after making a transphobic comment in the House of Commons on Wednesday (7 February) – on the same day the mother of murdered trans teenager Brianna Ghey attended Parliament.


He also admitted his failure to bring down NHS waiting lists during his time as Prime Minister and promised to commit...

All articles

Quays Life •

CURTAIN UP at Lowry Galleries

‘Curtain Up’, a new exhibition at Lowry, Salford, brings together works from artists Simeon Barclay, Chris Paul Daniels, Denzil Forrester, Rowland Hill, Joy Labinjo, Ryan Mosley, Abigail Reynolds, Bridget Smith, and Ulla von Brandenburg, to explore the collective experience of being in an audience.


Leslie Kerwin visits the exhibition and meets curator, Zoe Watson to find out how she shining a spotlight on the shared thrill of live performance.


It was Émile Durkheim who first coined the t...
Quays Life •

REVIEW: Matilda the Musical

A ‘miracle’ to some, a ‘gangster’ to others, the grown-ups around Matilda Wormwood can all agree on one thing: this is a five-year-old far too smart for her own good. Now on its 15th year of touring, Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin’s ‘Matilda: The Musical’ has revolted against the conventions of theatre to win the hearts of audiences across the world – as well as more than 100 awards along the way. Roald Dahl’s tale of a little girl both unloved and unleashed for her intelligence is now defining a...
Quays Life •

REVIEW: Eric & Ern

“I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but it is in the script…”


“There’s a script?”


“Not tonight there’s not!”


Ladies and gentlemen, we hope you’re having a lovely evening – and if you’re not sharing a bed with your appropriately-aged best friend, how could you be? In celebration of the comedians’ 100th birthdays, the UK’s leading Morecambe and Wise tribute act has returned after a sellout tour in 2022. Now at Lowry, Salford for a limited-edition run, ‘Eric & Ern’ guarantees a night o...
Quays Life •

REVIEW: The Battle

One side are ‘badger-stranglers’ from Gunchester. The other eat ‘rice with Bovril’. It’s summer 1995, and in the greatest battle between bands in 30 years, Oasis and Blur are in a race to the top for UK Number One Single. In a technicolour bombshell of beats, beatings, and booze, this week at the Opera House, ‘The Battle’ is on.  


What begins as a bitter Brit Awards rivalry quickly descends into all-out war when second-place Oasis announce their next single will land a week before Blur’s. Dre...
Quays Life •

"You get three generations of the same family, all laughing at the same thing - that's just so rare now" - Jonty Stephens

Jonty Stephens and Ian Ashpitel talk to Leslie Kerwin about reliving the magic of Morecambe and Wise on stage.


“Every year we did a show for the Stage Golfing Society. They did a ‘70s variety show and asked if I would do Eric Morecambe,” Jonty Stephens says. Sat buttoned up and thickly-bespectacled in the Lowry theatre bar, he could break into the act at any moment. Next to him, equally crisp with an easy grin, fellow actor Ian Ashpitel perches on his seat.


“And I said, well, I need an Ern...
Quays Life •

Artist Emily Simpson on capturing Salford’s complex and diverse identity in textiles

Born in Salford and having lived elsewhere, Emily Simpson is used to the city’s reputation as Manchester’s indignant shadow.


“Salford is always the other city,” she says. “It has a confusing, complex identity that is often squashed, forgotten, or associated with negative things, because it is quite a complex place.”


The twinned history of Manchester and Salford’s manufacturing, engineering, and the arts give way thanks to the split of the River Irwell, from which has grown two separate id...
Quays Life •

REVIEW: Kind of Love

The concept of ‘it’s not gay if’ has long been a foundational philosophy to humanity’s evolution. Homosexual accusations have been graffitied on toilet walls since Pompeii, and even by the New Labour nineties, being “straight until” remains as on-trend as ever.


In ‘Kind of Love’ by Stewart Campbell, teenagers across the country are still making out, making up, and making mistakes – who cares if Parliament still can’t decide on the gay age of consent?


On a lads trip to Ibiza, gay teenager S...
Quays Life •

REVIEW: Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

“We’re all born naked and the rest is drag” is an immediate thought on the first watch of ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’. RuPaul’s most famous catchphrase comes from the idea that there is more to a person than what is outwardly visible. The story of two drag queens and a transgender woman tottering through the Australian desert is sharp, flamboyant, and fabulously witty – and buries extraordinary vulnerability beneath piles of glitter and dazzling smiles.  


In the sparkle of the stage, Mit...
Stockport Nub News •

Stockroom unveils Christopher Isherwood exhibition as part of LGBTQ+ History Month

"Come and wallow in voluptuous sin: Christopher Isherwood's 'Berlin Stories' now read almost like vignettes of nearly forgotten history. They blaze into life only because of his enchantingly wicked heroine, Sally Bowles." 

So reads a scrap of long-forgotten news review, carefully clipped by a superfan to whom a gay immigrant who rejected his nationality was a more enchanting hero than the star of 'I Am a Camera'.
Stockport Nub News •

Stockport left ‘begging for scraps’ for government aid in New Year’s floods, council says

The leader of Stockport Council has said he thinks Stockport may have received government aid after last year's New Year's floods if it were located in the South. 
Councillor Mark Roberts made the comment in a Cabinet meeting last night (10 February), in which councillors approved an investigation into severe flooding in Stockport last January. 
The 24-hour deluge was declared a major incident, with hundreds of people evacuated from their homes as roads became submerged across the borough.
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