Andy Burnham is the man who ran Greater Manchester for nine years — which means, among other things, that he was the man at the top of the organisation that pays Stanley’s pension. So Stanley has been paying attention.

This week, somebody asked the man across the water what he made of the lad from Leigh. The answer involved the word “town.” It was not meant as a compliment.

In this episode: a Labour conference in Manchester, a case of mistaken identity involving a former party leader, an old sergeant’s advice about toolboxes, an operation named after a hammer, and a song that was read out loud at hundreds of rallies — by a man who thought he was warning the world about something else entirely.

He told them. Out loud. To a microphone.

Transcript on Substack at stanleycommon.substack.com. Free to read, free to subscribe.

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Three pensioners walk into a pub. The conversation starts with JD Vance’s chicken coop, moves through the Epstein files and the Prince Formerly Known As Andrew, takes a detour via the Pentagon’s UFO releases, and ends with Kath the barmaid asking Stanley a question he’s been sitting on for thirty years.

It turns out South Lancashire has a reputation. UFO Valley, they call it. And a retired police officer on night shifts on the moors above Ramsbottom saw two things he never filed a report on. Until now.

Plus: Ronald Reagan says something to the United Nations that nobody knew what to do with. Steven Spielberg makes a film called Disclosure Day. And Stanley wonders whether someone, somewhere, is getting us ready for something.

He could be wrong. He often is.

Views from the Shed is written and presented by Stanley Common, a retired community police officer from Heywood, Lancashire. New episodes weekly. Find the newsletter at Substack — search Views from the Shed.

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Kettle’s on. Sit yerself down.

This is the first episode from the shed. Stanley Common — a retired bobby from Lancashire, many years on the doorstep, now retired and saying his piece — introduces himself, and then turns his attention to the World Cup.

Forty-eight nations, three host countries, and players being detained at the airport before a ball is kicked. Stanley asks a simple question that nobody at FIFA seems willing to answer: when you turn the world away at the door, can you really call it a World Cup? And whose fault is it — the man in the White House, or the people who handed him the tournament?

Plus Bury market, Gigg Lane, jumpers for goalposts, and the difference between the people’s game and the other thing.

The written version is on Substack at View from the shed. If you enjoy this, tell someone — it’s the best way to keep the shed light on.

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