Jack Walton

England, Manchester, Oldham, Wigan

Journalist at Freelance

Writer and Editor at Birmingham Dispatch

Writer & editor: @brumdispatch Email: [email protected]

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Articles

Finding my religion: on the road with the martyrs of Bilbao

2 weeks ago | manchestermill.co.uk | Jack Walton

Here beneath the Basque sun I am suffering a terrible indignity: I’m on a Flixbus. The people in front of me are talking football. The people across the aisle are talking football. The Spanish driver is talking into the intercom. What’s he talking? Fútbol. The people behind are actually talking politics — the politics of Ruben Amorim’s team selections. We roll around the Bay of Biscay: Bilbao-bound. I feel as though we’ve been travelling for months.
What should be done about Manchester city centre?

4 weeks ago | manchestermill.co.uk | Jack Walton

Three years ago, Andy Burnham held a press conference that captured the hard choices at the heart of Manchester city centre. On the one hand, the mayor said that the number of people sleeping rough was rising, and that he had signed off on extra funds to create more emergency housing for the homeless.
Pyramid scheme

1 month ago | manchestermill.co.uk | Jack Walton

"As for all men who shall enter this my tomb... impure... there will be judgment... an end shall be made for him... I shall seize his neck like a bird... I shall cast the fear of myself into him" — inscription on the tomb of Khentika Ikhekhi (sixth dynasty); Jack Walton, 19 April 2025, in the back of a taxiI’ll say this: I enjoyed myself in the taxi. When my bobble-hat-headed driver asked, “Where you off to, mate?” I’d had my line prepared days in advance. “Valley of the Kings, boss.
Regional mayors paid £3 million to a training company. What did they get in return?

2 months ago | livpost.co.uk | Abi Whistance |Jack Walton

Today’s article is a collaboration between The Post and our Birmingham-based sister publication, The Dispatch. We have been working together to dig into Redstone Training, a ‘skills’ provider which took a combined £3 million from regional mayors in Liverpool and Birmingham, which is now under investigation for a variety of allegations. If you want to read the full story, you’ll need to be a paying member.
Leaked recordings and scheming councillors: did Labour councillors engage in a ‘campaign of abuse’?

Mar 7, 2025 | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Kate Knowles |Jack Walton

Dear readers — when leaked audio of a Birmingham councillor talking to an ex-convict about a plot to remove a number of her colleagues from the council appeared online earlier in the week, several people swiftly reached out to us to make sure we were aware of the clip. “Presume you’ve already heard this?” one source asked The Dispatch. “This is the nasty side of politics,” wrote another.
Waseem Zaffar’s house was turned into a filthy HMO. He says he has nothing to do with it

Mar 4, 2025 | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Jack Walton

Dear readers — the name Waseem Zaffar will mean different things to different people in Birmingham. To some, he is one of the city’s most accomplished local politicians — at the forefront of campaigns on clean air and low traffic neighbourhoods, as well as Birmingham City Council’s former cabinet member for transport. To others, he’s a highly controversial figure.
Waseem Zaffar’s house was turned into a filthy HMO. He says he has nothing to do with it

Feb 23, 2025 | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Jack Walton

Dear readers — the name Waseem Zaffar will mean different things to different people in Birmingham. To some, he is one of the city’s most accomplished local politicians — at the forefront of campaigns on clean air and low traffic neighbourhoods, as well as Birmingham City Council’s former cabinet member for transport. To others, he’s a highly controversial figure.
New Street is in desperate need of renewal

Feb 15, 2025 | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Jack Walton

By Jack WaltonOne time, while working on a story about the Britannia-owned Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool, a colleague of mine was propositioned for a threesome in the hotel lobby. It was just after midday on a Tuesday. According to Tripadvisor, Birmingham’s own Britannia iteration — the simply named Britannia Hotel Birmingham — is 0.6 stars worse than the Adelphi. Make of that what you will. I’d travelled to the Britannia Hotel for a spot of Birmingham-bashing. I’d heard it was all the rage.
How two fledgling property firms made £1.25m at the expense of Dudley Council

Jan 30, 2025 | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Jack Walton

By Jack WaltonIn the summer of 2023, the residents of Wollaston, a small village on the fringes of Stourbridge, crammed into their local pub for an emergency meeting. The mood was one of massive worry. A retirement home in their sleepy neighbourhood had been purchased by an upstart Mancunian property company called HSPG, who wanted to turn it into a large 23-bed HMO. The local residents wanted to stop that from happening.
Is it time to bin off the Christmas markets? A war waging on St Ann’s Square

Nov 21, 2024 | manchestermill.co.uk | Jack Walton

Dear readers — when a headline in The Guardian dismissed the Christmas markets in Manchester (and everywhere else) as “overpriced tat” this week, it kickstarted a heated debate in The Mill office. Indeed, it’s an argument that rears its head annually when Manchester’s mock-chalets are dragged out of whichever storage unit they’re kept in and into Piccadilly Gardens. Are the markets worth keeping?