Tonksi, I reckon it's just the fact the the southern-based media have a generally negative attitute towards Manchester...
*Look at the bashing Manchester United get from the London media...
*Heard much about the Commonwealth Games in the national press...?
I don't think I'm being paranoid here, Max Clifford was on TV a while back, and he was asked something about the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, his response was "Where? What Commonwealth Games?".
Manchester is a grim Northern industrial town, full of pigeon-fancying blokes wearing flat caps, walking their whippetts (and murderous GPs). Yep, that's how many people south of Birmingham still percieve Northern cities.
I could start going on about the Wembley fiasco as well, couldn't I?
Vinyl... yep the official figure is something like that, isn't it. I think they reckon he might have killed between 250-300 patients in his career, but as per usual, the press are probably just speculating.