David Cameron always struck me as an unlikely kind of pin-up – less Men’s Health, more concerned with wealth.

But there must be something in that foppish quiff and wobbly bottom lip that I’m missing. Because he sure did a number on some of Manchester’s most vulnerable voters with his ‘just call me Dave’ charm.

On the day of last year’s General Election I was filming a documentary about childhood poverty in Moss Side. The family we were with had found themselves in a ‘there but for the grace of God’ situation. Just keeping their head above the loan-shark infested waters until – bam – the dad lost his business.

Never mind living on the breadline, the mum in this case was literally going without any food to keep her kids in hot meals.

Not exactly the place I expected to find devotees to Big Society Dave’s fan club. Yet it was there where I had some of my most electric election debates – as this woman who could not afford to clothe her children tried to persuade me of the benefits of voting blue.

Oblivious to the fact that they would probably cut the very services vital to her family’s survival, she justified her turn-around from Labour to Tory because “he just seems like such a nice guy”.

Unfortunately, this is one case where a smooth-talking man is leaving more in his wake than just broken hearts. When Cameron’s finished his hatchet job on Greater Manchester’s councils it will be broken lives we’re trying to fix.

This week the M.E.N. has backed the town hall’s fightback against some of the most catastrophically unfair cuts in our region’s history.

As nine out of 10 of Greater Manchester’s local authorities has their budgets slashed by more than the national average, this newspaper is encouraging everyone in the region to sign a petition opposing the cuts.

With Manchester alone facing a funding massacre of £110m, the reality of life in Tory Britain has landed firmly on our doorstep.

As 6,000 people across Greater Manchester face losing their jobs, any one of us could find ourselves in the same situation as that family we filmed in Moss Side.

Of course, it all comes down to blatant political bias.

Why else would Manchester’s Labour-run council face such crushing 21 per cent cuts, despite serving some of the most deprived areas in the country?

But playing party politics isn’t going to get us out of this mess. Which is why every Mancunian should be putting their name to the petition calling on the government to give back our missing millions.

Maybe you don’t work for a council, maybe you think it won’t affect you and your job. But it’s only a matter of time before the cuts cost jobs in related services across the region, never mind the loss of vital services.

Make no mistake, a cull like this won’t just have a ripple effect across the region – more like a tsunami we’re going to feel for years to come.

This city has got a fine political tradition of standing up for the most vulnerable in society and making ourselves heard.

We’re also a city that’s used to being split along down the middle between red and blue – usually in football terms. But whether we are City or United it’s always been Manchester that comes first.

Now’s the time for us to overlook our red or blue political colours in the same way and join together to support our city. Forget politics and sign the petition.

If you don’t, you’re not only letting the city’s most vulnerable people down – you could soon become one of them.

No light at the end of tunnel in football row

SO, basically, it’s offside if a player is nearer the goal than…ah, just teasing. I’m not really going to explain the offside rule for the millionth time since I wrote about it in last week’s column.

Like any woman who dared to comment on the whole sorry Sky shenanigans, I’ve been quizzed on it by blubbering blokes all week. Incredulous that I could possibly understand the Pythagoras-like complexities of such a ruling.

Well I can, get over it. News flash – football’s just not that complicated.

Anyway, seems there’s a new type of secret offside rule we didn’t know about. In the latest sexism scandal to besmirch the beautiful game, one of Manchester City’s female executives was banned from the players’ tunnel because she is a woman.

Vicky Kloss, chief communications officer at City, had only been trying to do her job and brief manager Roberto Mancini and players for post-match interviews at Notts County’s ground. Only to be stopped by a security guard in line with a policy that declares women offside if they dare to step into that inner sanctum.

“I thought I told you – no women allowed” was what he was overheard to say.

They might as well adopt that as a motto for the whole game.

Bra-vo – welcome to our world

SEEMS the true age of equality will be heralded in, not with the fanfare of trumpets or banging of drums, but with the jiggle of a ‘moob’.

For years we women have lived with the pressure to look perfect, with more and more girls going under the knife for that plastic fantastic look. So, praise be, it seems the tables are finally turning.

According to the latest figures from The British Association Of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, one of the biggest rises in surgical procedures is now for breast reduction among men.

Apparently, operations to scale back those ‘moobs’ have shot up by 28 per cent in the past year as men start to feel the fear of stripping off on the beach. Welcome to our world, boys.

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