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A 42-metre replica of London’s iconic Big Ben clocktower has been unveiled in Manchester city centre, PA Media reports. PA says:
The art installation, Big Ben Lying Down With Political Books, in Piccadilly Gardens marks the start of the Manchester International Festival, which runs until 18 July.
Some 20,000 books will be attached to the exterior of the ‘Big Ben of the North’ and will be given away for free at the end of the festival.
Forty eight Conservative MPs have written to Boris Johnson to demand schools “go back to normal” from 19 July, when the remaining restrictions in England are due to be lifted.
In their letter they say that it is “vital that all schools go back to normal from July 19 when restrictions lift, even if just for the last few days of term”. They go on:
This will send an important signal ahead of the autumn that the route to freedom is a ‘one way road’ and genuinely ‘irreversible’.
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