Have a scout round t'internet and you will see Manchester marketing itself as the second city.
In fact they have a second city display in the urbis gallery discussing this, last time I checked it out the "debate" was being won by the brummies. It involved a load of post it notes on a wall
Really? Interesting, shall have to go and make my point. Bicks is right in that, Manchester is surrounded by towns (Stockport, Bolton, Bury, Oldham etc) as well as the issue being confused with the Trafford area being run by a different council. More and more these towns are being associated with Manchester. If you look at the size of Manchester without these towns, it's really very small. I mean, Salford is almost part of Manchester city centre and Stockport must be about 4 miles away from it. The truth is even though I live in Manchester, Birmingham is by far the bigger and better city.