One of the original investors, Sir George Philips, co-owned a sugar plantation in Jamaica run on slave labour. At least nine of his 11 backers also had links to transatlantic slavery. John Edward Taylor, the cotton merchant who founded the Guardian, had partnerships with companies that imported vast amounts of raw cotton produced by enslaved people in the Americas. The Guardian last month published uncomfortable findings about its relationship with slavery. ![]() In half a century as a City fan, I never asked a question about the significance of the ship. The golden ship regained its prominence and the red rose returned. Thankfully, in 2016, the eagle was eradicated and the City badge returned to the reassuring certainties of the old days. It towered over the poor ship and had an unfortunate whiff of nazism about it. In the 1990s, a monstrous golden eagle was introduced. The badge represented the City of my childhood. Golden ship – first match, Colin Bell, the smell of Bovril, cigarette smoke, frozen breath, Wembley 1976, Dennis Tueart’s overhead, the romance of winning the League Cup, even if it happened only once. With time, the badge became soaked in nostalgia. Everybody wanted a parrot on their shoulder and a patch on their eye. ![]() They did as they wanted, plundered what they fancied and ruled the waves. It reminded me of the Blue Peter badge and pirates. It was gorgeous – a golden ship in full sail on the top half of the crest, the red rose of Lancashire on the bottom half, all framed in sky blue. I got my first Manchester City football badge when I was a little boy.
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