Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Life in A Northern Town

Sometimes you just marvel at the stupidity of people. There's a piece on the BBC web site about the Policy Exchange think tank's report on the hopelessness of Northern cities ever being good places to live; they urge people to move south to London, Cambridge and Oxford. The BBC report appears to quote the Policy Exchange saying it was time to be "realistic about the ability of cities such as Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle to regenerate struggling nearby towns such as Liverpool, Bradford and Sunderland."

Liverpool, Bradford and Sunderland ARE all cities, not towns. Makes you wonder if they've ever been there.

6 comments:

Dragonstar said...

It actually makes you wonder about the mentality of the London-living BBC. If all you northern people moved south to "London, Cambridge and Oxford", the country would sink in that corner. I can't understand people who want to live in London - what's wrong with the north anyway?

Richard Havers said...

I think to be fair to the BBC it may well be the authors of the report. They probably live in London too! Having said that the bias at the BBC towards London is sad but inevitable. They live in a rarefied media bubble that is seldom burst to let in a blast of realistic provincial air.

Colin Campbell said...

Perhaps it is just a better class of homelessness, to be homeless in a southern city. Homeless snobs? You could improve your status by moving from the north to the south and then move to a more prestigious neighbourhood. I wonder if you have more status if you are homeless in Chelsea as opposed to Brixton?

Richard Havers said...

I'm sure the report is a pretty complex stuff but it really is not very helpful in the overall debate. The North will be wanting independence next!

CherryPie said...

I heard that on the radio and thought how silly it sounded. It has probably been taken out of context!

Anonymous said...

Sunderland is actually bigger than Newcastle