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EDWINA CURRIE: Isn't it time we Scousers admitted some home truths?
Last updated at 02:16am on 14.08.08
Edwina Currie: 'You seek energy, creativity, cutting-edge employment? Head for London, not Liverpool'
The policy Exchange, said to be David Cameron's favourite think-tank, has really set the cat among the pigeons with its latest report.
Northern cities such as Liverpool, Bradford and Sunderland are beyond saving, it says.
The millions spent on regeneration have been wasted; restrictions on building down south should be lifted and people encouraged to move to 'economic powerhouses' such as London, Oxford and Cambridge, otherwise they risk being 'trapped' in places which have 'little prospect of offering their residents the standard of living to which they aspire.'
Cue howls of protest, rather as one would expect.
David Cameron, touring the North this week, has denounced the report as 'insane'.
Regeneration, he declares, has been a key Conservative theme over the past three years. Of course it has.
After all, David is hunting votes beyond the Tory heartlands and is dangling the prospect of yet more government handouts as bait.
But since there hasn't been a Tory MP in Liverpool since I was a teenager, he probably shouldn't bother. I reckon the report is uttering only home truths, unpalatable though they may be to politicians of every hue.
If government efforts to help northern cities since the 1950s had succeeded, then there would be no gap in living standards, or employment, or educational achievement, or health - yet the gaps have persisted and in many cases widened.
You hope to live a long life? Try Hampshire, not Hull. You dream of a three-car household? That's Surrey, not Sunderland.
You seek energy, creativity, cutting-edge employment? Head for London, not Liverpool.
That's what I did, 40 years ago, and I have never felt the urge to move back to my home town of Liverpool.
I grew up in Childwall, a district in the south-east of the city, with Mum and Dad, and my brother Henry, in an ordinary semi.
My father had a gentleman's tailoring business in the heart of the city in Williamson Square, making uniforms for sea captains.
In 1994 we held a reunion of my old school, the Liverpool Institute High School for Girls, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of its foundation, and I discovered that the entire sixth form of my day had migrated, most of them down south; only one girl still lived in the 'Pool, and she'd returned to live with her parents.
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Worst of all, the loony-Left city council under Derek Hatton had closed our wonderful school, and the companion boys' school where Beatles Paul McCartney and George Harrison had been pupils.
State grammar schools with their cult of excellence didn't fit into the council's 'regeneration' plans, did they?
When I was a kid, Liverpool had 800,000 residents and was still a world-renowned seaport.
It was a rumbustious place, with a fabulous music scene, majestic public buildings, international business such as insurance and shipbuilding; we watched the Cunard flagships setting off for New York and dreamed of sailing away ourselves some day.
Escape, that's what we had in mind. It was an extraordinarily prosperous place - and the sky seemed to be the limit.
But by the time I had my 'ticket to ride' in the form of a scholarship to Oxford, the port had lost its reputation as the Atlantic shipping trade died and endless strikes finished it off.
Meanwhile, Liverpool itself was haemorrhaging a thousand people a week. Now, the city's population is down to 439,000; a quarter of its residents are on benefits, the highest proportion in the country, while on a Saturday night Liverpool has the highest rate of emergency hospital admissions for alcohol-related injuries in England.
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I still go back occasionally. There's definitely still a lot to love about Liverpool.
Scousers are incredibly warm-hearted, funny and generous. And they certainly know how to have fun.
But it isn't long before I get a sinking feeling, and remember why I left my hometown.
Like emerging from Lime Street Station in February - at what was the beginning of Liverpool's year as the European Capital of Culture - to find pavements dug up and underpasses closed. Hardly a centre of cultural excellence.
'They'll be ready for it this time next year,' I muttered.
Or when international golf came to Lytham St Annes, up the road. I asked my taxi driver about it: 'Bloody Americans,' he complained, hardly the attitude to welcome high-spending foreign visitors.
In December 2006 I went to a Christmas dinner at the Adelphi hotel, once the Claridge's of Liverpool, only to find a notice in the bedroom saying, 'All electrical items removed from this room to be paid for' as if it were a cheap hostel where all its guests were thieves.
Hardly welcoming surroundings for the traveller searching out the legendary Liverpool.
My heart goes out to the local people. They've been conned by successive governments, both Tory and Labour, and by the Liberal Democrats who have run the council more recently.
Government money won't turn things round. Only your own initiative will do that.
And what the report says is so true it shouldn't need restating: that if a city has lost its raison d'être, whatever it was that brought it into existence in the first place, then shedloads of taxpayers' largesse won't turn back the clock.
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Far better, and cheaper, if workers go to where the jobs are, rather than trying to blackmail or subsidise business to move to where it does not want to go.
In fact, that's what many individuals have been doing for decades. Like me, they look at the lack of opportunities, and they vote with their feet.
The problem is, government interference makes things worse. Local politicians become adept at holding out their hands, palm upwards; the skills thus valued are how to fill in forms and how to spin a convincing tale of woe and continuing need, instead of figuring out what talents their residents have, or need to develop, to compete in the modern world.
Those with imagination or ambition or a determination to do things for themselves don't fit - take Liverpool's most famous living son, Sir Paul McCartney.
His success came to him only in London - and there he remains. I am not talking through my hat; I've been through this before, when I was an MP.
As the pits closed down in my South Derbyshire constituency, unemployment began to rise.
We had lived on state subsidies for decades and things had to change. But the locals were skilled, hard-working, and open to ideas.
They were also adaptable, and willing to take on whatever challenges were flung at them. They did not believe in going on strike and were determined not to live on handouts.
Along came car manufacturer Toyota, and hey presto! The new factory meant Derbyshire was making cars, and the area gleams with a new prosperity.
Population has risen so much that there'll be an additional parliamentary seat come the next election. And none of it was done with public money, not a penny.
If I were in charge in Liverpool today I would be reading this report with interest. I'd be making inquiries: what do outsiders come to Liverpool for? What do they like when they arrive? How can we persuade them to stay, and spend money here?
I'd be asking the two Liverpool universities to see what happens to their graduates, and what might persuade them to seek employment in the city.
I'd not be squeamish about asking what they hate, and taking action about it: the crime, the dirt, the ignorance, the shortage of decent places to stay and to eat, the dereliction on every side.
Plenty of cities set examples of revival through their own efforts, from Manchester to New York. It can be done.
And as someone who still loves Liverpool, my message to my fellow Scousers would be: get on and do the same.
Reader views (12)
I am originally from Manchester but study in Liverpool.
Although i love visiting London, its very expensive and generally the people are rude and uncaring, one example was when me and a friend went down to do some sightseeing.We came across a young lad who was lost and quite upset. i remember standing there for a while and seeing people just walk past him like he was invisible.
in the end me and my friend helped him because to be honest thats the right thing to do.
maybe its inherently more northern to be like this but i would rather live up north, its quirkier (most of my southern friends can vouch for that!), the humour is eccentric to say the least and yeah it rains alot but thats all part of it charm!
i would rather live in Manc or the pool anyday!
- Ashley, Manchester/Liverpool
Were does edwina suggest the impoverished residents of hackney, canning town, peckham etc move to to improve their lives? In the last census the top five deprived local authoritys were Liverpool, Manchester, knowsely, tower hamlets and hackney. So two of the most deprived authoritys were in the smoke. The article is very onesided. You could easily have chosen worse for wear looking street from down south and a nice looking street from liverpool. Also the way in which it uses statistics is also one sided. London has more murders per head, pollution, ridiculous house prices and congestion than liverpool. Even oxford has a higher burgalry rate.
Liverpool is still a city with a lot of poor areas, but most big cities in England have this problem.
- James Mcguinness, liverpool
By all means defend your home cities but think of a better way of doing it than by attacking London. All of our metropolises have much to recommend them but it's naive to deny either that there are uncomfortable inequalities even now between the north and the south (there are also some valuable differences) or that London, as our political; cultural; and economic capital has a particular vibrancy that is simply not replicated elsewhere.
I would welcome an informed nuanced debate. It doesn't matter where it starts but it mustn't be hijacked by vote-seeking disingenuous party politicians of any hue who, I suspect, haven't taken the time to read the report in issue.
Michael Coxon
(born in London, raised in Sunderland and living happily in Leicestershire)
- Michael Coxon, Loughborough, Leicestershire
York, Harrogate, Ripon, Beverley, Richmond, Whitby, Scarborough, etc are far more comfortable than the majority of places down south, with the exception of Bath and Oxford.
David Cameron is very wise to disown this.
- James, York
I live in a Grade II listed building, situated on a street that has a cathedral at either end, two theatres and number of excellent restaurants. We have just hosted an open-air Shakespeare festival in the extensive cathedral grounds, we are looking forward to another successful food and drink festival to be hosted by community businesses and the main street, which runs from Toxteth to the university is vibrant, welcoming, successful and affluent.
Not all areas of any city will represent its finer achievements and Liverpool has its fair share of bandit country, but to claim that professional people must up sticks and move to the characterless, soul depraved, capitalist nightmare that is London is both arrogant and uninformed.
Some of us are prospering in this little backwater and very much enjoying the resulting lifestyle.
London doesn't permit a varied professional or social existence. Work yourself half to death, maybe catch a glimpse of a friend in a nasty chain pub on the way home to an overpriced apartment that you share with a bunch of Foxton's reps which is situated in a battlezone, four miles from the office that takes an hour to travel to.
No thanks, Edwina, I'll slum it out in mean old Liverpool a little while longer.
- Mathew Sloane, Liverpool, UK
Yet again, nonsense being spouted by someone with completely flawed facts:-
'while on a Saturday night Liverpool has the highest rate of emergency hospital admissions for alcohol-related injuries in England.'
I have worked in the city centre A&E Dept since 1995 and whilst it does have it's fair share of admissions on the weekend I wouldn't say it was dramatically worse than anywhere else in the country. You must also take into account the number of Stag & Hen parties that descend upon the city every weekend of the year who's sole intent is to over do it! Figures can do what you want them to do and there are no better exploiters of this than Politicians. I myself would be frightened off moving from Liverpool to London due to the alarming rate of knife crime down there.
- Christopher, liverpool
If all the people in the "deprived" North wanted to move south they would have to live in tents - the spare houses are all occupied by South Africans et al fleeing discrimination.
- Sue Doughty, Twyford, England
To Anon from Liverpool, your comment looks rather like you didn't read the article. Liverpool's history is celebrated in the article and it is the sentimental attachment to former glories, not whether there are or were any about the city, that is at issue.
To restate Edwina's restatement: "And what the report says is so true it shouldn't need restating: that if a city has lost its raison d'être, whatever it was that brought it into existence in the first place, then shedloads of taxpayers' largesse won't turn back the clock."
- Al Gunn, Leeds, UK
So what your trying to say is you need more northerners down there to liven the place up a bit?
Come on Edy, first bloody location location location saying that Middlesbrough was the worst place to live now you want us to move to London! Regeneration will never work if there's no one there to regenerate it, anyway, I have better things to do with my time than get angry, I'm a northerner and the pubs open! (that's a joke by the way, pubs don't open until 11am)
- Steve Parker, Middlesbrough
Here are some interesting facts one should know about Liverpool before critising what it has to offer its country let alone its inhabitants:
- The photograph used to accompany this article is a strange choice as the street shown is Duke St - which features the Anglican Cathedral, China Town and ventures to the magnificent Albert Dock, a former 19th century dock now converted to one of Britain's top heritage attractions, is the UK's largest group of Grade I listed buildings.
- The University of Liverpool has been ranked 21st in the world for the number of international academics on its staff
- Liverpool Football Club is the most successful club in the history of British football, having won 18 league championships, 5 European Cups, 3 UEFA Cups, 7 FA Cups and 7 league cups.
- More than 60 languages are spoken in the city today.
- Princes Park in Liverpool and Birkenhead Park in Wirral were used as the models for New York's Central Park.
- Liverpool is home to the oldest Chinese and African communities in Europe, and the city's Chinatown boasts the biggest Chinese arch outside mainland China.
- Liverpool is a World Heritage City - designated by UNESCO in July 2004, placing the city's Pier Head alongside Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China as one of the world's most important places.
As someone who left the big smoke to make it here - its my home - and its sad when people criticise the very foundations of their flourishing lives!
- Anon, Liverpool, Merseyside. UK
While there are examples where regeneration has failed: Liverpool, Sunderland and Hull, there are examples where it has worked: Leeds, Manchester.
The South is not immune to poverty, the North isn't allergic to prosperity. There are areas in both which need work, we shouldn't write anywhere off.
- Bob Jones, Yorkshire
When seeking corroboration of the North-Soth divide - one has only to study Premiership Football in this country. Hull - newly promoted to those dizzy heights cannot attract top performers in many cases because of the area. The same can be applied to Sunderland, Newcastle, Middlesborough et al. And who are the ruling politicians in those areas and have been for decades?
- Robert El-Cid,, Hull, East Yorks.,
