Sunday, July 01, 2007

Cursing Over Cornflakes

I don't normally listen to BBC Radio Merseyside. Much of its output warrants the euphemism, cheap and cheerful, or downmarket, if I'm being truly candid. Its daytime presenters, Roger Phillips notwithstanding, depressingly live down to Scouse stereotypes.
However, last week's outburst by Simon O'Brien, broadcast during the station's breakfast show ("Fuck the government, fuck the planners!") provided some entertainment.
The affair is highlighted on the Liverpool Confidential website:
http://www.liverpoolconfidential.com/index.asp?sessionx=IpqiNwEiI0qjNwB6IA&realname=Not Strictly Confidential That Simon OBrien tape and more .
A recording of the comments by O'Brien is available at http://www.how-do.co.uk/.
It raises an interesting point, however, regarding the regeneration, if you can call it that, of the city's Edge Lane area (the topic being discussed by O'Brien and Phillips in their exchange), as the residents in the area are being offered £66,000 each for the demolition of their properties. With house prices in the city rising exponentially because of 2008, etc., such a sum of money probably won't be sufficient for other properties in the same area, let alone any other part of Liverpool.
It is in this context that O'Brien's colourful observation is, perhaps, understandable.

On the same webpage there is sad news of the demise of the Liverpool Subculture blog. I had been denied access to the blog (by Blogger, thanks, guys ) over the last couple of weeks, so the news didn't come as a complete shock.
According to Liverpool Confidential, "Tony Parrish", the blog author, "tells Confidential, by alias email, that the experience of running the often scurrilous and controversial blogs, authored anonymously, 'made me care even more about the city because I have seen the best from people. It has also been pretty amazing to have witnessed such a fantastic spirit from complete strangers in the blogosphere'."

Today's news is, of course, dominated by the attempted attacks in London on Friday & yesterday's attack at Glasgow Airport. There have also been police raids in the south end of Liverpool, one in Toxteth, as yet unspecified, & one in the Penny Lane area. I know the latter quite well. Its population has a preponderence of students, making it a transitory sort of place, ideal, come to think of it, for anyone with something to hide to do whatever without attracting too much neighbourly suspicion.

1 comment:

Con said...

Thanks for reading us. Angie the ed, Liverpool Confidential