Didn't see the programme, but welcome to the real world of Britain's once-prosperous and vital but now neglected, despised, marginalised and powerless central industrial and commercial heartland.The laughably-called 'City'(!) of Salford has long been a particular disgrace - indeed scandal. Absorption into Manchester is well over a century overdue, though that would not necessarily have eliminated or solve all Salford's problems - successive Manchester City Councils have also amply demonstrated a breathtaking capacity for sustained unwisdom.It probably doesn't help that the dynamic hub of Salford's local government, its Civic Centre, is a wholly unrepresentative haven of peace and tranquility in the suburbanised 'village' of Swinton, well away from the horrific grotscape which blights most of real Salford, and well away from the crumbling remnants of Salford's original 'city centre', once the well-documented haunt of (to name but a few) L S Lowry. It's a bit like trying to run Acton from a civic centre in Norwood Green. When I was last there on business the young woman on the front desk at the city centre was completely flummoxed when I taxed her with the query as to where to get a bus back to Manchester - her colleage eventually came to the rescue with the requisite info. I'd recommend that bus ride for a panoramic view of some of the worst Salford has to offer.But having said all that, much of the blame lies not with increasingly powerless local politicians but with the London-Scotch 'central' misgovernment firmly based in this remote corner of the island, which couldn't give a toss about Northern England. Our London-Scotch media don't help either.Even Salford, however, has a few brighter spots - check out the leafy suburb of Broughton, across the Irwell to the northeast - may remind you a bit of the likes of Castelbar or Pitshanger, at least superficially.I could go on and on and on but the rest of the forum's already gone back to sleep.
Chris Veasey ● 6541d