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Hardest Place in Britain

twotone said:
MI6 or 5 had a file on that bastard and still did nothing about him, he was going to be a senior cab minister in the liberal/Labour coalition government so they were panicking about him being blackmailed.
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People just weren’t bothered about such things, a terrible indictment of society at that time. A blind eye was always turned as the victims were generally blamed.

Look at the old mayor of Scarborough, featured in the Saville drama, we all knew & nobody did anything.

Two convicted paedos at my secondary school & one at 6th form. Absolutely incredible.
 
Looks like only the OP has made the clear connection between poverty and behaviour. Love how @Mick P manages to disrespect an entire town and hospital and blame the downfall of the textile industry and subsequent failure to diversify on a local MP rather than the Tory governments who repeatedly cut everything Labour tried to put in place for the area. It was far from perfect but each Tory government in the 60s/70s absolutely slashed support for Greater Manchester and used the money in the South East.

If Mrs. P. thought the hospital in Rochdale was poor then she should see what 14 years of fake austerity have done to it.

Personally I have never worked anywhere tougher/harder than the west end of Rhyl, the Lache area of Chester and M28 in Salford. Given the association with poverty I see nothing to celebrate.
 
My first few years were spent in a tenement in Arnisdale Road, Easterhouse, just down from the fire station. But hand in hand with the violence, there was also a community spirit. Neighbours were forever popping in and out of each others houses to borrow a bag of sugar or pint of milk until payday. I was born in 1964 and at that time Easterhouse was one of the most deprived schemes (council estate, for English Fishes) in Europe.

But there is nothing intrinsically or uniquely ‘hard’ or violent about Glasgow and Easterhouse. You will find the same social problems in any other place with high levels of deprivation and poverty. I have personal knowledge of Glasgow, Seacroft and Gipton in Leeds, Farley Bank and Hollington in Hastings, Whitehawk in Brighton, and Hackney. But these places exist all over the country. Girvan, down on the Ayrshire coast, is in a stunning location but the town centre is a total run down shithole and has a real reputation as not a very desirable place to live, likewise parts of Kilmarnock and Ayr. And as for Greenock further up the Clyde! A once prosperous town with a huge docks and shipbuilding industry that’s now best completely avoided.

In these places where future options for youth are minimal to non-existent, drugs offer either a chance to escape reality, an alternative career path, or both. Gangs offer prestige, pride and belonging, where that has been eroded elsewhere, as well as a degree of protection in a harsh, impoverished environment
 
Mike Hughes said:
Looks like only the OP has made the clear connection between poverty and behaviour. Love how @Mick P manages to disrespect an entire town and hospital and blame the downfall of the textile industry and subsequent failure to diversify on a local MP rather than the Tory governments who repeatedly cut everything Labour tried to put in place for the area. It was far from perfect but each Tory government in the 60s/70s absolutely slashed support for Greater Manchester and used the money in the South East.

If Mrs. P. thought the hospital in Rochdale was poor then she should see what 14 years of fake austerity have done to it.

Personally I have never worked anywhere tougher/harder than the west end of Rhyl, the Lache area of Chester and M28 in Salford. Given the association with poverty I see nothing to celebrate.
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This. It's nothing to celebrate or otherwise applaud.*

* Unless you happen to come across a would-be terrorist who's on fire then, by all means, knock him out!
 
Finnegan said:
My first few years were spent in a tenement in Arnisdale Road, Easterhouse, just down from the fire station. But hand in hand with the violence, there was also a community spirit. Neighbours were forever popping in and out of each others houses to borrow a bag of sugar or pint of milk until payday. I was born in 1964 and at that time Easterhouse was one of the most deprived schemes (council estate, for English Fishes) in Europe.

But there is nothing intrinsically or uniquely ‘hard’ or violent about Glasgow and Easterhouse. You will find the same social problems in any other place with high levels of deprivation and poverty. I have personal knowledge of Glasgow, Seacroft and Gipton in Leeds, Farley Bank and Hollington in Hastings, Whitehawk in Brighton, and Hackney. But these places exist all over the country. Girvan, down on the Ayrshire coast, is in a stunning location but the town centre is a total run down shithole and has a real reputation as not a very desirable place to live, likewise parts of Kilmarnock and Ayr. And as for Greenock further up the Clyde! A once prosperous town with a huge docks and shipbuilding industry that’s now best completely avoided.

In these places where future options for youth are minimal to non-existent, drugs offer either a chance to escape reality, an alternative career path, or both. Gangs offer prestige, pride and belonging, where that has been eroded elsewhere, as well as a degree of protection in a harsh, impoverished environment
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Arnisdale Road? I was born in '73 so although you're 10/11 years older, we must have known some of the same people as Brunstane Road where I grew up is just the other side of the shopping centre in Provanhall. And no doubt we've heard of the same infamous people as well!
 
I went to work for the council back in 1980 at Lochdochart Path council depot, hadn't long got my time out, ended up working in Garthamlock eff me I thought the Gorbals was bad that place was an absolute shit hole.

I lasted a month and hated that whole council house workman thing, foremen thinking they were God effin arseholes.

At the time I lived in Castlemilk, number 13 bus from Croftfoot road to Lochdochart path took 59 minutes, one of the most depressing bus journey's I've ever done, hated every minute of it.
 
windhoek said:
Arnisdale Road? I was born in '73 so although you're 10/11 years older, we must have known some of the same people as Brunstane Road where I grew up is just the other side of the shopping centre in Provanhall. And no doubt we've heard of the same infamous people as well!
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Very likely, although we left when I was still very young. Moved to the southside, still a council flat in a scheme (Pollokshaws/ Shawlands area) but a bit more genteel than Easterhouse.
 
dweezil said:
Bit of an uphill struggle after Jeremy Thorpe although Paddy Pantsdown brought some jollity to the elctorate.

Maybe that's why they chose the current bland leader.
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He has always struck me as not being much of a politician and is probably being controlled what to say behind the scenes.
Mike Hughes said:
Looks like only the OP has made the clear connection between poverty and behaviour. Love how @Mick P manages to disrespect an entire town and hospital and blame the downfall of the textile industry and subsequent failure to diversify on a local MP rather than the Tory governments who repeatedly cut everything Labour tried to put in place for the area. It was far from perfect but each Tory government in the 60s/70s absolutely slashed support for Greater Manchester and used the money in the South East.

If Mrs. P. thought the hospital in Rochdale was poor then she should see what 14 years of fake austerity have done to it.

Personally I have never worked anywhere tougher/harder than the west end of Rhyl, the Lache area of Chester and M28 in Salford. Given the association with poverty I see nothing to celebrate.
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For a start I did not even mention the textile industry which went down the plug before Cyril Smith was around. If you genuinely think Smith looked after Rochdale then fair enough but there are not many like you.

I lived there for 4 years and the local councillors were all on personal ego trips and criticised not only their opponents but even their own party members. This gave Cyril the excuse to move parties.

The reason why Rochdale suffers is that it not only has it not had any decent MPs to look after its interest, the local councillors don't exactly help Rochdale either.
 
Mick P said:
I worked in Manchester 1972-1976 and back then then Manchester was way behind the curve and Cheetham Hill was an abysmal dump. I drove through it on a regular basis and never got out of the car. I lived in Rochdale and my second son was born in an abysmal building called Rochdale Hospital. He was born in a corridor. My wife has moaned at me ever since about placing her in such an awful place.

I think half the problem with places like Rochdale was lousy Members of Parliament who were just not up to the job. Back in my day the MP was Cyril Smith and how the hell he got elected is one of the mysteries of life. He did absolutely nothing for the area and his only interest was in promoting himself which, in all fairness, he was very good at. He also made a good job of promoting a local abestos making company Turner & Newall which eventually went bust due to litigation. There were many allegations of payola.

After Cyril departed, Rochdale has enjoyed being represented by people no one else would touch with a barge pole, namely Simon Danczuk and George Galloway. So you have to ask the question, why do they do it. With MPs like them, the north has no chance. All of these were fairly elected and took a large chunk of the vote, so they must have been popular.
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I was born in Birch Hill Hospital in 1968. We lived up Rooley Moor Road until I was 14, we moved to Whitby then, it was like chalk and cheese. We regulalry played at the back of Turner's and sometimes within their boundaries, we didn't know any better. My next door neighbour worked at the site, in admin fortunately. Cyril Smith lived in a Terrace House on the same street as our Doctor's Surgery.

Cheers BB
 
gavreid said:
A lot of otherwise pretty posh towns can be very dangerous when the pubs close.
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Agreed. Some of the horror stories I've heard about Basingstoke are genuinely nasty. In general, Kingston isn't a good place to wander around late at night either.
 
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