LAURA DAVIS'S critical analysis on the legacy of Liverpool's 08 year (Daily Post, June 30) was refreshing. It was good to see an article based on hard facts, rather than the usual words that have been spun, re-spun and, just in case, spun again.
Laura's research shows the city did, indeed, benefit from Capital of Culture, something even critics of the celebration and its costs would have to admit.
We are so accustomed to reading so-called facts and figures dished out by the spin merchants to justify the expense. If you read their “statistics”, Liverpool is supposed to have had something like 15m to 20m visitors in 2008, spending £800m within the local economy.
This figure is still being quoted to people. Yet a careful examination of the actual statistics shows the high figure running into millions comprises not visitors, but visits. Their figures even include, as tourists, the 700,000 passengers – most of them commuters – who set sail from Seacombe every day aboard the Mersey Ferries for their offices in Liverpool. In 08 they were not workers, they were tourists.
What we really need is how many actual visitors came to Liverpool in 2008, and from this we need the numbers of actual visitors in 2007. That would give us some clearer indication of the lure of 08 as an attraction for visitors. In real terms, I would expect this figure to be not 15m or 20m, but more likely no more than one million.
On one particular day in 2008, I and a friend journeyed on a Mersey Ferry, collected some material from the 08 Place and headed to the World Museum before going to the Albert Dock. My own mathematics tells me we should have been counted as two visitors. In the spin version, we were at least 10.
Thank you so much, Laura Davis, for doing what all good reporters should do – report the facts, and not the spin.
William H Dennett, Sefton Park
Scandal
JUST when I thought politics could not be tainted any further by scandal, the Liverpool Liberal Democrat group have taken it to new extremes.
In what warped system is convicted criminal Steve Hurst not only allowed to remain as a councillor, but his boss Warren Bradley is apparently seeking to change rules to allow him to re-stand.
It is absolutely obscene that this man is not only being allowed to remain in his seat, but that Bradley is paving the way for another however many years of Hurst.
Tell me, would Bradley go to as much trouble for one of his honest, hard-working, decent constituents as he seems to be for the disgraced Cllr Hurst?
Chloe Howard, via email
Angry voter
I AM of an age where I have lived through every government since the war and I have always used my vote. I have now come to the conclusion that the major parties who promise you the world before every election give you very little after the election and renege on a lot of the offers that were there before the election.
Mr Brown promised a referendum about the Lisbon EU reform – but he lied.There is to be no referendum.
Also, the sleaze that has been publicised recently in all major parties makes me very angry. All these MPs now pay their money back, not because of their conscience, but because they have been found out.
Because of the above facts, I have now decided that I will never vote for a major party again. I will always use my vote but from now on it will be for a minor party.
Syd Abbott, via email
Hardly inspiring
TWENTY years ago, in the course of the Ken Dodd income tax trial, defence counsel George Carman, QC, suggested to a bemused Liverpool jury that “some accountants may be comedians, but not all comedians are accountants”. I was reminded of this verbal sleight-of-hand on hearing some of the excuses trotted out by our politicians and their apologists in the light of their relentless greed.
Even if one were to stretch credulity to its limits, and accept their mealy-mouthed excuses, it doesn't inspire the populace to entrust the financial affairs of a major nation when (even if one were to believe their stories), they appear to be totally incapable of managing their own. Truly, one doesn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Brian Beard, via email
Moving TV
MAY I say how much I have enjoyed watching the BBC’s recent Liverpool series, Moving On. I missed this when it was in its daytime slot – a bit of scheduling I could not for the life of me understand – but have thoroughly enjoyed every episode in the evenings.
This is the sort of drama that has been sadly lacking from our screens for such a long time. It was moving and brilliantly written, and packed with some of this country’s finest actors.
I look forward to seeing more of its ilk but, given the way the BBC treated this series in the first instance, I won’t hold my breath.
Mrs K Andrews, Southport
