So the council have maintained the brotherhood to the detriment of the City's commercial viability once again. Our local history is littered with such examples. Blinkered, short sighted and stuck in a different age, instead of looking forward to contemporary development with commercial partners on the scale of Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool, and even such back-waters as the likes of Derby, Nottingham, Leicester and many others, we are destined to be held as the ultimate back-water to all outside of the 'Trinity' confines. Unsurprisingly, the police will silently favour the status quo, the Hull Daily Mail are sat firmly on the fence whilst they use the BAE workers as puppets to sell more copies of a dying medium whose longer term viability is destined to be weekly or thrice weekly print runs from Derby, London, or perhaps further afield in Romania or similar. Maybe I can suggest some Professional journalism and an in-depth campaign into why Hull as deteriorated so much in the last 40 years or so? Nobody could say that the present Circle scenario will make or break the future of Hull on its own, however, it does typify why Hull is dilapidated beyond comparison to the place I am proud to have grown up in. Past high profile failures such as Nissan are symptomatic of the parochial Trinity culture which is still as strong as ever, and my fears are now for the Siemens project and BAE's final nail in the coffin. I personally have maintained a family home in the area throughout, even though I have never been able to get a job here for more than 20 years. Like many other skilled and Professional 'locals' I now split my time away from Hull and as soon as aging family members are no longer with this world, the only reason I will have to come back here would be for the football. My 'children' have also long since left Hull for a better future in more prosperous pastures. Again like so many other traditional 'locals' I am sure my personal future lies elsewhere even though my personal heritage and conscience is firmly based here. Its half-time in the stadium battle and the Trinity have the upper hand for the time being it seems, but I seriously wonder if this issue could be the straw that breaks its back, with the Hull Telephones monopoly now, more than ever, hanging by a thread as well. I hope that a new future for Hull can develop out in the East Riding, with major commercial entities choosing rich pickings along either sides of the Humber Bank away from traditional industrial development areas in the City. In summary, I have one request to the 'brotherhood' - if their influence continues as it has for so many years, can the last one out please turn the lights out as those that remain will have little chance of paying the bills?
People seem to give up far too easily - instead of fighting for Hull's future, people seem to just go 'Ah well, I'll go elsewhere'. Why should you? this is your home, don't give up on it jut because those in charge are useless. That is what they want! They're happy and comfortable being mediocre. They get paid without having to do anything major and that's the way they like it. Nobody demands anything. It's exactly the same with the stadium decision - I've seen loads of people simply say 'Ah well, we'll go to Melton then'. Look at places like Liverpool and Manchester - do you think they improved themselves by it's inhabitants going 'Sod it, I give up, lets just go elsewhere?' or did they demand better? People in places like Liverpool and Manchester have more local pride too - there are estates in both those cities FAR worse than any area of Hull, yet you'd never hear a single one of them bad-mouthing the place like people do here - in fact, they wouldn't allow a bad word said against it. People need to sod apathy and choose pride. But in actual fact, Hull isn't that bad off. If you read the story of the research done recently at Hull Uni - Hull is classed in the top 10 places for deprivation in the UK by government statistics, but it is based on council boundary, which in Hull's case is very tight and cuts off outer suburbs. Leeds for example extends over 20 miles outside the city itself, taking in more affluent places. The research done at Hull Uni was based on Hull's extended boundary (similar to other cities, but not crazy lengths like Leeds boundaries are) and the study found Hull would go from top 10 most deprived to 68th - one better than Leeds. So it shows how blinkered some things are. Also, the reason Hull hasn't progressed as much as other cities in recent years is because European Funding is based on AREA, not COUNCIL boundaries - Haltemprice is the second richest constituency in the UK, and as it joins onto Hull, Hull doesn't get much European funding. Places like Sheffield and Newcastle get BILLIONS because they're surrounded by run-down former mining towns.
Very well put Mussie; have been trying to say similar all morning but never got the words right to put it down. They seem scared of developments and IMO are easily out of their depth when approaching anything which will involve them in decisions. This just being the latest example of shooting themselves (and us) in the foot. Maybe one day the voters will add up all the missed opportunities and vote in people with a clear mandate to bring Hull into the 21st Century. Councils are not around for ever so here's hoping.
