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Vacerator, Manchester is a great city. Don't be fooled by the ignorant, uncultured and inhibited Mancunian that frequents this forum, it's great. And you're spot on, lots of great bands have come out of Manchester - The Smiths, The Stone Roses, New Order & Oasis just to name a few. As such, Manchester is a hot spot of its indie music scene and plethora of record shops & musical instrument shops. There's also a fantastic LGBT scene in Manchester, but again our resident Mancunian would argue that. Just bare in mind that double N here is particularly antisocial and seems incapable of having a conversation without making it totally negative and all about him.

Manchester, like all big cities, has it's nice parts and it's parts that aren't so nice. I challenge anyone to find a city that doesn't. But on the whole, it's a vast, multicultural, varied and vibrant city with lots to offer. Unless of course you're an a negative nit-whit that doesn't know how to interact with other people. In which case, a cardboard box in the middle of the gobi desert would be more appropriate.
 
Turbo500,

Yes, that is true of all large cities. they grow old and need to be gentrified.
I live outside of Detroit. I know you've all heard about it.
A smaller city to the north, Flint has too much lead in its drinking water currently.
No doubt, a result of a century of manufacturing by General Motors of everything for cars except tires. A barren swath of concrete slabs and brown fields are all that is left of two entire miles of factories.
Once I saw a Vauxhall Victor of about 1970 vintage on the freeway with Canadian license plates. It truly is a small world.
 
Funny you should say that. The north of England is well known for its industrial history. The north east for coal mining and the north west for mills & factories. The area I'm from was, at the height of the industrial revolution, the capital of the wool industry in Europe. With the decline in manufacture in England, closure of coal mines and move of production over seas, especially in the 1980's under the Thatcher government, we saw a lot of deprevation and depression. Things are picking up. Leeds, which was formerly a landmark for the wool trade, has established itself with a strong financial industry. Many small towns and villages that were formerly mining towns are built to house mill workers, have been swallowed up to become part of the bigger cities. We're still largely neglected in the north by the Tory government, but I do think we're in a better position than we were 10 years ago.
 
Bradford, etc. burrough

I know of Bradford.
Sebo, yes, over here we have Pittsburgh for example which is made up of many smaller burroughs. In Michigan they are called townships. Six miles square each roughly, and six of those make up a county roughly.
As for our LGBT community, as the economic climate declined, much of it left, except for those of us who are established. We couldn't sell our homes anyway for much more than a loss. I have a few friends in Florida, California, Texas, Chicago, Atlanta Georgia.
 
Tayyab, I'm from Bradford. Although I don't live there now, I have lots of family around that area.

Bradford gets a bad reputation, largely due to the riots in 2001 and ethnic segregation, but like all cities, it has it's nice parts and it's bad parts. And the city centre is just the same as every other British city with a Next, Topshop, Primark, Starbucks, McDonalds etc.
 
Turbo500,

Yes, I am aware of the industrial heritage there. The first metal chain was made in Manchester.
My dad left me war of 1812 sword, made in Birmingham, by Wooley's of "new improved steel". He bought it at a flea market from a Canadian. It is in excellent shape, in the original metal sheath.
Since I have been retired, I have street traveled and overhead viewed so many places on Google maps and Bing maps.
So many more than I will ever get to visit.
If I want to learn about a person, place, or thing, I look it up.
 
Chris what gives you the right, I live in the dam place, it is grotty and full of people that can't pronounce words properly. the suburbs, are not so bad, the city centre is just chocablock at best and generally not a nice place to be. Stockport, Hyde, Trafford are better for shopping and such.
 
Cool Chris :D
I never knew that, but I thought it had a bad reputation for it's chavvy teenagers and high levels of crime which sounds exactly like Birmingham but never understood why that city is more hated lol

I been to Bradford a few years ago for a wedding, it's not bad actually!

Also, kind of off topic, but don't you love a Brummie accent? :D

A "cup of tea" is pronounced like "Kipper tie"
 
Thatcher

In my honest opinion, from what I have read, it seems to me that Maggie made way too many cuts. Pulling in the Falklands Royal navy brigade led to a rebellion and a war which cost more than her cuts saved, not to mention lives. The very wealthy got their tax cuts, but they cut as many jobs still. That was the true winter of discontent. I still can't imagine all your power plants were out of coal so often, at the same time, requiring rolling black outs. Nor the shutting down of water main pumps. Read between the lines and do the math.
Yet again, was it not a Liberal British Rail chief who actually made it profitable as a private company? When the diesel fast train came along. I read that. I'm into European trains also. Since before the Eurostar moved from Waterloo station to the remodeled Kings Cross/St.Pancras in London.
 
Vacerator, that's great that you look into the history of places. If you get the chance, you should travel and see some of these places.

I'm very lucky where I live. Close enough to big cities like Leeds & Manchester (which is within an hours train ride away) to experience the bright lights and hustle & bustle of the city life, but right on my doorstep is the Yorkshire moors and the Yorkshire dales - areas of true natural beauty, rolling hills and quaint villages.

I've spent many good time in both the cities and the countryside. I was actually in Manchester just the other week - firstly for a gig at the O2 Accademy and then again the week after for some shopping and I night out on the town.
 
I am not even that mancunion, I have traits of it, but I am not full on common, hearing the mancunion accent makes me want to slit my wrists, Ancoats is the worst for full on Manchester accent.

Where I am from, Denton, people tend to talk more like I do, still mancunion, more suttle and not as broad.
 
Alex, Turbo,

keep reading. you'll grow to like more of the world. I like you all. Good people!
Turbo, Gig? are you a musician?
Have you visited Stratford upon Avon?
I adore Spode' bone china, and Smallbone cabinetry, and AGA cookers.
See Alex, I, we, are not common.
 
Vacerator, you certainly know your history, bravo! It sounds like you know far more than some of our own population.

Now, Thatcher. Some hail her as a pioneer. Others detest her. As the child of a single working parent under her Government from a Northern, working class background, I cannot bring myself to support her or our current Tory prime minister. Under the Tory government, the rich get richer and the poorer working classes foot the bill. When Mrs. Thatcher came into power, we were in a mess. We were broke, for a start. By privitising pretty much everything - transport, British Gas, BT, the electricity board etc and selling off huge chunks of our trade and industry, she got us out of a mess at the time. But only for the short term. She destroyed our industry, meaning our once vibrant country no longer exported anything to make a healthy profit on and plunged us into more debt.

Just my 2 penneth on the matter lol. I'm a Labour supporter so the right wingers may disagree
 
No, I'm not a musician. I was there to see someone else play :).

I have been to Stratford, yes. Beautiful place!

AGA cookers, you say? My in laws have an Aga. They're gorgeous but very tricky to cook with if you're not used to them.

Alex criticising someone for being common? Hypocrite.

I'm from a council estate in Bradford and proud of it. And hey, even us poor council housed families had skirting boards and carpet that actually fitted and wasn't thread bare. Unlike some.
 
"It's Bloody THATCHER!! it's her, Ben, it is! She's messed everything up, all the hospitals, the buses, British Telecom and the schools, is there anything she hasn't interfered in? I'm surprised she didn't go around to peoples houses in the middle of the night....(imitating Thatcher's voice) Hello, I'm here to rearrange your furniture, I'm afraid its FARRR too comfortable the way it is, let me nail your chairs to the ceiling, they'll be FAR more efficient"

Anyone know where that is from ;)
 
Thatcher, etc., cont.

Good one Alex!
Turbo, I was born in a coal mine hamlet outside of Pittsburgh Pa. My dad grew up there. Depression kids. Outhouses, no natural gas, other than from those.
The only heat for the two storey four room semi detached duplex with shingle siding was from the kitchen wood or coal stove. Eight kids in that house.
After WWII, they got central gas heat, and converted their pantry's into bathrooms. They had to dig septic tanks. Bath tubs or showers had to go in the basements.
We left in 1966. I was raised form then in a suburban 1943 G.I. tract house.
950 sq. feet. 1.5 storey, they call it a cape cod. Asbestos siding (yes, and it is still on it) 3 bedrooms, small kitchen, living room, basement recreation space.
Family of seven.
My parents were able to upgrade to a slightly larger brick home in 1978 by assuming the sellers mortgage at 6%, as new mortgages were around 12%.
They died there.
 

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