It is never good when my colleagues email me from another of our offices early in a morning. Either they want something urgently – or they have seen something that they know will ruin my coffee. Last Friday I was greeted with the BBC story of Nottingham: Britain’s poorest city! It ruined my coffee.
Green Street – The Meadows
The Gross Disposable Household Income measured by the Office for National Statistics was the lowest in the UK. The average for Nottingham was £10,834 pa. The UK average is £16,034.
Whilst I have no reason to doubt the Governments figures I do take exception to the way in which the BBC report. Firstly is this the only story with gritty and grainy black and white photographs to illustrate the story. Then we have the acre-mongering writing technique – which reads more like a thriller than a piece of articulated journalism – “Picture, if you will, a loan shark. A hard-faced, big-booted, macho male perhaps? On the contrary. The one I am looking at is attractive, in her late twenties, with shoulder-length blonde hair and enough brassy confidence to be talking loudly to her boss on the phone.” It could easily be Dan Brown?
The piece highlights The Meadows – an area known, in part, for social deprivation. But also an area which is changing. Look at the Blueprint Green Street development here. Or Julian Marsh’s house I blogged about here.
I suspect if you went to any large provincial city you could find this sort of story?
Yet again though we are portrayed as a sort of rag bag of northerners who rob each other blind?
We have so much good news, this is not the news we need to read over one’s morning coffee…
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