Issue 106 / Dec 2019/Jan 2020

THERE SHE
GOES AGAIN
Following the release of his latest book, There She Goes – Liverpool, A City On Its Own: The Long Decade:
1979-1993, social history writer and football journalist Simon Hughes looks back at Liverpool’s progression
through the last 10 years, and the challenges still to come in the decade before us.
Three years out of 50. It’s a small figure, and one I can’t
stop thinking about, especially when it’s essentially just
one year – when you really think about it.
In 1970, back when Liverpool was still a
Conservative city, its political interests aligned with the rest of
the country until 1972 – when Edward Heath reigned as Prime
Minister, a role he would lose in 1974.
Since then, there has just been one short period when
Liverpool has not been a place in opposition. That was under
Frank Prendergast from 1997 until 1998 when the city rejected
New Labour and stood with the Liberal Democrats for the next
12 years.
It is said repeatedly now that Liverpool is an undisputed
Labour stronghold but that wasn’t the case until 2010. It feels
like much has changed since the start of the decade, though
– not least in terms of feeling among the younger generation
of Liverpudlians who seem more socially aware than ever and
certainly more politically conscious than they were before.
There are reasons for this change, starting with the 20th
anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster in 2009 when those too
young to remember or even understand what happened 20 years
earlier started to ask questions after Andy Burnham’s public vow
to help seek justice in front of a packed Anfield.
There was a shift that day, a generation who had grown up
with the consequences of the 1980s finally emboldened. In 2011,
there was the lifting of the 30-year rule on government papers
and what many had suspected for decades was as good as
being confirmed as true – that Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative
government in 1981 had at least discussed the possibility of
allowing Liverpool to slide. Considering what happened to the
city throughout the rest of the decade, you can only assume
Geoffrey Howe’s memo about “managed decline” was put into
practice.
The Hillsborough Independent Panel’s findings came next,
this amid the austerity of the latest Tory government. It has
surprised many who were growing up in the 1980s the way the
“Scouse not English” mantra of this era has accelerated because
the sentiment didn’t exist with the same appetite when things
were even worse than they are now. But are they better? Are
they just as bad but in a different way?
Liverpool is a more cosmopolitan city than ever. Its economy
has boomed through tourism, which, whether we like it or not,
serves to benefit the drugs barons whose finances are washed
through the hotels and restaurants that so many visitors like
to sleep and eat in. Liverpool looks smarter and, unlike other
Northern cities, it is not made of glass. It feels like it is built to
last. The development of the Baltic Triangle has been spectacular
and I hope that extends into other parts of the city that require
investment at its southern end, albeit without it endangering the
identities of the communities that live there.
Stray outside the centre, indeed, and the struggle is arguably
greater than it has ever been in the boroughs that have long
struggled anyway. Homelessness was not the scourge of the
1980s like it is now. It may be a national issue but the figures
prove it is worse in the cities where the government has no
council control. Foodbank collections in Liverpool are a reflection
of the spectacular generosity that exists here but it is also a
reflection of how genuinely
desperate so many people have
become.
Perhaps change will come.
The Brexit vote in Liverpool
was closer than many people
in Liverpool expected. Yet it is
worth remembering that while
Liverpool suffered because of
the increase in trade with the
European Economic Community
in place of the British Empire,
when Liverpool was at its lowest
in 1993, the European Union
dedicated more money than any
British government in history to
help start some form of recovery.
A fortnight after the murder of
James Bulger – just at the point
where it felt like Liverpool couldn’t
slump any further – funding was allocated to Merseyside, along
with parts of the old East Germany and the poorest regions of
Southern Italy. If parts of Liverpool feel left behind, it is mainly
because of the lack of care from successive governments which
have run along too similar lines rather than necessarily the EU.
In writing There She Goes, I was told coldly by Professor Patrick
Minford, whose economic policies defined Thatcherism and
impacted so gravely on Liverpool, despite the fact he worked
in the city, that the EU repulsed him because it was “a socialist
machine” in so many different ways.
I wonder where Liverpool will be 10 years from now. It is a
city which will always be in the news because of its association
with music and the council will have to challenge the interests
of property developers to ensure classic venues remain open
even if the land they stand on is potentially profitable. It is a city
“Liverpool is a city which
will always be in the news
because of its association
with music, crime and
football. But where will it
be 10 years from now?”
which will always be in the news because of its association with
crime, and the threat of gangsterism largely goes unreported
even though there is a cocaine epidemic which goes a long way
towards explaining knife crime. It is also a city which will always
be in the news because of its football, and changes are necessary
if the grassroots game is to survive.
Supporters of Liverpool FC should be proud of the way
they mobilised themselves and pushed out greedy owners at
the start of this decade, as well as the way they challenge the
New England venture capitalists who are currently in charge. If
Liverpool manage to win the league for the first time in 30 years,
maybe the greatest challenge
for fan culture will arrive. What
tricks will Fenway Sports Group
try then?
The ecosystem at Anfield is a
fragile one but when it feels like
everyone is pulling in the same
direction, the club can seem like
it is unstoppable both on and off
the pitch. So long as no decisions
are made that jeopardise the
interests of local supporters, then
Liverpool have a better chance.
Other than winning football
matches, the club’s priority should
be to find a way to get more
young Liverpudlians inside the
ground.
An even more significant
period feels like it is ahead for
Everton whose move to Bramley-Moore Dock will potentially
make Liverpool’s waterfront more stunning than it is. In theory, it
will re-energise a part of north Liverpool which has never really
recovered from the period which sets the scene for There She
Goes in the years before 1979. Ultimately, I hope the book makes
younger readers particularly understand better where the city has
been and where it is now coming from. !
Words: Simon Hughes / @Simon_Hughes__
Illustration: Mr Marbles / @mrmarblesart
There She Goes – Liverpool, A City On Its Own: The Long
Decade: 1979-1993 is out now, published by deCoubertin Books.
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