General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

It was Geoffrey Howe who proposed the managed decline of Liverpool on the basis that 10% of the population had departed in the previous 10 years and was still falling.
Michael Heseltine was a good choice to send to Liverpool. As a property man he could see that the state of the old dock buildings and generally dirty area along the river would preclude the private investment needed to rebuild Liverpool.
I was working in Liverpool when Michael Heseltine came along. There’s no doubt in those days labour relations were a turn off for potential investors.