Kilgore Trout

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I see there's hoarding around the front areas of what was The Green. Anyone know what's happening there?

I'm with reds on this one. Green and Blue is a class act and would sit well in the very best areas of London. We're privileged to have them in the neighbourhood. The problem thay have is with their landlord. It's not going to be resolved quickly, easily or cheaply. This puts their business at risk. It's the landlord of that building that the forum should be taking to task. If you know who it is and you have some way of influencing proceedings then be a good citizen and act.

Mr Trout is from Liverpool and there?s a story, very possibly an apocryphal one, which has been doing the rounds for the past couple of years. It goes something like this. A major national study of social attitudes contained the following question: ?Name Britain?s Second City? This question was put to a cross-section of the residents of each of Britain?s largest cities. In Glasgow the majority answer, unsurprisingly, was Glasgow. Its Scottish neighbour Edinburgh believed it to be Edinburgh. Our friends in Manchester likewise cited their own fair city. Birmingham, which in population terms at least is clearly Britain?s second city, echoed the response pattern elsewhere. However, when a cross-section of the residents of Liverpool was asked to name Britain?s Second City the majority answer was??? London. This characteristically playful response at once highlights the extraordinary paradox of contemporary Liverpool. When I tell this story to people in Liverpool and from around the world it usually elicits one of three responses. The first is that it?s a joke, a very good joke, and an especially agreeable one if you enjoy deflating the metropolitan pomp of our dear old capital. The second response is usually an admiration and appreciation for a people who have so much assurance, belief and pride in their own identity and value their hometown so much that even London ? arguably the creative and economic capital of western Europe ? sits in the shadow of Liverpool. The second view is that this is a classic act of self-delusion. Liverpool is no more the premier city of Britain than Captain Bird?s Eye is a senior official in the Royal Navy. So, people of ED, where do you consider to be Britain's 'second' city?

Bonjour Melody As you can see I have a literary name and I've stepped off the pages of some of the 20th century's most ribald tales and onto the mean streets of ED in search of rich discourse - and red wine! What are you reading at the moment? I'm guessing you're French, so let me ask you where you stand on that rascal Houllebecq?