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Why are you still here? James Meek reports from Grimsby

28 points by happyscrappy 12y ago

mike-cardwell 12y ago
Something weird about seeing my home town here. Especially as I'm visiting this weekend. Anyone else here from Grimsby?
- petercooper 12y ago
  Not from but I've lived in Louth for ten years and both my daughters were born in Grimsby.
petercooper 12y ago
Ooh! I live 15 minutes from Grimsby! I hope I'm feeling like patio11 does whenever a post about Japan comes up ;-) Note that the question in the title seems to be aimed at why fishermen and miners are still around, not why people are still in Grimsby ;-) Grimsby is an interesting and rather complex town, in my experience, but broadly suffers the same issues as any number of other British cities that are getting little investment (unlike Lincoln 25 miles to the south-west) and are struggling to modernise. One major issue with towns like Grimsby is constant brain drain. Young people keep moving out, old downsizers keep moving in. I've been hiring in the area and while I've found some gold here, it's striking how many young people abandon these areas and end up staying where they went to uni or flee to London if they want to "make something of themselves". The political and institutional London-oriented "design" of the United Kingdom is actively harming towns like Grimsby in a way that doesn't seem to occur in the US (at least, the intentional part). As an aside, it seems like Grimsby may get some international recognition soon as the guy who made Borat is basing his next movie on the town - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimsby_%28film%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimsby_%28film%29
- untog 12y ago
  The political and institutional London-oriented "design" of the United Kingdom is actively harming towns like Grimsby in a way that doesn't seem to occur in the US It does, it's just that the size of the US makes it slightly less apparent. It's not that everyone is moving to one city, but everyone is moving to San Francisco, Silicon Valley, New York, LA, and so on. It's practically a right of passage to go try life in "the big city", then decide if you want to come home.
  - petercooper 12y ago
    Good point, I should probably look at the US as an amalgam of 50 "countries" rather than a direct comparison. The US seems to punch above its weight in thriving focal points though - the UK's economy is only 5x smaller but almost entirely focused towards one city.
guard-of-terra 12y ago
It seems to me that countries who "won the WWII" failed to make anything out of it; save for the USA who took it all.
- lmz 12y ago
  It's probably fair to say that's because only the US didn't get bombed to pieces.
concerto 12y ago
I love this article. It aims to show the political spectrum through a detailed study of a microcosm. While certain issues might be very specific to this constituency, through the piece it details the wider picture such as the battle between the hard left and the hard right for the same voters, and the issues they hold in common. I love it. I wonder how true this is of other countries or whether it is specific to the UK. Greece has had a similar situation with Golden Dawn and Syriza, although to a much larger scale as it is unlikely that UKIP or a socialist alliance/Greens could ever take power given the first past the post system.

28 points by happyscrappy 12y ago

mike-cardwell 12y ago

Something weird about seeing my home town here. Especially as I'm visiting this weekend. Anyone else here from Grimsby?

petercooper 12y ago
Not from but I've lived in Louth for ten years and both my daughters were born in Grimsby.

petercooper 12y ago

Ooh! I live 15 minutes from Grimsby! I hope I'm feeling like patio11 does whenever a post about Japan comes up ;-) Note that the question in the title seems to be aimed at why fishermen and miners are still around, not why people are still in Grimsby ;-) Grimsby is an interesting and rather complex town, in my experience, but broadly suffers the same issues as any number of other British cities that are getting little investment (unlike Lincoln 25 miles to the south-west) and are struggling to modernise. One major issue with towns like Grimsby is constant brain drain. Young people keep moving out, old downsizers keep moving in. I've been hiring in the area and while I've found some gold here, it's striking how many young people abandon these areas and end up staying where they went to uni or flee to London if they want to "make something of themselves". The political and institutional London-oriented "design" of the United Kingdom is actively harming towns like Grimsby in a way that doesn't seem to occur in the US (at least, the intentional part). As an aside, it seems like Grimsby may get some international recognition soon as the guy who made Borat is basing his next movie on the town - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimsby_%28film%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimsby_%28film%29

untog 12y ago
The political and institutional London-oriented "design" of the United Kingdom is actively harming towns like Grimsby in a way that doesn't seem to occur in the US It does, it's just that the size of the US makes it slightly less apparent. It's not that everyone is moving to one city, but everyone is moving to San Francisco, Silicon Valley, New York, LA, and so on. It's practically a right of passage to go try life in "the big city", then decide if you want to come home.
- petercooper 12y ago
  Good point, I should probably look at the US as an amalgam of 50 "countries" rather than a direct comparison. The US seems to punch above its weight in thriving focal points though - the UK's economy is only 5x smaller but almost entirely focused towards one city.

guard-of-terra 12y ago

It seems to me that countries who "won the WWII" failed to make anything out of it; save for the USA who took it all.

lmz 12y ago
It's probably fair to say that's because only the US didn't get bombed to pieces.

concerto 12y ago

I love this article. It aims to show the political spectrum through a detailed study of a microcosm. While certain issues might be very specific to this constituency, through the piece it details the wider picture such as the battle between the hard left and the hard right for the same voters, and the issues they hold in common. I love it. I wonder how true this is of other countries or whether it is specific to the UK. Greece has had a similar situation with Golden Dawn and Syriza, although to a much larger scale as it is unlikely that UKIP or a socialist alliance/Greens could ever take power given the first past the post system.