Wednesday, January 17, 2007

I Have A Dream

Dougald Hine quotes Tim Adams on 'the oxymoronic leisure industry':


Whenever I hear that phrase I am reminded of a conversation I had a couple of years ago with the city fathers of Liverpool, who were talking excitedly about their plans for the 2008 city of culture. They spoke a good deal of the booming 'leisure sector' in the city; eventually I came to realise that what they meant by this was drinking. I remember sitting in one of those packed drinking dens late one night with a notebook thinking blearily I had cracked the mystery of Labour's economic policy: create as many students as possible, encourage them to live in blighted city centres, surround them with cheap drink and all-night licensing hours, allow them heavy debt, and let the consequently rampant 'leisure industry', in league with property developers, rebuild your cities.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous12:04 AM

    That's it, banking,boozing and betting are the keystones to the economy that is the envy of europe.

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