Monday, August 04, 2008

Civic Chaos Re-Lived



After Jason Harborow poured his heart out to the Echo last week (the usual shallow, pathetic, self-pitying drivel about how he feels like a scapegoat --ha!-- ) it was the turn of city council leader Warren Bradley over the weekend (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2008/08/02/the-year-it-all-went-bradley-wrong-100252-21452126/ ).

Paddy Shennan gave Bradley the kid-glove treatment as he gently coaxed the city council leader to re-live his self-styled ordeal. Amidst the torrent of supposed wounded pride, slander & intrigue came this curious claim (& semi-mea culpa ) about last year's Matthew Street fiasco:

"The press releases that came out ofthe Culture Company and the authority were probably not the best, so there was a big lesson learned there.

"They never actually said the outdoor stages wouldn't be taking place. It was 'The Matthew Street festival is cancelled',which wasn't correct at the time, as we know, because the indoor stages were a big success last year."

Actually, Warren, by any objective criterion, "success" is a term which doesn't belong in the context of last year's farce. The handful of overseas visitors who came to the city regardless were bemused to find no outdoor stages whilst being assured that there was still a festival taking place; it's just that all the indoor venues were already filled to capacity, so access to the "festival" wasn't possible to many.

Bradley goes on to say he doesn't look for excuses. So why were Lee Forde & Chris Green, Culture Company Events Manager & Operations Director respectively, hung out to dry in the report on the fiasco last November?

If you're reading this, Warren (I believe you're a big fan of the Liverpool Subculture blog by the way), do let me know.

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