An honest and penetrating look at the real experience of living in Dovecot, on the frontier where respectability and community meet violent crime. If only national commentators and reports could see the failure to invest in these abandoned communities as the backdrop to both the terrible events and the community spirit, as Jack s careful journalism has.
My partner grew up in Dovecot, went to St Margaret Mary's Catholic School, and we now live nearby. Our hearts go out to the Korbel's for this senseless tragedy.
As an outsider I've been welcomed into our neighbourhood and I consider this area to be safe. Kids play on the street and we watch out for each other, but we also a neighbourhood WhatsApp group sending out alerts of suspicious behaviour and shared CCTV clips, a sort of 21st century neighbourhood watch.
Urbanisation threatens local communities. Why use a corner shop if there's an Aldi just down the road. ? Why use a community centre if you have Netflix ? Why take your kids to Sunday school when there is Disney + ? These issues are not unique to Dovecot, nor is the use of guns in gang violence. Being prepared to use those guns on innocent members of the public is a Liverpool issue.
Where are the boundaries ? Where is the deterrent ? Who is protecting the killer of a little girl ?
Thanks for this. A tale of decades of 'unmanaged decline' and Tory economics. I was born (in 1946) not far away in Page Moss and lived there until the late 1960s. In many ways it paralleled Dovecot, including with the same parade of shops, above which was Progress Hall, THE venue for weddings and 21st parties. We didn't need to travel far to find a Co-op and every other specialist shop we needed, as well as schools, a GP, dentist, police station, a supervised park, a social club - and a cinema. Dovecot also had the baths and Calvary Church known to us as Cavalry Church... There are lots of pages on the internet which describe what life was like back then, including this one example from Dovecot https://www.malspond.com/?p=1022
A thought provoking piece that captures the reality of life in areas like this. Despite the growing under current of violence that continues generation after generation, you still get that strong community spirit that is inbuilt in Liverpudlians.
Very well thought out & Insightful without being sensationalist (Note to others in the profession, it IS possible and it CAN be done). Said something similar on this forum once before on a similar matter, but it's interresting that Jack also mentioned it this time (though unlike me, he never pointed fingers) at the risk of sounding like a dog with a rat in its teeth, a lot of the blame should lie at the door of Maggie, one of her first acts of Governnment was to actually reduce Customs & Excise Staff, which resulted in less intense scrutiny of goods arriving at ports, (something else Jack pointed out in his article above)
Of course while she undoubtedly signalled the start, many others have been equally complicit by neglecting to adress the problem and even attempt to reverse it, thereby giving the message out to those who indulge in supply "carry on, we're not going to do anything to stop you, and if you do happen to get caught, then it's just sheer bad luck"
Thanks for this thoughtful, considered piece. It seems to me that austerity - an ideological choice made by Cameron and Osborne - has to take some if not all of the blame for this. So many communities have been abandoned, so many amenities closed down. And Ruth made a very valid point about urbanisation, to which I’d add the hyper-individualism stemming from late capitalism and exacerbated by the internet age.
An interesting article. However Cantril farm is of course now Stockbridge Village and I am not sure it was named "Cannibal Farm" because of violence; rather it was an infuriating and thoughtless joke made by people from outside the area.
An honest and penetrating look at the real experience of living in Dovecot, on the frontier where respectability and community meet violent crime. If only national commentators and reports could see the failure to invest in these abandoned communities as the backdrop to both the terrible events and the community spirit, as Jack s careful journalism has.
My partner grew up in Dovecot, went to St Margaret Mary's Catholic School, and we now live nearby. Our hearts go out to the Korbel's for this senseless tragedy.
As an outsider I've been welcomed into our neighbourhood and I consider this area to be safe. Kids play on the street and we watch out for each other, but we also a neighbourhood WhatsApp group sending out alerts of suspicious behaviour and shared CCTV clips, a sort of 21st century neighbourhood watch.
Urbanisation threatens local communities. Why use a corner shop if there's an Aldi just down the road. ? Why use a community centre if you have Netflix ? Why take your kids to Sunday school when there is Disney + ? These issues are not unique to Dovecot, nor is the use of guns in gang violence. Being prepared to use those guns on innocent members of the public is a Liverpool issue.
Where are the boundaries ? Where is the deterrent ? Who is protecting the killer of a little girl ?
Thanks for this. A tale of decades of 'unmanaged decline' and Tory economics. I was born (in 1946) not far away in Page Moss and lived there until the late 1960s. In many ways it paralleled Dovecot, including with the same parade of shops, above which was Progress Hall, THE venue for weddings and 21st parties. We didn't need to travel far to find a Co-op and every other specialist shop we needed, as well as schools, a GP, dentist, police station, a supervised park, a social club - and a cinema. Dovecot also had the baths and Calvary Church known to us as Cavalry Church... There are lots of pages on the internet which describe what life was like back then, including this one example from Dovecot https://www.malspond.com/?p=1022
A thought provoking piece that captures the reality of life in areas like this. Despite the growing under current of violence that continues generation after generation, you still get that strong community spirit that is inbuilt in Liverpudlians.
Very well thought out & Insightful without being sensationalist (Note to others in the profession, it IS possible and it CAN be done). Said something similar on this forum once before on a similar matter, but it's interresting that Jack also mentioned it this time (though unlike me, he never pointed fingers) at the risk of sounding like a dog with a rat in its teeth, a lot of the blame should lie at the door of Maggie, one of her first acts of Governnment was to actually reduce Customs & Excise Staff, which resulted in less intense scrutiny of goods arriving at ports, (something else Jack pointed out in his article above)
Of course while she undoubtedly signalled the start, many others have been equally complicit by neglecting to adress the problem and even attempt to reverse it, thereby giving the message out to those who indulge in supply "carry on, we're not going to do anything to stop you, and if you do happen to get caught, then it's just sheer bad luck"
Thanks for this thoughtful, considered piece. It seems to me that austerity - an ideological choice made by Cameron and Osborne - has to take some if not all of the blame for this. So many communities have been abandoned, so many amenities closed down. And Ruth made a very valid point about urbanisation, to which I’d add the hyper-individualism stemming from late capitalism and exacerbated by the internet age.
An interesting article. However Cantril farm is of course now Stockbridge Village and I am not sure it was named "Cannibal Farm" because of violence; rather it was an infuriating and thoughtless joke made by people from outside the area.
Excellent article - thank you.