Jason Stockwood article in The Guardian

Published this morning
https://www.theguardian.com/co.....are_AndroidApp_Other

Great article by JS. Optimistic yet realistic for the town and the club.

Got a bit of something in my eye reading that.

He just gets it!

Quoted from HertsGTFC

He just gets it!

Just one thing after another at the moment - organization, competence, communication and vision...

Anyone got the full article?

Great realistic PR from the heart.

I respect any new owner who does NOT say that we will be in the Championship within 5 years.  Talk is cheap.  

When the sociologist Michael Young coined the idea of a meritocracy in 1958, he imagined a dystopian future where those who had succeeded on the basis of their inherited advantages would instead congratulate themselves on having done so as a result of their skills and capabilities. In Young’s satirical essay, the elite believed their success was down to individual merit, while a disenfranchised underclass were considered deserving of their social position. Young’s term is now frequently used with a straight face by those who understand neither its original negative connotations, nor what a travesty it is to suggest that merit is the primary factor determining a person’s life chances today.
For a long time, I told myself that my achievements were the product of the meritocracy I was born into, where hard work was both a necessity and a sufficient condition of success. I grew up in Grimsby, and like many entrepreneurial origin stories, mine began at school. To supplement my nonexistent allowance, I sold Opium (knock-off perfume, before you fall off your chair). My teachers called the police, and having spent the morning in the classroom, I sat out the afternoon in a police cell. Thirty years later, I had gone from working on the docks in Grimsby to dealing with private equity investors in New York as a tech CEO; from waking up in a house with ice inside the windows to a home with neighbours from “on the telly” and in the Premier League; from being the son of a single mum who worked three jobs to keep four sons fed and clothed, to becoming a parent who can afford to provide almost anything for my own children.
Yet I now know that the “meritocracy” people talk about is a reflection of their capital, both social and financial. Data and experience tells me I am an outlier in a country where inequality has risen and life chances have got worse for children born into circumstances like mine. It might sound odd, but these realisations are part of the reason I decided to buy my home-town football club, Grimsby Town FC, with my business partner Andrew Pettit. A football club that finished 92nd out of 92 teams in the English Football League in May, and was relegated to the National League. A club with one of the oldest stands in the football league, in dire need of investment, historically teetering on the edge of insolvency without the aid of local benefactors.
On paper, buying the club was a terrible financial decision – and yet when you consider the chance to rebuild civic value in the town where both Andrew and I grew up, it felt like one of the most valuable opportunities of our lives.
In Grimsby, problems that were already becoming clear when I was growing up in the 1970s and 80s have crystallised in the years since: industrial decline, the slow demise of the once-dominant fishing industry and the social problems that followed from a lack of job opportunities and a general sense of abandonment. My brush with the law was tame compared to the reality some children in Grimsby face today, coerced into county lines drug gangs where they face the threat of shocking violence. In several of Grimsby’s wards, close to half of all children are living in poverty. The town continues to be failed by those who purport to care for it: framed by television cameras as a symbol of deprivation and decline, poked by thinktanks and prodded by journalists, caricatured as a victim of the Brexit that its people decisively voted for.
Yet this is nowhere near the whole story of the town I know and love. Grimsby deserves better than becoming the goldfish bowl of post-Brexit Britain, gawped at by the prosperous and socially conscious, a tourist attraction on the map of social and economic deprivation. Instead we should be looking to the town as a place where the voices we hear are not lamenting their lost past, but shaping their future. While many civic institutions and local businesses have faded away and shuttered over the years, professional football teams are one of the few institutions that have endured. Indeed, Grimsby Town FC has a 143-year history and a committed (if somewhat diminished) following today. The Mariners can still engender a sense of collective belonging and an identity that is deeply aligned to the performance of 11 men in black and white on a Saturday afternoon.
Often the only story you hear about Grimsby is about the lack of opportunity, aspiration and education. But dig deeper and you encounter people who avoided university because of the cost and are now building stable careers; twentysomethings running their own companies and people who neither wanted to leave nor felt they had to. “I love the town and never wanted to move away,” said the newest and youngest trustee of Grimsby’s new OnSide Youth Zone. She went on to become a partner at a local accountancy firm and told me: “It’s brilliant here. I grew up thinking everyone lived near the beach.” Young people who have pride in the town and know its problems should have a much greater role in determining the policies that will shape its future. Though we clearly need the support of central government, solutions have to be built as a partnership with the community itself.
Andrew and I became the major shareholders of the club on 4 May this year. This investment seems like the perfect counterweight to the ownership model of the “Super League” teams, a paradigmatic example of distorted capitalism where profit motives and dividend payments are regarded as the only measure of success. Football teams are viewed in high definition around the world but have become untethered from the communities that made them what they are today.
Buying Grimsby Town FC is an opportunity to place a football club and its values at the centre of a renewal that is already happening in the town, and to amplify the amazing community work that is being done by the football club’s charitable arm for education, diversity and inclusivity. We want to show that “levelling up” means recognising the myth of meritocracy and levelling the playing field, rather than assuming that opportunities trickle down. This can only work if it starts from within the community, with a shared identity that a 143-year-old football club is uniquely positioned to play a huge part in shaping.

Wow, things are certainly happening!! UTM!!

Putting the Great back into Grimsby .

Beats Borat.

Very impressive.  And serious quality in his career and background.  A football club is more than just a football club - sounds like he totally gets it.

At last - a businessman with strong opinions, wealth and a heart to put back into the community.

I recimmend this as an essential read into Jason's outlook on the town and our football team being part of a comeback into community cohesion.

Yes - he really gets it !

Wonder where all the red crosses are coming from

Quoted from Grimsbynewhope

Wonder where all the red crosses are coming from

Fenty’s mob. Like a bad penny

Quoted from Grimsbynewhope

Wonder where all the red crosses are coming from

We do have some very immature , or mentally at least, contributors to this site, so maybe from that contingent. I know everyone is allowed an opinion but it would be beneficial if somebody who red crossed that article could explain their thinking in disagreeing with it.

Quoted from Grimsbynewhope

Wonder where all the red crosses are coming from

PP!??🤭🤭

A really insightful article.

I've read all of the comments and am really pleased at how so many people wish our club all the best for the future. Quite a few keeping an eye out for us as a second team and some nostalgic contributions too. Well worth having a look at.

I would have preferred a more positive article about Grimsby the place, and more about the proud history of GTFC.

I admire what the new owners are doing for the club, but poverty and decline are relative, and many towns and communities suffer from the ebbs and flows of economic activity, government decisions of all colours and the overreliance of the southeast on the UK economy.

Taking everything into account North East Lincolnshire is a great place to live; obviously, we would all like it even better, but we can improve everything in time but I wish National articles like this would focus more on the positive aspects, instead of going over the decline of the fishing industry again and our shortcomings which are not exclusive to Grimsby.

One man ruined GTFC, but we are seemingly in safe hands with the new owners, but personally I think they are overestimating the impact it will have on the wider community apart from the feel-good factor of having a more successful club.

Probably the biggest impact they could have on the wider community is to fund, or find funds for a new community stadium if they can.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

I would have preferred a more positive article about Grimsby the place, and more about the proud history of GTFC.

I admire what the new owners are doing for the club, but poverty and decline are relative, and many towns and communities suffer from the ebbs and flows of economic activity, government decisions of all colours and the overreliance of the southeast on the UK economy.

Taking everything into account North East Lincolnshire is a great place to live; obviously, we would all like it even better, but we can improve everything in time but I wish National articles like this would focus more on the positive aspects, instead of going over the decline of the fishing industry again and our shortcomings which are not exclusive to Grimsby.

One man ruined GTFC, but we are seemingly in safe hands with the new owners, but personally I think they are overestimating the impact it will have on the wider community apart from the feel-good factor of having a more successful club.

Probably the biggest impact they could have on the wider community is to fund, or find funds for a new community stadium if they can.

You trot this same line out every single time anyone dares criticise the town. Yeah, for some people it is a nice place to live - if you’ve got the money to buy a big house at a relatively low price, don’t have too many concerns about a stable income and can afford some of life’s luxuries like going out of town for the day for some entertainment.

But this isn’t the experience shared by everyone, especially not those in the wards mentioned in the article, where you’re relying on local services (or lack thereof), and your entertainment is limited to the town’s dwindling offer.

Plus, “local man buys club where everything is great, hopes for continuity” isn’t much of a story…

Quoted from 800

A really insightful article.

I've read all of the comments and am really pleased at how so many people wish our club all the best for the future. Quite a few keeping an eye out for us as a second team and some nostalgic contributions too. Well worth having a look at.

There are one or two but most of the comments are by some troll who would be putting red crosses if he was a fishy on here.

Quoted from ska face

You trot this same line out every single time anyone dares criticise the town. Yeah, for some people it is a nice place to live - if you’ve got the money to buy a big house at a relatively low price, don’t have too many concerns about a stable income and can afford some of life’s luxuries like going out of town for the day for some entertainment.

But this isn’t the experience shared by everyone, especially not those in the wards mentioned in the article, where you’re relying on local services (or lack thereof), and your entertainment is limited to the town’s dwindling offer.

Plus, “local man buys club where everything is great, hopes for continuity” isn’t much of a story…

It was not shared by me either as I was born in a rented room in Orwell Street, spent my childhood in a slum in John Street and then moved to a "palatial" top floor council flat on Cleethorpe Road.   I know all about the hardships of growing up in a town like Grimsby. But that was then.

I was merely pointing out that many towns have suffered more than Grimsby and a more positive outlook would not go amiss.

Can only mean good for Town, and the club as well! We have the right man in charge at last.

When was that then, 40-50 years ago?

It’s not a crime to point out that large parts of the town are exceptionally deprived and N.E. Lincs is drastically behind the times compared to many comparatively sized areas.

Quoted from ska face

When was that then, 40-50 years ago?

It’s not a crime to point out that large parts of the town are exceptionally deprived and N.E. Lincs is drastically behind the times compared to many comparatively sized areas.

Everybody knows what’s wrong with the town and we all can just sit and moan about it but that’s not going to change things, at least we have a couple of guys involved with the club and the wider community that are trying to do something.

Not everyone it seems. LCL can’t have a bad word said about the place and wants the Guardian to be running stories about the club’s glory days instead of the decent article published this morning.

Great article.

Such a contrast from the turd the previous regime shat out.

bloody tyre kicking socialist  


wish we had a proper Tory chairman, who could tell us, from the comfort of his snooker room, where we were all going wrong and inspire us by telling us how expensive his latest motor was

Quoted from forza ivano

bloody tyre kicking socialist  


wish we had a proper Tory chairman, who could tell us, from the comfort of his snooker room, where we were all going wrong and inspire us by telling us how expensive his latest motor was

😂😂😂

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

I would have preferred a more positive article about Grimsby the place, and more about the proud history of GTFC.

I admire what the new owners are doing for the club, but poverty and decline are relative, and many towns and communities suffer from the ebbs and flows of economic activity, government decisions of all colours and the overreliance of the southeast on the UK economy.

Taking everything into account North East Lincolnshire is a great place to live; obviously, we would all like it even better, but we can improve everything in time but I wish National articles like this would focus more on the positive aspects, instead of going over the decline of the fishing industry again and our shortcomings which are not exclusive to Grimsby.

One man ruined GTFC, but we are seemingly in safe hands with the new owners, but personally I think they are overestimating the impact it will have on the wider community apart from the feel-good factor of having a more successful club.

Probably the biggest impact they could have on the wider community is to fund, or find funds for a new community stadium if they can.

I’m not sure the article was completely about football to be honest.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

Probably the biggest impact they could have on the wider community is to fund, or find funds for a new community stadium if they can.

And let's hope they design it so we can have live music concerts there as an aside. Even better, build a theatre in it just so we can urinate on Tom Shutes' high faluting ideas for him to line his own pocket again.

Just read Jasons' article, it brought a tear to my eye. A guy from the backstreets of GY hobnobbing with the greats of New York. He now wants to put something back along with Andrew.

A brilliant story for the youth of the town, you can do it, it can be done, I am living proof that a backstreet kid with little basic education, having to 'improvise to help feed my family' when a kid can become a millionaire.

He's come back to help the club, the community, and the Town.

Quoted from Northbank Mariner

PP!??🤭🤭

Nope, I agree with the sentiment of what he's saying, that the club should be tightly integrated with the community and I like that they aspire to have more community interaction. I don't like the article though, it reminds me of the questions podcast when he seemed to want to show how intelligent he is by talking about ideologies and that article starts off doing the same about meritocracy and then goes on to portray Grimsby as the bottom hole of the country. There's enough negative press about the place and it doesn't need adding to by a champion for the local area. N.E. Lincs has some wonderful qualities and it'd be nice to hear about those to help raise the profile of the area rather than scare people off with tales of kids being forced into drug gangs and poverty.

Quoted from pen penfras

Nope, I agree with the sentiment of what he's saying, that the club should be tightly integrated with the community and I like that they aspire to have more community interaction. I don't like the article though, it reminds me of the questions podcast when he seemed to want to show how intelligent he is by talking about ideologies and that article starts off doing the same about meritocracy and then goes on to portray Grimsby as the bottom hole of the country. There's enough negative press about the place and it doesn't need adding to by a champion for the local area. N.E. Lincs has some wonderful qualities and it'd be nice to hear about those to help raise the profile of the area rather than scare people off with tales of kids being forced into drug gangs and poverty.

To enable change you must face into what actually needs changing.

We can now go live to our terrible take correspondent who is on the scene now. Lew..

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

I would have preferred a more positive article about Grimsby the place, and more about the proud history of GTFC.

I admire what the new owners are doing for the club, but poverty and decline are relative, and many towns and communities suffer from the ebbs and flows of economic activity, government decisions of all colours and the overreliance of the southeast on the UK economy.

Taking everything into account North East Lincolnshire is a great place to live; obviously, we would all like it even better, but we can improve everything in time but I wish National articles like this would focus more on the positive aspects, instead of going over the decline of the fishing industry again and our shortcomings which are not exclusive to Grimsby.

One man ruined GTFC, but we are seemingly in safe hands with the new owners, but personally I think they are overestimating the impact it will have on the wider community apart from the feel-good factor of having a more successful club.

Probably the biggest impact they could have on the wider community is to fund, or find funds for a new community stadium if they can.

Quoted from LH

We can now go live to our terrible take correspondent who is on the scene now. Lew..

Very droll.

I am not sure why it is such a shock for someone Grimsby born and bred to be proud of my home town. Perhaps born into such poverty I see things in a more rose tinted way when I look at Grimsby today and the progress it has made.

My wife comes from York, and her relatives seem to have a greater appreciation of the Grimsby area than some of our own. They are very complimentary of the area when they visit and cannot understand the negative press and recognise our heritage and all that goes with it. Admittedly I don't take them shopping down Freeman Street, or show them round the less salubrious areas, but then again they understand that every town has them.

I may be in a minority on here (not new, including my many anti-Fenty rants over the years when it wasn't fashionable) but it is great to have a view that you believe in. If you don't agree, it is no skin off my nose as they say.  

N.E. Lincs is consistently in the top 10 most deprived areas in the entire country and the East Marsh was once in the top 3 most deprived wards, yet Lew and PP seem to think that shouldn't be mentioned and there are much worse places, when in reality, there aren't.

What's wrong you two? Not enough right wing rhetoric?

Thought it was a great article myself and flags up the inequality in modern society. Hope they can bring a bit of joy and pride back to the football club and in the community.

Quoted from ginnywings

N.E. Lincs is consistently in the top 10 most deprived areas in the entire country and the East Marsh was once in the top 3 most deprived wards, yet Lew and PP seem to think that shouldn't be mentioned and there are much worse places, when in reality, there aren't.

What's wrong you two? Not enough right wing rhetoric?

Thought it was a great article myself and flags up the inequality in modern society. Hope they can bring a bit of joy and pride back to the football club and in the community.

That is not correct Ginny.

Most lists I have seen of the most deprived areas of the country, Grimsby doesn't even make the list.

I am looking now at a list compiled by the Guardian, and the list of most deprived wards are as follows:-

Liverpool, Manchester,Middlesborough,Knowsley,Hull, Hackney,Tower Hamlets, Birmingham,Blackpool,Hartlepool,Blackburn with Darwin, Burnley, Salford, Newsham, Stoke on Trent, Bradford, Sandwell, Pendle, Harringay, Hastings.

According to the Guardian most deprived areas are in cities. (95%)

In their full list, NE Lincs is rated 85th most deprived area.

I stand by my comment that there are a lot worse places to live than Grimsby.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

That is not correct Ginny.

Most lists I have seen of the most deprived areas of the country, Grimsby doesn't even make the list.

I am looking now at a list compiled by the Guardian, and the list of most deprived wards are as follows:-

Liverpool, Manchester,Middlesborough,Knowsley,Hull, Hackney,Tower Hamlets, Birmingham,Blackpool,Hartlepool,Blackburn with Darwin, Burnley, Salford, Newsham, Stoke on Trent, Bradford, Sandwell, Pendle, Harringay, Hastings.

According to the Guardian most deprived areas are in cities. (95%)

In their full list, NE Lincs is rated 85th most deprived area.

I stand by my comment that there are a lot worse places to live than Grimsby.

The fact that there are so many locations that are deprived is illustrative of some of the stuff Jason references in his piece.

I’ve recently been working in Hackney, Harringhay, Dalston and Bethel Green all of which are equally as challenged if not more, depending how you measure things.

In my Region I also covered the City, Zone 1 and the West End. The socioeconomic gulf is quite disturbing, what has happened to Grimsby in the last 30/40 years is a UK wide problem that in my view started at the end of the 70s when “you know who” got her claws into the Country.

Quoted from DB

Just read Jasons' article, it brought a tear to my eye. A guy from the backstreets of GY hobnobbing with the greats of New York. He now wants to put something back along with Andrew.

A brilliant story for the youth of the town, you can do it, it can be done, I am living proof that a backstreet kid with little basic education, having to 'improvise to help feed my family' when a kid can become a millionaire.

He's come back to help the club, the community, and the Town.

He isn’t that unusual. I could name at least one other local from a similar background who has made much more money from Wall Street than Mr Stockwood in the US. It’s just that he bought a football club instead of being a Carphone bloke who sank money into local education. I admire him though for wanting the best for his hometown and we will all benefit in morale from a successful club. Declining with urban poverty, drug abuse etc. is a whole different ball game. As many towns have found you can pour money into a bottomless pit and still find drugs hurtling along the M!80 into Grimsby and people using foodbanks. But there are a lot of kids who do succeed and there would be more if we could convince them of the value of qualifications and perseverance. We forget as well that the majority of NEL is not poor, has good schools and kids getting great results.There are also new investments already underway in theory, not least by Jason’s erstwhile partner. Let’s not worry about such things, just enjoy what’s happening to the club, swing along with the transformations and give all our support to this promotion push.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

That is not correct Ginny.

Most lists I have seen of the most deprived areas of the country, Grimsby doesn't even make the list.

I am looking now at a list compiled by the Guardian, and the list of most deprived wards are as follows:-

Liverpool, Manchester,Middlesborough,Knowsley,Hull, Hackney,Tower Hamlets, Birmingham,Blackpool,Hartlepool,Blackburn with Darwin, Burnley, Salford, Newsham, Stoke on Trent, Bradford, Sandwell, Pendle, Harringay, Hastings.

According to the Guardian most deprived areas are in cities. (95%)

In their full list, NE Lincs is rated 85th most deprived area.

I stand by my comment that there are a lot worse places to live than Grimsby.

Really?

And there is even your friendly local Tory, a certain Mr Jackson telling us we all have it wrong and it's not as bad as made out. We are only the 5th worse, but we are "punching above our weight".

Sound familiar?

https://thelincolnite.co.uk/20.....among-most-deprived/

The article does focus on the positives! It bigs up some of the relatively small things happening. Personally I thought it painted a rosy picture, relatively speaking.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

The fact that there are so many locations that are deprived is illustrative of some of the stuff Jason references in his piece.

I’ve recently been working in Hackney, Harringhay, Dalston and Bethel Green all of which are equally as challenged if not more, depending how you measure things.

In my Region I also covered the City, Zone 1 and the West End. The socioeconomic gulf is quite disturbing, what has happened to Grimsby in the last 30/40 years is a UK wide problem that in my view started at the end of the 70s when “you know who” got her claws into the Country.

I wasn't born in the 70's and too young when she was in power to remember anything, but look at the scenes before that, and it was a hell of a lot worse before. The country was in a much bigger mess as a result of labour than it ever has been since.

https://www.google.com/search?.....imgrc=yT-ciY-nMObr9M

Quoted from ginnywings

Really?

And there is even your friendly local Tory, a certain Mr Jackson telling us we all have it wrong and it's not as bad as made out. We are only the 5th worse, but we are "punching above our weight".

Sound familiar?

https://thelincolnite.co.uk/20.....among-most-deprived/

Yes really.

Your assertion that NE LIncs is consistently in the top 10 most deprived areas of the country is not correct. Your assertion that there are not much worse places is also incorrect. I quoted the Guardian article hoping it would carry more weight on here, but there are countless others online.

These sorts of lists appear occasionally in the media, and of course the matrix they use can be different, but the places that are most quoted are those listed in the Guardian article.

It is similar to the yearly debate about players "won't come to Grimsby" for the usual downbeat reasons given by various posters.

Yet here we are, still in June, and funnily enough, we have signed most of the players we need, and again funnily enough from various parts of the country!  You would think on a GTFC message board there might be a bit more support for Grimsby the place.

Great Grimsby forever I say!

Quoted from pen penfras

I wasn't born in the 70's and too young when she was in power to remember anything, but look at the scenes before that, and it was a hell of a lot worse before. The country was in a much bigger mess as a result of labour than it ever has been since.

https://www.google.com/search?.....imgrc=yT-ciY-nMObr9M

So if you weren’t born then, it’s an era that you don’t know at first hand. Herts does know it first hand and do do I. Those pictures you just posted are a snapshot. It wasn’t like that throughout the 60s and 70s. There are plenty of bad things we could show you about the 80s, 90s, 2010s.

Society was much more equal then than now. Far from perfect but the gulf in wealth has got greater.

Got to be said there are much worse places than Grimsby but you will find that those place have a very large immigrant population and its always those areas that cry social injustice.

Nothing to do with race before someone calls it out. just a very basic fact.

Quoted from pen penfras

Nope, I agree with the sentiment of what he's saying, that the club should be tightly integrated with the community and I like that they aspire to have more community interaction. I don't like the article though, it reminds me of the questions podcast when he seemed to want to show how intelligent he is by talking about ideologies and that article starts off doing the same about meritocracy and then goes on to portray Grimsby as the bottom hole of the country. There's enough negative press about the place and it doesn't need adding to by a champion for the local area. N.E. Lincs has some wonderful qualities and it'd be nice to hear about those to help raise the profile of the area rather than scare people off with tales of kids being forced into drug gangs and poverty.

Are you ever happy?

Quoted from KingstonMariner

So if you weren’t born then, it’s an era that you don’t know at first hand. Herts does know it first hand and do do I. Those pictures you just posted are a snapshot. It wasn’t like that throughout the 60s and 70s. There are plenty of bad things we could show you about the 80s, 90s, 2010s.

Society was much more equal then than now. Far from perfect but the gulf in wealth has got greater.

Oooo, Kingston! That’s a bold statement. The 50s and 60s were the time of Cathy Come Home, How Green Was My Wotsit,, the start of Coronation Street with the terraces of Salford and outside lavies. Alf Garnett sitting out there with the Racing Times. The squares and back alleys off Freemo stinking of dog crap.

Then you only had to walk down to Park Drive to see the fish merchant’s houses or up Grimsby Road..  I don’t think there was any less or more of a gulf in wealth. What we did have was a way out. The bulk of the pupils in Clee Grammar and Wintringham after 1944 were from less well off homes. There were a lot of homes that couldn’t afford the uniforms but an awful lot that scrimped and did and those kids formed the backbone of the management classes in the area for years as accountants and solicitors and the like.

Two other points on that. It was commonplace for graduates to come back to the area, the movement away from Grimsby is understandable but hasn’t helped. The other is that attitudes were not the same. As a child of the working class my family’s attitude was aspirational not destructive. That only changed in the 70s/80s when the first child told me he didn’t care about working hard in school for a good job because his dad said he could live well enough without the work.

Finally, the media. The Grimsby Telegraph my have made a social point but now we have non-local Reach journalists scouring the web from their tablets for anything so they can be ramming poverty down readers’ throats on a regular basis as though there is nothing else but that worthy to write about.

I read it as a positive piece.

He's basically saying that the opportunity for young people in Grimsby to thrive is hard, but the potential is there — and while we need some government assistance (and the football club can be used to galvanise, excite and inspire our younger generations) we should be listening to these young people, and building answers that fit their vision.

JS sees the potential in people, and he sees it in Grimsby. Fair enough, he highlights some of the blockers (none of which are unique to Grimsby) but he's highlighting the best way to improve lives and that is to love where we live, and be proud of it.

Obviously it makes reference to hardships, because success needs context. Didn't read this as negative at all.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

Oooo, Kingston! That’s a bold statement. The 50s and 60s were the time of Cathy Come Home, How Green Was My Wotsit,, the start of Coronation Street with the terraces of Salford and outside lavies. Alf Garnett sitting out there with the Racing Times. The squares and back alleys off Freemo stinking of dog crap.

Then you only had to walk down to Park Drive to see the fish merchant’s houses or up Grimsby Road..  I don’t think there was any less or more of a gulf in wealth. What we did have was a way out. The bulk of the pupils in Clee Grammar and Wintringham after 1944 were from less well off homes. There were a lot of homes that couldn’t afford the uniforms but an awful lot that scrimped and did and those kids formed the backbone of the management classes in the area for years as accountants and solicitors and the like.

Two other points on that. It was commonplace for graduates to come back to the area, the movement away from Grimsby is understandable but hasn’t helped. The other is that attitudes were not the same. As a child of the working class my family’s attitude was aspirational not destructive. That only changed in the 70s/80s when the first child told me he didn’t care about working hard in school for a good job because his dad said he could live well enough without the work.

Finally, the media. The Grimsby Telegraph my have made a social point but now we have non-local Reach journalists scouring the web from their tablets for anything so they can be ramming poverty down readers’ throats on a regular basis as though there is nothing else but that worthy to write about.

Here you go:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplep.....nding2020provisional

Of course most people have more materially than they had then. Not saying we didn’t have ice on the inside of our bedrooms growing up. I’m talking about the national picture, not specifically GY area. And it’s about relative wealth and income. Most people were poorer in a material sense. The better off had two weeks in the Med, the poor a day trip to Skeggy. Now the better off have two weeks in the Maldives, skiing in Chamonix, a couple of city breaks to Copenhagen and Verona. The poorest go on the 3C to Meggies.

However as you said yourself, there was a way out. And if you’re right that graduates often used to come back (I’ll take that as read you’re correct, for present purposes) doesn’t that show that there were more opportunities then in GY? There certainly wasn’t when I graduated in 1984.

There’s been a flight of capital too from GY since those days. The big local employers are generally not locally owned like they used to be. Profits are repatriated to shareholders elsewhere. So to an extent you’ve lost the old local rich, which might tend to reduce inequalities within the town.

Ah!. Wrong matrix. That'll explain it then.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

Here you go:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplep.....nding2020provisional

Of course most people have more materially than they had then. Not saying we didn’t have ice on the inside of our bedrooms growing up. I’m talking about the national picture, not specifically GY area. And it’s about relative wealth and income. Most people were poorer in a material sense. The better off had two weeks in the Med, the poor a day trip to Skeggy. Now the better off have two weeks in the Maldives, skiing in Chamonix, a couple of city breaks to Copenhagen and Verona. The poorest go on the 3C to Meggies.

However as you said yourself, there was a way out. And if you’re right that graduates often used to come back (I’ll take that as read you’re correct, for present purposes) doesn’t that show that there were more opportunities then in GY? There certainly wasn’t when I graduated in 1984.

There’s been a flight of capital too from GY since those days. The big local employers are generally not locally owned like they used to be. Profits are repatriated to shareholders elsewhere. So to an extent you’ve lost the old local rich, which might tend to reduce inequalities within the town.

Certainly true much of that Kingston. As a student I worked summers at Birds Eye which was a huge employer especially as the fish docks started to decline. Our next door neighbour had gone from a filleter to a charge hand to a foreman to a shift supervisor in about 10 years. They sent him off to Newfoundland to help set up a factory there. Then in a flash as it seemed, it was gone wasn’t it? Ross Group was the same, that was a big employer of returnees. They built that massive sports ground and employed professional cricketers. Eskimo morphed into Findus and left the old trolley depot in Pelham Road. I worked there one summer on nights when we took it in turns to have a kip in the carriages on the Cleethorpes sidings ……. Until someone got caught by the Railway Police!

My point amongst this jumble of memories is that in the 50s and 60s we always felt something good was round the corner no matter what our own circumstances. Then in the late 60s almost overnight optimism vanished. There were still jobs for returnees but progression beyond the lower rungs was harder. Even teaching that bastion of the returnee no longer favoured the Mr Chips and became a silly game of chasing promotions to beat inflation.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

Certainly true much of that Kingston. As a student I worked summers at Birds Eye which was a huge employer especially as the fish docks started to decline. Our next door neighbour had gone from a filleter to a charge hand to a foreman to a shift supervisor in about 10 years. They sent him off to Newfoundland to help set up a factory there. Then in a flash as it seemed, it was gone wasn’t it? Ross Group was the same, that was a big employer of returnees. They built that massive sports ground and employed professional cricketers. Eskimo morphed into Findus and left the old trolley depot in Pelham Road. I worked there one summer on nights when we took it in turns to have a kip in the carriages on the Cleethorpes sidings ……. Until someone got caught by the Railway Police!

My point amongst this jumble of memories is that in the 50s and 60s we always felt something good was round the corner no matter what our own circumstances. Then in the late 60s almost overnight optimism vanished. There were still jobs for returnees but progression beyond the lower rungs was harder. Even teaching that bastion of the returnee no longer favoured the Mr Chips and became a silly game of chasing promotions to beat inflation.

Whilst Grimsby has bad points it has some good as well, depending on how well each person was doing every decade can mirror their individual circumstances. The article that this thread is about is only looking at trying to improve on some of the negative things. I really can’t see what anyone’s objections could be to that.
Thought this was football forum.

I don’t think Ron was saying Grimsby doesn’t have it’s good points, or knocking the article. Just like the original article wasn’t being negative about Grimsby as Lew alleges. Just reminiscing and adding some nuance to comments I made.

And if this is ‘non-football’ what fo you think the article was about? You can’t divorce discussion of ‘non-football’ matters from any discussion of that article.

Anyway, Ron, I agree there was a loss of optimism in the future. I hope Stockwood’s optimism is well judged.

Quoted from RichMariner

I read it as a positive piece.

He's basically saying that the opportunity for young people in Grimsby to thrive is hard, but the potential is there — and while we need some government assistance (and the football club can be used to galvanise, excite and inspire our younger generations) we should be listening to these young people, and building answers that fit their vision.

JS sees the potential in people, and he sees it in Grimsby. Fair enough, he highlights some of the blockers (none of which are unique to Grimsby) but he's highlighting the best way to improve lives and that is to love where we live, and be proud of it.

Obviously it makes reference to hardships, because success needs context. Didn't read this as negative at all.

I completely agree with this. I am not a Gurniad reader but learned a lot from the article, especially about meritocracy. I don't think he's showing off his intellect, just not talking down to people, he is assuming they either understand or will make the effort, either way he is not thinking the worst. I think the proof of their intentions will be (are) much more evident in their actions, the girl's development squads, for example. I think they are getting on with walking, not just talking. I like what I am hearing and seeing.

J.S is on the burnsy show(radio humberside) after 11 today.