“I¿m not surprised that Stoke is one of the least resilient cities in West Midlands. There¿s simply no industry left to provide employment. It saddens me to think that Pottery industry will just be history. We¿re not all fat, thick or lazy, some of use are willing to work but if there¿s no jobs, How are we supposed to get employment?. It¿s a dog eat dog world, employers don¿t give people a chance and not everyone will provide training. People judge to quickly when they hardly know the truth.”

“So lets look on the bright side , this means that there are at least two other places in this country that are more miserable run down and depressing than Stoke-on-Trent . Not being the worst was a pleasant surprise .maybe in a few years we can aspire to unnoticed mediocrity and be as visitor friendly as Liverpool , Mossside ,lozzels , Erdington .”

“There's got to be a reason why the only two types of work that get invested here are distribution and call centres. Education perhaps? In answer to Barry, not likely to get drive and vision in an area with low education standards and large waistlines.”

“sorry doing two things at once lol, it should read "employees to be able to copy"”

“Barry there are a lot of local entrepreneurs in Stoke On Trent but none of them are big enough employs to able to copy with the mass redundancies this area as faced, so sorry your comment is totally irrelevant.”

“Why is it you Stokies are so reliant on government/ council to sort things out for you? Don't you produce local entrepreneurs who can generate wealth through the private sector? Sorry, forgot, when people like Caudwell and Coates make something of themselves they become pariahs and it puts others off. Chips off shoulders please.”

“The main problem with Stoke On Trent is the apathy shown to us by successive governments, Labour dont bother with us because they know they will be voted in every time around here, Conservatives because they know they wont, until a government is forced to fight for our vote unfortunately this area will never change.”

“Anon..... I disagre.... a firm needs good workers who are able to adapt, and that says much the WORKING population of this city. I would think and hope, I have not got figgers to hand, that this is still most of the population. Them out of work but willing to should be given all the help they need like re-training to re-enter the work place with new skills.

The fat, ideal, thick in the head workshy should be given a last meal of Chips from there local take away, rounded up and hurded to holding area, that I think should be Chesterton, as there are a lot of people like that there now....lol.”

“Judging by the standard of the responses here, I despair for the future of SOT - although that future is not very rosy anyway.

If anyone cares to look at the BBC list ( cleverly put onto an xls file by the beeb), it tells you many things, the main one being that the establishment looks after itself quite nicely thank you.
It confirms that, in general, all things radiate from London and the further west or north you go, the more deprivation there is. ( I believe we knew this anyway).
There is no easy answer to the problems we face in this area - only a complete change of attitude on the part of our leadership to enable a fairer distribution of wealth and opportunity throughout the country will do it - and there's not much hope of that!
The simple fact is that the establishment does not need anything like the number of ordinary people to generate their wealth in this digital and computer age, and they are starting to make the adjustments necessary to maintain their wealth and status. This will mean that certain areas like Middlesborough and SOT become redundant. The old industrial areas will fade away and people will remain in poorer circumstances or move to more affluent regions which will be developing all the time - the south is getting very full.
Where will these regions be? Look at the proposed high speed rail link, part of the answer will be there I'm sure.”

“"Adaptivity was measured on the number of firms that have shown signs of distress in the past but have recovered, indicating they should be able to successfully adapt to future economic shocks." - BBC News

Warren, I doubt it has anything to do with whether average Joe round here looks like a beachball or has the intellect of a lettuce. The second half of what LD said is spot on, the people need to improve so we can attract more and better investment. No matter how much lobbying the council or MPs do, firms won't relocate here when we have amongst the worst academic standards, obesity rates etc... in the country. It's a lifestyle and culture change that needs to occur, not a precious attitude towards criticism and pointing out the truth.”