I think public opinion in Liverpool is very influenced by the Echo. It is beyond me how they can still manufacture a story about the Beatles so regularly and at the same time ignore some of the more salient social issues like urban deprivation in and around the City. If you consider that local celeb culture gets excessive coverage by them and quite a lot of neglect goes on towards the people then you can see how reactionary and unfair the reporting is. The capital of culture for me was how I seen it not how it was reported. The tired old show biz fraternity as usual dominated the news during the year. That was to be expected, but they never made it a success, ordinary people do that. I hope for the future that people break from the shackles of the stultifying past and learn to see that the future is about realizing their own creativity.