"He wants to put an axe to the corruption of capitalism." And you find the idea of a streetwalker being associated with spring inconsistent with the idea of "the corruption of capitalism"? Unless the dirty old town itself is an emblematic product of the capitalism he wants to destroy, the song doesn't make much sense.

It's not a matter of what I "believe" - it's a matter of interpretation: I prefer my interpretation because it's more consistent with the tenor of the lyrics and, as I take it, the meaning of the song, being decidedly more biting than a bit of nostalgia concerning girls out taking the air. Is it so utterly unrealistic in relation to Salford that EM never would have intended that interpretation? Obviously, you would hold that that is the case, and I've never been to Salford - although I did grown up in another dirty old town ....

I suppose it's possible that EM wrote the first three verses as pure nostalgia, and then, uncomfortable with that, tacked on an attack on capitalism to redeem himself, but I would like to think of it as a more cohesive work.