Fancy on Stu. Speaking as a cockney I agree with PE. My great-great-aunt Norah was a Liverpudlian (indeed the whole family had been at one time). We used to visit her in Liverpool 8 and had to worry about where to leave the car so that it was safe. The streets were littered with glass and rubble and graffitti was everywhere. Even at the age of 10 I could see that this was wrong - we didn't live like that and we came from the East End of London, an area that has been cited as being more deprived than any other part of the country. It's surely something in the local character and not in the environment.

Pound shops? We've got loads where we live and loads of people drive their BMWs to shop in them!