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Why are you googling Edge Lane? And where does Toxteth begin in your world? Laughable.

I don't really understand your first question, and I'd dispute your last point. Wasn't so long ago that 15K people were working on the Lane in very decent manufacturing positions. Don't think it has ever been "rough" round here. Industrial, maybe - but there's little in the way of crime or gangs.

I know the people who work there. Commiserated them on their situation. Most of them got something lined up.

Yep. Drive it every morning. Same as any other artery into the city. Chocka during rush hour. Believe it or not, I actually live off the road you speak of. There's a new ( http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2012/12/20/200m-liverpool-edge-lane-retail-complex-plan-to-bring-400-jobs-100252-32464109/ Rush hour doesn't seem to have deterred them

I'd be one of those kids. Mum was a single parent when it wasn't fashionable to be so. Income support the whole way through, always short on money, had to go without herself to feed us at times. I knew then and there that I was never going to follow that route, and I have quite a few mates from school in similar circumstances who thought exactly the same way.

I suspect something similar going on here. Bought a game from there awhile back for £16. Same game, same format on super-duper closing down sale? £19.

Was in Blockbusters today. These administrators take the ****. Pretty much everything in there is STILL cheaper online. Walked out with nowt.

I do mean Edge Lane as it goes. The situation there has almost nothing to do with cost of building, and almost everything to do with an IoM-based property developer leaving those sites fallow deliberately after a dispute with the council. He wanted to build Liverpool One (or something quite like it) on the Lane. The council approved Liverpool One instead. A decade of inner city Liverpool just not being used. No roads need to be extended. You would know this if you knew the area. It's basically the entry point for anyone approaching Liverpool from the east or south. Roads are not something we lack.

I've made the same statement on here loads of times, going back years. I am from immigrant stock, too.

There are plenty of places within a 1 mile radius of me lying unloved and undeveloped. Dead shopping centres, defunct businesses. The amount of buildings that have had their roof taken off ( doesn't attract tax as a building if something has no roof ) is staggering. It is a scandal that in a time of genuine need, so much urban land is lying fallow for commercial reasons. There are also a ton of houses from the 1900s that should probably be pulled down and built over. Don't accept that the countryside is prohibitively expensive to build in. Think NIMBYism and environmental protection has a big part to play in a lot of decisions, not to mention the shocking cost of land. I've mentioned this before, but I genuinely think a land tax is the way to go. Would kickstart a great deal of activity in resolving the supply issue. In terms of who should subsidise that, gotta be the taxpayer. Really not a problem if there is something at the end of it.

I have long thought that a period of consolidation is the way to go. Time to catch our breath, to get a sense of who we are as a nation. Won't happen.

And the other side of that demand equation? Supply. Of which there is little.

47 inch TVs are not expensive. If they were rolling around in a yacht, then I could potentially see your point. Don!t know why you're moaning about the ciggie habit. Most of that money goes straight back to the government.

Great prediction.

The housing shortage is acute, and I have no doubt that foreign demand plays its part in driving prices up. Land shortage? Not a bit of it. Kevin McGrath's Who Owns Britain cites that 77% of the population lives on just 6% of the land. Now those figures are from 2001, so add a decade of development onto that. Even so, Britain is not concreted over, not even close.

Nope, it's because houses are overvalued and stock of social housing is in short supply, largely because the Tory government of the 1980s gave people like your mum free money. Worse, councils receiving that money were not allowed to use it to replace the lost housing stock. Short-termism all the way.

Where have I said that? FFS Jamie, try and pull people up on things they say, not things you imagine. A lot easier for the rest of us.

You're wrong, sir. If you work 40 hours a week, you should be able to support yourself. We are paying housing benefit to people in work that don't earn enough money to live. A privately rented house in the Flower Roads estate will set you back around £1100 a month. Try doing that on minimum wage.

I actually do, but as I said before, they're not responsible for the lack of opportunity in this country. They didn't move our jobs to the Far East or over-emphasis Britain's economy on nebulous financial services, did they? They didn't decide that you and I had to bail the bankers out, they're not overspending on the UK budget every year and they didn't kick off and perpetuate globalisation, which'll ultimately lead to some wide-scale conflict. Think it's bad now? In 20 years time, I'd be surprised if we have any manufacturing jobs here, as opposed to the 10% or so we have now.

They are right and wrong. Working wage is far too low for most people. Half the country is struggling with personal debt, and your average house costs six times your average salary. The government reckon they'll fix all this with universal credit, where it always pays to work. That'll probably involve mucking about with benefits enough to make that true. I remember my aunts and uncles moving out of my nan's place when they were around age 20. They moved straight into council accommodation, saved up and bought their own places a few years afterward. They were incentivised to take that route because there was something achievable at the end of it. People aren't buying houses now until they are in their 30s. People need goals. I'd argue that the high cost of everything is putting perfectly reasonable life goals, such as having a steady job or being able to house your family off your own back, well out of reach of your average person.

I had heard of this, and may give it a go. The original series was excellent, despite people talking to the camera.

Got a very big tip for UK Netflix subscribers, or indeed, anyone who wants to use a US-only streaming service. Plugin for FF and Chrome called Media Hint. Just install and hey presto, US Netflix. The big plus of this approach is that no VPN is required. VPN worked, but the relaying meant that barely anything was in HD. It is now.

There was a time when these local stations were quite common. We used to have a channel called Liverpool One, which went under. Good job really. We have a shopping centre called that now. Would have been confusing. Think L1 was late 90s though.

Is Lucas going to be writing these things? Lordy. That won't work well. Anyway, on Star Trek. They won't or shouldn't leave it alone, but we need more than the films. Personally, I'd like to see a wider show with the elements of the TNG/DS9/VOY universe in it. Janeway can be an admiral, Riker captain of the Enterprise, etc. seems criminal to waste all that talent while it is still around. Bryan Singer, of X-Men and Usual Suspects fame, did a pitch for ST set 300 years after TNG. http://screenrant.com/bryan-singer-star-trek-federation-tv-show-schrad-111933/all/1/

The photos indicate that someone, possibly you, was in Liverpool last night. At this point let's review the options. a) You were in Liverpool last night, took the pictures yourself, and I'm talking a load of old crap about you not being a Liverpool resident. b) Someone else took the photos and sent them to you. I'm almost there on a), but that 9 hour time difference between you saying you had the photos and actually sending them doesn't help. Now that you are a tinypic expert, getting some new pics up quite quickly with the Echo really shouldn't be a prob. I really am almost ready to believe.