This week an economist suggested that Liverpool and Manchester should combine for economic gain, because there was no city in the UK anywhere near large enough to rival London. I guess it’s an idea with some sound economic principles but I’d suggest that the economist doesn’t have a full grasp of the shared if different cultural ownership and sense of belonging that people from these two cities have. Even in our line of business – B2B PR – a Liverpool-based company is unlikely to choose to work with a Manchester PR agency (although some agencies have bridged the gap with separate offices in both places).
However, we thought it would be fun to think about some of the possibilities offered by Manpool or Liverchester to add to the debate…
Warrington as the administrative centre? Warrington is an unassuming town on the Cheshire plain half way between the two cities. Perhaps the combined city would have a new administrative centre there. It’s very near to the M6, but unfortunately not that near to either Liverpool or Manchester, as the two places are 33 miles apart.
Merging the football economies? The region already has some quite well off football clubs but perhaps these could merge to make a super-team wealthy enough to start paying players even more money? True, the merged kit would have to be an unpopular shade of purple and most of the fans would disown their clubs but, hey, we’re all in this together…
And finally, the merging of accents… Although we can’t quite imagine what a ‘Livercunian’ or a ‘Manpudlian’ would sound like!
If you’re interested in reading more, try some of the comments on this article by Jim O’Neill – the economist in question.
