Danny says much of the city’s historic identity came from the potteries, which once supported tens of thousands of jobs.
Danny: “It’s a very working class city; there are very few middle class people. People want something to be proud of. When I was a kid, Stoke was as good as anywhere else as a city. Now, everywhere seems to have been improved, apart from us.
“I think towns and small cities in Britain have been completely ripped off. You can see huge development in the big cities, like Manchester, but Stoke has had very little. We are the proof that trickle-down economics is a load of rubbish.”
John: “Money goes out of Stoke, and so does talent. When kids do well, they leave. Most of the highly-educated and socially-mobile young people want to live in Manchester, London, Glasgow, Nottingham – they don’t stay here. And even a lot of the top earners and leaders who work in Stoke, live outside it.
“There’s really good friendship and loyalty in Stoke. But parochialism is a huge negative. There’s a culture of suppression of ambition. When kids grow up here they go away and then they are surrounded by people who expect to be successful and expect to have a good lifestyle, but a lot of people in Stoke don’t expect that. There is this poverty of aspiration we have to try to get to somehow.”
Nicky: “Stoke has a high rate of setting up businesses, but it lacks some of the professional sector to help that thrive, like accountants and legal professionals.
Dan B, a youth ambassador at YMCA: “When we leave school, people are expected to do warehouse jobs rather than getting interested in progression. There are a lot of closed down business and shops. You get dropped into low-paid jobs.
“When I left school, I knew I wanted to be in the type of role I am now (a youth ambassador), but in 2016 there were not many opportunities like this in Stoke. Maybe in Birmingham, but not here. I got a painting and decorating job but I hated it, it wasn’t what I wanted to do. Then there was an apprenticeship here – but there still wasn’t a lot of this type of role in Stoke.”
Danny: “There is a real lack of example that things could be better. There can be a ‘this’ll do’ mentality. People know what having nothing is like, but there’s still a fear of ending up with less than nothing – that’s the poverty that rich people do not understand, when they just talk about aspiration.”
John: “Stoke people have generally got a good solid character, and that’s why a lot of people do well. I think there’s a lot of low-level entrepreneurialism, but maybe not enough confidence. But people who break through do well, partly due to that affable personality.”
