to enjoy herself and much to his surprise Steve himself got on very well with her. During his period as Lord Mayor, Steve in his role as Ambassador for the City met many really interesting and influential people. Among these were the President of Ireland, The Reverend Jessie Jackson, Gordon Brown with the full British Cabinet and many more, although he did say he would have liked to have met Barack Obama but unfortunately never got the opportunity. Steve is very passionate about Liverpool and also the Labour Party. I wanted to know if he had to choose between making a decision that best suited the Labour Party or Liverpool, which would he choose. Steve said, “If you make the right decision for the people, then you get the support of the party anyway”, so he would choose the City every time. “Lots of people have pre conceived ideas about what Liverpool is like, not just the place, but the people as well. They are always amazed when they visit for the first time just how warm and friendly we are and how outstanding our architecture is. Liverpool has more grade 1 and 2 listed buildings than any other city in the UK outside of London”. Leading on from this, I asked Steve if he believed the perception of the city was changing. “Absolutely, we have suffered in the past from a reputation for bad politics and car crime, but nothing could be further from the truth. We actually have less car crime than some of the greener suburbs of the south and politics in the City has matured over recent years”. Steve say’s that we never fully exploited the success of our Capital of Culture year in 2008, although visitor numbers to the city were maintained in 2009, which was Liverpool’s year of the environment and now coming in to 2010, the year of Health and Wellbeing, he feels confident that these levels will again be maintained. This is due in no small measure to the phenomenal success of Liverpool 1. Steve believes the future is looking very bright for Liverpool. The World Expo in Shanghai is a fantastic opportunity to showcase the city to the rest of the world. There are amazing green technology investment opportunities and people are really beginning to invest in the city, even Bill Gates who gave £150 million to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine for bio medical research. Well Steve it has been a pleasure. You truly are a remarkable person. Your pride in this great city is inspiring and I’m sure I speak for everyone in wishing you the very best in your career, I look forward to following it with interest.
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