Having spent some months posting about Iceland (e.g.) and the economic crisis, 2-3 weeks ago I promised to keep an eye on my old university town. The logic being that all the expert commentators kept reminding us that 'Iceland was a special case', 'lessons couldn't be drawn from such a small country', 'it's only got a population the size of Coventry for chrisssake....'
All this strikes me as plausible - but how plausible? So I want to use whatever local data on Coventry I can get my hands on as a sort of yardstick by which to assess the real impact of the recession outside the fetid confines of the Square Mile.
It seems Lady Godiva town is being hit hard by the chill winds of recession. The local paper is reporting a 10% jump in JSA claims in the city in December alone - and a 37% jump, year on year. & it is claimed that local firms are in the dark about how to access the various 'business support' funds the government has been alledgedly making available to them.
I'll come back to this. If you come across Coventry-specific economic data - or indications of social unrest - I'd be grateful if you could post a comment to direct me to the source.
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