Breaking the mould

Stoke has a glimmer of good publicity today, amid the by-election. Via an AFP press-agency feature that's being widely syndicated:

"Artisans break the mould in Britain’s pottery capital".

Regrettably AFP rather spoil this very positive story at the end, by quoting the old-old moaning that implies there are no new industries:

"The mining’s gone, the steel’s gone, there’s only this, really”"

While it's true that the old heavy industries have mostly gone, new ones have replaced them. The feature might better have ended by noting that Stoke's biggest employer is now Bet365, effectively an advanced world-leading tech-media company, employing thousands of new media content-production staff in the centre of Stoke. And that the spread of industry types in North Staffordshire is now incredibly diversified, employment is booming for those with skills, and the number of staying-local graduates is increasing.