Wednesday 19 March

Going into town on the bus with Eddie Halpin we were talking about sport's contribution to development in the context of Carnegie Coaching for Life and the possibilities for researching the outcomes.  Past the main shops in Headingley I broke off these high level discussions to comment on three students doing shuttle runs to get their bags of groceries off the bus.  Their research had obviously revealed that even with three return bus fares it was cheaper to go to Asda than to walk to Somerfield for their shopping.

With Ian Strange I've been researching a chapter on cultural policy for a book on Leeds.  In conducting interviews with policy makers the observation has been made more than once that people do not have a clear image of what Leeds is, what makes it distinct from other UK and European cities with which it might be compared.  When I got into town the poor souls I was meeting in the bar and restaurant got subjected to interrogation on how they see Leeds.  I know readers of these web pages don't constitute a representative cross-section of society, but I'd still be keen for your feedback on how you would describe Leeds.

Professor Jonathan Long
Director, Carnegie Research Institute