Sadly the description looks all too familiar. Having said that, the author’s viewpoint is exaggerated for effect, and should not be taken literally. I can verify that I do recognize the author’s general impressions. I have not spent much time living in other parts of Liverpool, but I will offer a few comparisons. There does seem to be a kind of hollow cockiness that I haven’t detected quite so much in other areas. I think this comes from people’s dilemma in wanting simultaneously to feel “a cut above” most of the rest of Liverpool, and wanting to be seen as authentically scouse. I would hazard to say that, it has failed to really be either. It has its own character, one that I don’t particularly like, which appears to me to be quite pretentious and shallow. Silly people from this area, and indeed any other area, who try to talk themselves up as “hard” or “bad boys” are doing themselves and their communities a great disservice. Of course, they think the opposite because they see the glamourization of dodgy dealing, violence, and fast cash as the pinnacle of success. May I suggest a rather well known perl of wisdom. People who talk big are usually not so, those who are don’t really need to and in fact know that it is to their advantage to not go shouting about how tough and bad they are. The real deal doesn’t seek to impress through fakery, being bad is a way of life and it’s all they know. The real deal are smart as well as hard, they don’t need to brag about themselves because their reputation precedes them. This kind of lifestyle is nothing to be proud of, it just is.

I think that people from places like Maghull who pretent to be big and bad are just leaving themselves wide open to criticism from those who live in places where there are far more problem. Having said that, I think this kind of “all front” hard man exists all over Liverpool, and indeed in most, if not all, other towns and cities in the UK, and perhaps the whole world. I think that Maghull is an ideal stomping ground for these people because the general population are generally fairly well-off compared with most of the rest of Liverpool, but generally their values no better if not worse. This is of course a gross generalization, and I apologize unreservedly for offending people who live in the area who are not like this, and to those who are, I regard you as parasites.

I went to high school in Maghull and I can confirm that this kind of chavesk attitude and lifestyle was quite pervasive at the time – that was in the 90s. I haven’t lives here for many years but I don’t see any evidence that this has changed.

Having given it a lot of bad press, I’d like to say that despite the deplorable social phenomenon I speak of, there are lots of positives about the town compared with other areas. I do however sympathize with the view that, if I am going to live in Liverpool then I would prefer to live in the real Liverpool rather than some tacky suburb that wants to be seen as the real Liverpool and at the same time a cut above. I’m afraid that, for all it’s merits, I do see Maghull as a kind of jumped up Skelmesdale or Kirby because there are a lot of people here who think they’re a better class of Liverpudlian because they live here; at the same time they want to be accepted as a proper scouser which won’t happen unless they grew up in Liverpool. I’ve never lived in them but areas such as Mossley Hill, Aigburth, Cressington, Woolton, Allerton, Childwall, Calderstones Park are all areas that feel classier and less pretentious.

As for publishing one’s identity, I don’t think it’s a very smart move whoever you are!