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From: Elizabeth Hunt
Date: Mar 17, 2009 3:46 PM
Subject:

Thank you for your email which has been forwarded to me.

I was born and brought up in Liverpool and went to school in Toxteth so I can, with total confidence, bat away your accusation of ‘snobbery’.

My comments about Manchester and Salford were intended as a joke – a provocative one, I grant you, but founded on the long-standing rivalry that exists between the populations of two great Northern cities (L’Pool and Manchester.)

Therefore, I won’t apologise for my comments but I hope that, following this explanation, you will accept they were delivered in good humour.

And, by the way, I’d run a mile from leafy Cheshire. My ideal location, like yours, is in the heart of a city.

Best Wishes

Liz Hunr

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I take issue with Ms. Hunt’s explanation that her comment about Salford was a joke. Nowhere in the article, inferred or otherwise, was it even slightly obvious her comment was a joke.

I was born in Preston but I’ve lived in Essex, the Highlands, Glasgow and London. Of all the places I have lived, Manchester is far and away my favourite – moving here was like coming home, even though I had spent most of the previous 10 years living in a Highland village with a population of less than a thousand. Salford in particular has a sense of community and political awareness that I have never felt anywhere else, with the exception of that Highland village, so I have truly take it to my heart. Personally, I can’t think of a reason why someone would want to live elsewhere.