... is moving to Bradford. Is this our new secret scrum-half signing? www.kupr7.com/bradford-england/j ... d-england/

... is moving to Bradford. Is this our new secret scrum-half signing? www.kupr7.com/bradford-england/j ... d-england/

Clearly a hoax. He says he's been to Bradford. Nobody who's been to Bradford would choose to live here unless they were brought up here or don't have the money to get out. Neither of which applies to him.

In 2013-14 year, 14,400 people who were not born or brought up in Bradford moved to Bradford.

But don't let facts stand in the way.

Why would "being brought up here", or anywhere, make a person choose to live in a place they don't have to?

There must be some parts of the world where Bradford is seen as a step up.

Cheap housing (relatively), 15 minute commute from Leeds, some of the most amazing countryside in the country within half hour drive - you can see why some may choose to settle here.

Nope, wrong assumption, just this part of the world; the figure is just new residents from elsewhere in England.

There is a synergy of multiple threads here.

Our Chances of Promotion are similar to the likelihood of Justin Timberlake providing the Gameday Entertainment.

Shortened for brevity

Perhaps he could kick off the season like Gareth Gates used to do.

He makes Damn good shoes.......I'm off back to bed now..

It is called sentimental attachment - another example would be going to watch the Bulls play over the last few years

Not the same thing. I'd grant you there's an inertia about uprooting and moving for many people, but if they had plenty money to choose to live elsewhere than a place they felt was a shiithole, then IMHO 100% of people with that view would move.

I'd say it's much more likely that having lived here for years and got to know the place well, people are happy enough with the bits they like and avoid the bits they don't.

Another way of putting that would be if a newcomer moved to Bradford, then they would after getting to know it a bit I'm sure 99% agree that it is actually OK, and nowhere near the "worst place in Britain" category. Which is ridiculous anyway, I've seen and been to many shiitholes far worse, and lived in a couple.

I also suspect that a large proportion of those who disparage Bradford do so on grounds related to their view of the high Asian population, rather than anything specific about the place itself. They never say what's wrong with the place or why they claim to think it's so bad.

I know at Bradford Uni the biggest problem was getting students to come & have a look in the first place. Once they got them there the conversion rate was very good.

The Uni’s demographic changed massively after the riots. The intake of British students from the rest of the UK went down and this left the Uni recruiting locally and from overseas. As a result most of the pubs near the Uni shut. Intake of UK non locals is still way below what it was pre 2000.

A lot of the negative feedback in surveys from non local UK students is to do with the local students. A big issue is that local students have tend to have known each other since first school and do not integrate with new people from elsewhere – UK or overseas.

I used to be the landlord in one of those university pubs and can say that the biggest downturn in students came when both the Uni and the College flattened their owned student residences. That put a hole through the Greek student population (which was huge) and and lot of the other overseas students seemed to stop coming too, almost straight away. Uni owned student halls also provided perceived safety for new, distant students, and as they could get accommodation through their academic establishment its saved trawling around a load of 'slum' housing just to end up moving in with a load of strangers. They fostered a community and friendship that just living in a room in a 4 bedroom shared house could not.

Since then the College and university seem to have relied on local students to make up the numbers. This obviously had a knock on effect on the area too, as instead of being nearby for night-time drinks and activities, the students were at home; not in the area. And that can be seen by the pubs which have closed in the area (MacRorys, The Shearbridge, The Peel, Rafters, The Mannville) due to the lack of trade.

I got out of that trade in 2008 and managed to get into Uni myself (Bradford, of course), and on completion I got a good job and alas moved away to here in the Peaks with the wife. I do miss Bradford though, despite its nightlife and live music scene being a shadow of what it was in the past. And (of course) I'm always back up for the rugby too <Sigh>.

Bradford gets a lot of bad press, most of which is completely undeserved. Its certainly a lot friendlier than other places of culture I have lived (Birmingham, Leicester, Leeds). Unfortunately its always going to be overshadowed by its big rival Leeds, both economically, investment wise and in positive media coverage.

Please, just for me, don't talk about what is going on at the university. Part of the reason for my increased activity here of late is to not have to think about what is going on here atm.

Fwiw though, the number of highly educated overseas students who stay on Bradford as a result of coming here to study is remarkably high.

We are a quirky place, both as an institution and a city. There are still large numbers of events and activities that happen. Attempts to keep pubs like the Delius going are ultimately doomed to fail but in large part it's not just because of our demographics but the students being used to their absence doing for themselves.

It keeps people here. There is one person in my office that is not a former Bradford student from somewhere else who stayed. That person is me.

(I have no doubts about their desire for me to go away though.)

I wonder if he likes RL

As one who is a regular visitor to Bradford I must say that I get sick fed up of the bad publicity that the city gets. Bradford is a fine city. Sure it is flawed but name me a city that isn't?

A lot of improvements are being made. Centenery Square is great and I cannot make a visit to the place without a trip to it. I have met a LOT of wonderful people from Bradford, friends that I will have for life. People who have welcomed me into their hearts and homes and treated me like one of their own.

I am lucky too, when it comes to the trip down. I come off the M6 at Kirkby Lonsdale and travel down that way, via Skipton through a beautiful place called Gargrave. I love it.

Sadly, it is easy to play to the stereotype of "Brad-i-stan" but those who are so narrow minded that they see this as an issue are unlikely to have enough intelligence to see the good in anything IMO.

The last time I was down I paid my first visit to the TV museum place and I believe that they were finally making some improvements to that grand old building beside the Alhambra? Also, when the new shopping centre is fully up and running it will be a great boost.

The only thing I wish for now is the Goose boozer just across from the Interchange to re-open. Because just off the centenery square heading toward the town centre there is the finest chip shop ever where you can sit in and get a quite outstanding sausage supper (sausage and chips to you guys) with gravy and a tin of pop for about £3.50! Perfect!

That chippy is The In-Plaice. Confession time: I have never, ever been in there. Never trusted city centre chippies in any town Bradford or not.

I love Centenary Square though. It is exactly what should have been done with the airport money. On even the slightest hint of a nice day it is absolutely rammed with people from every background, all getting along.

The arena in Leeds was what Leeds needed next. Something to help bring Bradford together was what Bradford needed next.

The usual suspects in the local rag's comments pages immediately kick off about Bradford not doing exactly the same thing as the place ten minutes down the road. The same usual suspects that complain about drunks, whinos and ne're do wells accosting you there. I have walked across that space, and many of the variants that went before it, and it has never once happened to me in anything like a threatening manner. I know I'm a 6'3 skinhead and I get that these sorts of things won't ever happen to me as much as may happen to some others, but that hasn't stopped people having a go at me in suburban West Leeds for absolutely nothing at all on occasion. It has *never* happened to me in Bradford. Ever.

Even during the riots. I was in my twenties then, and looked more of a skinhead than I do now. I wandered around Bradford looking for my mate's girlfriend on my own through what are said to be the no-go areas without any issue of any kind. There's a very simple trick to it, even if you look like a massive racist with jeans, white t shirt and huge boots on (as I did that day). Treat people like people and they respond in kind.

Gargrave, though. That's a furniture selling town with a nice place to sit by the river.

Eddie, tigercub was out in Alloa last Saturday night. I am awaiting a report to compare to Bratfud.

That is the one. Bloody good it is. (remember dude, I am from Scotland. An eat-in chippy is considered to be seriously classy up here.)




It is a lovely place. On the canal. OK, it is clearly a retirement village but it is easy to see why. Cyclists too. Always loads of cyclists doing the round. I assume it must be on a national cycle trail or something?

It, too, has a lovely chippy.

It will take a while. I guess he will still be in intensive care.

If I get out of work early enough tonight to sit in and make it home for the game then I'm going to give it a shot.

After wondering round Hull before the test match last year looking for something, anything, that wasn't a nasty chain we went in what looked like a grotty little chippy. It turned out to be an Alladin's cave with a large cafe behind it. Exactly what we wanted. One of the best pie and chips I've ever had, if only for the timeliness of it.



It is the canal (Leeds-Liverpool), not a river. Forgot about that. I have actually been that far up it on my bike from Leeds. Suspect there's always someone doing the full length of it on a bike. The bit of the canal that runs by me (and into Bradford and through Centenary Square) is Route 66.

Mostly though I suspect it's because you're in the Dales there and close enough to be in range of the few million who live in West Yorkshire and the market towns of south west North Yorkshire, whilst also being in range of the few million who live in the northern bits of Lancashire.

Easier to move about in those hills on a bike than you might imagine, given a small amount of practice. I took a left turn once to see where it led and ended up in Lancashire, and I'm a big fat lad who stops half way up hills for a fag. According to Strava I'm in the top five fastest for coming down Leeds Road into Bradford though. All I had to do was let go of the brakes on an unusually traffic free day.

Not heard a song newer than 1991 yet.

I'm sure the Goose had re opened.