Exciting news, lads: Skylines has been on tour! Well, sort of: this is the first episode we’ve ever recorded primarily outside London.

I’ve just got back from Liverpool, where I was attending the Labour party’s annual conference. While I was there, friend of the podcast Neil Atkinson, the host of the Anfield Wrap football podcast who appeared way back Skylines 22, very kindly agreed to let us use his studio next to Albert Dock to record this week’s episode.

The two of us are joined by his Anfield Wrap co-host, John Gibbons, and the writer Laura Brown, to talk about Scouse culture. Why does Liverpool has such a strong civic identity? How much did being European Capital of Culture in 2008 change the city? And is the tourism really all about the Beatles?

Also, in our new semi-regular “Ask the Expert” segment, I ask our resident expert Andrew Carter, of the Centre for Cities: is England’s north-south divide actually fixable?

Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman’s cities site, CityMetric. It’s hosted by Jonn Elledge.

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