05/01/2026
Michael Heseltine is remembered today for spearheading Liverpool’s regeneration. But when he was dispatched to the north, in the summer of 1981, it was in direct response to the upheaval that had seen police descend on L8 just two weeks earlier.
How much did his efforts improve things for the Black communities that lived there? Over the weekend we published an excerpt from journalist Lanre Bakare’s critically lauded book, We Were There, which examines that very question.
The environment secretary is credited with sparking Liverpool's late 20th regeneration. Try telling that to the neighbourhood he was dispatched to help