The very concept of what constitutes culture arouses a fair bit of discussion even in my office, not least as one of my colleagues originally hails from Hull. On 1st January 2017 the city will take up its place as the UKs City of Culture. I could just about cope with understanding the concept behind Liverpool as the European Capital of Culture in 2008. But I just don’t see Hull as cultural. Perhaps it’s simply because I grew up not a million miles away.
The UK isn’t alone in having its own city of Culture and I was recently fortunate enough to spend a day in the beautiful northern Italian town of Mantua. Continue reading A tale of two Cultural Cities
I spend many of my weekends visiting other European cities with my Italian wife. This year we have so far been to Munich (twice), Berlin, Dresden, Amsterdam, Den Bosch, Nuremburg, Venice and Forli’. We’ve also got plans to visit Vienna, Dublin, Naples, Verona and Milan. We love European art, culture and cuisine. We both have decent jobs and live in London. We are not little Englanders. I read economics at UCL and my wife works for an American investment bank so neither are we economically illiterate, despite Osborne’s claims! All in all we ought to be solid Remainers. That we are not says so much about the nature of our referendum debate. 
Robert Morritt 