Whilst I agree with your excellent rantage.....
...I can't help but remember when Coventry was a great city to be in. Our home town was once a great industrial centre, there was plenty of work about at all levels, therefore there was money about, again, at all levels.
I just feel the heart has gone from the city, kids now don't have the opportunity to train at world-renowned companies*, which would have given them a living wage and a chance to get onto the housing ladder. There's no hope in the place for any betterment other than by X factor or lottery.
It's a shame, there's so much history, we used to be the toolroom of the world and now there's just a seething low-level bitterness manifesting itself in tribalism of all sorts and a deep distrust of any form of erudition.
Mind you, it's the hometown of The Belmers** so it can't be all bad!

*As an aside, when I left school (1976) I applied for 15 apprenticeships and had to turn down 6. My first training school had space for 70, now you'd be hard-pressed to find 70 apprenticeships on offer in the whole city.
** Laziest, least-talented band in Christendom.
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Mon 2 Nov 2009, 15:13, Reply)