Stoke's a dump, and it's no surprise with plebs like that MP running the show. I'd hazard a guess it's because we're showing the true state of the place.
And by the way, I'm from Stoke myself. 'Potteries' my arse.
I have to agree. Before my trip up there with Flubs I'd known it wasn't a 'great' place but seriously nothing prepared me to see how much of sad state the place is in. We were driving up and down and around Stoke all day on the second day of the trip and couldn't believe the state of some of it, how much of it was either deserted, or shut, or had metal sheets over all windows/doors...
It's like every other town/city in that area of Britain got the fancy new industries, new housing developments and a new influx of money and Stoke just hasn't. It seems when almost all the Potteries left, nothing has filled that massive void.
People may talk about how Stoke nowadays has this great pottery heritage, how it was the centre for Pottery manufacturing in Britain and all that, but they don't see what it is really like. As a visitor to the city (a veritable tourist if you will) I was appalled at how it's treated it's heritage.