They need taxpayers money to subsidise their cruise terminal because no self-respecting cruise company would want to sail out of there.
They boast about the Cunard Building forming the hub of their new cruise terminal, but Cunard pulled out of the city years ago.
A lot of Liverpool's port is moribund whereas Southampton is looking to expand into West Bay.
Those plans were thwarted by a Government inquiry but we know that Liverpool moans and bleats that life isn't fair in a similar fashion to a navy port not a million miles away, and ends up getting a healthy suck on the government teat.
I agree largely with what Highfield Saints says. I'm not happy with the way successive governments (mainly Conservative, but Labour have played a part) have dismantled our manufacturing industry and devastated large parts of the north.
But people shouldn't be fooled into thinking we have it soft in the south and are immune to the loss in manufacturing industries.
Look at the jobs lost in Southampton down the years - Harland and Wolff, Vospers, Fords, AC Delco have all closed with the loss of thousands of jobs, but at no time have we revelled in self-pity and bleated for government hand-outs.