So is there any hope? Hatherley, perhaps unsurprisingly, can't find much - perhaps the closest thing he sees comes from the giant hole in the middle of Bradford that was going to be a Westfield shopping mall - supposed to be built and finished by 2008, but by early 2010 thought to be a lost cause. He hopes for a park and public housing (although I see that as of August the shopping plan was still limping on.)
He's only visiting existing structures, so he didn't have time to see the new Westfield that has been built, in east London, on the site of the Olympics, so that delightfully, 70% of visitors will have to walk through a shopping centre to get to see the athletes at work. That really would have been a perfect metaphor, and symbol, for the empty, shallow hopes of the Britain that he charts.
and 
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