"If Liverpool city was in South Africa it would be branded apartheid." This is the view of the city's black community leaders and one that the city's newspaper, Liverpool Echo concedes is difficult to refute.

It is a fact that coloureds serving behind this great maritime city's counters in banks, post offices, restaurants and bars are virtually non-existent. The city of Liverpool is unique in that here there is an unspoken system of apartheid. In Liverpool they don't even pay lip service to the concept of racial amalgamation.

It is one of the few cities in England where you can walk into a large office staffed by hundreds of people and not be confronted by a single coloured worker. Typically in the Liverpool Echo's newsroom offices where hundreds of people are engaged in the commerce and social mores of the city not a single coloured person is employed.

‘COLOUREDS SIMPLY MELT AWAY’

During the day coloureds can be found shopping and strolling through the city centre but many are either legitimate students or travellers. When the night closes in and the bars and restaurants open, pulling the curtains back on Europe’s most vibrant and exciting city, coloureds simply melt away. They are made to feel unwelcome and so the city quickly takes on the racial appearance of ‘virtual reality’. The city that avoided immigration by sending them to ‘coventry.’ .

It is extremely difficult for a coloured to be served in a shop, bar or restaurant where they are shunned by staff. One white person, who didn’t wish to be named, described his experiences when socialising with a coloured acquaintance.

‘INVISIBLE’ BLACK MEN

"In a bar where I am a regular they will serve me and of course others almost immediately. When my coloured friend goes to the bar he becomes the invisible man. Only when I point out to the staff that he is with me does he actually get served."

Toxteth which for all of its reputation is in fact world renowned for its Victorian beauty and splendour not to mention the outstanding Sefton Park with its Palm House, does house an enclave of coloureds in its more dilapidated section. There, its dusky residents prefer to do their nighttime socialising in the marginally more friendly Manchester 30 miles distant.

It is said that the only place you can find coloured workers in Liverpool's nightlife community is on the doors of bars, acting as bouncers and attendants. Even here in the classier haunts of Seel Street, Wood Street and Slater Street, white bouncers are preferred. The same can be said of the household name restaurants attracting "the beautiful people".

LOWEST CRIME RATE IN ENGLAND

Liverpool was recently voted Britain's most popular short-term holiday stay. It has the lowest crime rate of the five metropolitan police areas and ranks 17^th in terms of city crime.

Coloured leaders concede that even qualified coloureds have to move out of Liverpool to get the chance of employment. He described how friends visiting him from London, Birmingham and Manchester "are shocked by the lack of black representation in the city."

Philip Wagner, a shop assistant in downtown largely coloured and seedy Lodge Lane said: "There are certain areas (of Liverpool) where black people cannot go. If you are young and black or mixed race you have no chance of a job. Another white, 28-year old Tammy O'Brien agreed: "I do think that Liverpool really is a racist city."

Coloureds were as quick to concur: Diana Paul, 29, said: "There is institutional racism in Liverpool - which is worse than overt racism. There is no black middle class or professional black people here as there is in Birmingham and London."

Farquad, a 29-year old coloured student says: "I would say, Liverpool is a racists city, but it is better than 80% of European cities. I have friends elsewhere in Europe and they tell me very nasty things that happen to them just because of the colour of their skin." John Glaze, 62, who runs a wine store added: You still don't see black people working in town."