The Liverpool Echo has been almost embarrassing in its attempt to promote Liverpool to win the 2008 European capital of Culture prize. The prize will consist of Millions in handouts for the usual suspects, who have money, yet are always there to elbow there way to the front of the queue. The Echo's Editor, Mark Dickenson, went so far as to pen a lengthy 'Dear Judges' Editorial in the paper on April 16 2003. The Dear Judges plea was patronising and cringe making stuff. A blatant 'love in' where the Echo takes off it's clothes and jumps into bed with the Judges, desperately trying to make sure the foreplay leads to the real thing.

In 1990, Glasgow was the last UK city to have the City of Culture status. It bought money into the pockets of a few, and a few miles from the much trumpeted events and arts shows, the problems of poverty and drug abuse and low wages were forgotten, as American Tourists and chinless Middle Class art tourists spent their money in the hotels and restaurants. People spoke of regeneration, but as always, when large sums of money are issued from European Funds, they go into the pockets of a few. If Glasgow needed money they should have been given it. The poor people of Glasgow did not benefit much from the Capital of Culture. It made a few rich people richer though. These things always do. No-one could tell us how many Glasgow people were taken off the dole by this great event.

The people behind each bid are furiously trying to outdo each other in their estimates of how many jobs will be created in the various Cities bidding. Liverpool claims that it will bring in an additional £200m worth of tourism in the run-up to 2008. Public and private sector investment in the city would reach at least £2billion. And there would be an extra 1.7m visitors. Andy Pratt, senior lecturer in geography at the London School of Economics, says these calculations are 'more an art than a science'. Anyone trying to gauge how many jobs etc were created in Glasgow will find that the figures simply are not there. Anyone who has any experience of European funding will have seen that the more money on offer, the less chance there is that it will filter down to those who deserve it.

Back to the Echo's enthusiastic backslapping article, The Echo Editor comes out with so much praise for the City, that his statements become pretty surreal. He begins the letter with a 'Dear Judges' then informs us 'everything's good about today and tomorrow' - despite old people's homes being forced to close and gun crime being at an all time high. Nonetheless Mr Dickenson goes on to add 'Modern Liverpool is a chrysalsis city, one that has yet to realise its full potential.' Mark mentions the FACT centre as being one of the great innovations of our city, but neglects to add that this modern building suffered a roof collapse only recently. Best not to let the judges know too much eh?

The editorial /letter gets worse. It talks of Liverpool as being the ideal leader community for the 'pan European generation (you what mate?) There's a mention of Theatre Ballet and Opera, as the judges had 'some reservations' about the lack of such facilities for the 'locals'. The Echo assures the judges the issues 'been successfully addressed' Mark Dickenson's most crawling lines come in the following classic attempt to insinuate himself as some sort of poet laureate. Look at this………

"But our architecture, which includes the worlds largest Anglican Cathedral and the unmatched neo classicism of St Georges hall, is but the stage in which we live out our lives"

Did he have a sniff of the barmaid's apron before penning that! We're only bidding for a Euro Grant; you'd think this bloke was making some impassioned declaration of undying love here. A lot of the regeneration money so far has not gone to the communities here although they give the impression that it has. The City center has seen an influx of Middle Class Yuppie types who are, in effect, destroying the last remaining traces of working class culture based there. Even the street traders in Church Street are set to be ethnically cleansed in the race to turn the City Center into a safety zone for the yuppies and grant chasers and regeneration experts. I guess the capital of culture does not refer to working class culture. That's expendable.

The new census reports the population of Liverpool City Centre has more than tripled in the last 10 years. Who are these people? Many of the well paid new jobs created here have not gone to local people, and it is expected that the rest of the population of Liverpool should just be grateful to be employed by the notoriously low paid service industry. Maybe we should just be glad get the minimum wage as we pour out the champagne and serve it to the regeneration experts. All this will do is widen the gap between rich and poor.

Whilst the Echo campaign for this Gravy Train to bought to town, it is worth bearing in mind that the European Gravy Train here will be well and truly ended in the year 2008. This capital of Culture venture is the last chance for the vultures of culture to make another tidy pile. Any money, Euro or otherwise, is very much needed for our own people. Maybe it would be a good idea for us to just demand the money is spent trying to eliminate social poverty before we allocate it to be wasted on some patronising backslapping orgy of selfish artistic indulgence for the luvvies and middle class elite of Liverpool. We have old folk being kicked out of their homes and these people want to give us ballet, theatre and opera. Capital of Culture? Capital of Hypocrisy more like it.