IT is, of course, outrageous that the County Council should even consider axing Lancashire's historic Red Rose as its symbol. Eight centuries of our heritage would be junked if it did.

Yet, despite some fast back-pedalling on this prospect this week, bringing pledges that the rose will remain, they haven't ruled out mucking about with the famous emblem.

But why on earth are minds at County Hall engrossed with such a stupid notion at all?

Well, we find that what's afoot is that our representatives in Preston's ivory tower are slavishly following orders from their political masters in Westminster who, as part of the same Local Government Act which engineered the establishment of secret and autocratic inner cabinets to run our councils, now want them also to muse on the meaningfulness of logos.

Such psycho-babble, naturally, can be expected from New Labour which is obsessed by imagery and sustained by an army of spin doctors. But why the heck do councils have to go along with their claptrap concern over whether people connect their emblems with the local government services they receive - so that if the review Lancashire has initiated shows they don't associate the Tudor Red Rose with the County Council, they spend a fortune on a re-designed one.

As far as I can see, according to this Act, councils are only advised to look at all aspects of their communication with the public, including how people react to their corporate identity and its symbols. But, I mean, apart from Mandelson clones in Labour's propaganda machine, who gives a monkey's?

If the famous Red Rose emblem, which actually appears three times on the County Council's crest, has symbolised Lancashire's identity perfectly well since the 13th Century, why should anyone even think of letting some trendy Tristrams in some minimalist-furnished corporate identity consultants office charge a bundle of money for designing something more 'relevant'?

Has anyone thought of or worked out what the overall cost of a new or re-worked emblem would be - when it comes to putting it on stationery and signs?

And, after all, it's not as if the County Council is a soap powder with a brand image to maintain, is it? Why should it be concerned with having a corporate identity - when it's not in competition with any other body? (Though, goodness knows, if it was, it would not dare to put up the council tax by eight per cent nor would its members dare award themselves 23 per cent increases in allowances without finding itself out of business in no time).

There are much better things for our County leaders to spend their time and our money on than flower arrangements.