EVEN though Blackburn is rated a 33-1 outsider in the bids by it and umpteen others for one to win city status in this millennium year, I can well understand the Council being narked that the Government still hasn't said who's won.

After all, is it such a big deal that it takes them 18 months to make up their minds?

But, come to that, would the town being granted city status -- at the fourth time of trying -- be a big deal for Blackburn with Darwen and its citizens?

It is, after all, merely a matter of civic vanity. And it is unlikely to enhance the lot of anyone other than the printers of the Corporation's notepaper.

It would, I think, be worth the expense of sending a couple of its civic leaders to the Florida swamps to spend a while there in Frog City (Population seven, the last time I passed through) for them to understand just how much -- or little -- these fancy notions amount to . . .and for them to be consigned in future to the swamps.