WHAT will they try and cancel next . . . Christmas?
I go away for a couple of weeks and what happens? I return to find that one of the main planks ("Planks"? A good word and one which could easily be used elsewhere in this piece, to convey a different meaning) of this city's 800th birthday celebrations has been removed.
The Mathew Street Festival will not be taking place in its full-scale form, as thousands of OUTDOOR revellers of yore know only too well.
As countless commentators have said, this so-late-in-the-day botch-up doesn't bode well for 2008, while few people could now have much faith in the Liverpool Culture Company doing the right and most obvious thing - should they be given a brewery and a load of ale.
It's always good to have the powers-that-be on your side, but in situations like this when you are badly let down it's probably best to follow those old cliches, including "If you want something doing, do it yourself" and "Carry on regardless".
On a lighter/brighter note, the ECHO is continuing to do its bit on the 800th birthday front and, as part of this, in the lead-up to the big day (starting today, Monday August 13), we are bringing readers The Paddy Shennan Birthday Letters.
Some time ago, I wrote to the great and the good - and to the likes of Margaret Thatcher and Kelvin MacKenzie - to ask them to wish Liverpool a "Happy 800th Birthday".
And some of them, depsite the irreverent nature of my letters, even replied.
The likes of Boris Johnson, Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and Jeffrey Archer got into the spirit of things. The likes of Norman Tebbit didn't.
I hope you enjoy reading them - and I hope the powers-that-be haven't cancelled 2008 by the time of my next blog.
