HOW DOES ONE MEASURE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

We're not sure if a city has ever had its proposed City of Culture status stripped from it before, but surely Liverpool is heading to make itself a historic first?

Never mind that most of the projects which were at their heart of their bid are disappearing, being scaled back or dropped altogether - The 'Fourth Grace', the tram network, the big shiny new arena. Never mind that yesterday they announced that one of the city's big claims to manage its cultural heritage, the Museum of Liverpool Life, is going to be closed for at least three years, including its big City of Culture year. It's more the way the City is bulldozing away its past.

After a brief "consultation period" stay of execution - which seems to have been used mainly to cook up a form of words which explains away the decision - the Council have announced they're going to bulldoze Ringo Starr's house anyway. It's not, you see, a significant house:

Flo Clucas, executive member for housing, said: "Ringo Starr lived in the Madryn Street house for about three months before he moved to Admiral Grove, where he lived for about 20 years.

"John Lennon and Paul McCartney's childhood homes were preserved because they spent a significant part of their lives in them. The house on Madryn Street has no historical significance."

Oddly, for building with no historical significance, it attracts busloads of visitors every week.

There's no real economic justification for the demolition of the houses - the idea seems to be to create space for developers to build new houses rather than to improve perfectly fine homes that are already there. Profit-maximising rather than the public good.

One of the campaigners to keep the neighbourhood doesn't seem convinced the council really used the consultation to period to do much consultation:

Jeremy Hawthorn, who had campaigned to save the homes, said he believed the council had made its mind up months ago. He said: "They want to clear working-class families out of this area to make way for expensive housing for richer people. I'm not surprised at this decision, but I am disappointed."

Onward, progress marches.

music ringo starr the beatles liverpool