RINGO BEING REWORKED IN THE COUNCIL'S FAVOUR

You're probably not surprised to hear that we haven't yet heard back from Flo Clucas to explain the curious case of Ringo Starr's house. You might remember that there was a council investigation into plans to knock down Starr's birthplace, which concluded with Clucas telling the world that the international tourist attraction "wasn't historically significant"; then, a couple of weeks later, she decided that although the building wasn't of any importance, the council would take it down brick-by-brick and store it somewhere, for some reason.

Now, the tale has got even more twisted, as Ringo has dismissed this idea as being valueless. Curiously, the slavishly council-supporting Liverpool Echo has decided that this means Ringo wants the Welsh streets bulldozed:

RINGO Starr has a message for campaigners fighting to save his old home from the bulldozers: "Don't bother."

The Beatles drummer says he "does not see the sense" in preserving his former home in Liverpool's Welsh Streets. Liverpool council plans to take down the property brick by brick to keep it for future generations.

But Ringo has dismissed the idea. He said in a TV interview: "Now they are knocking it down brick by brick because they are going to build flats there or high-rise or something, I don't know.

"They are going to put it somewhere else and I do not see the sense of putting it anywhere else, because you are going to have to put a plaque on whatever they build saying 'Ringo Starr was born here'. Well, not really."

Which actually has twisted Starr's position through 180 degrees - Starr hasn't told people campaigning the streets not to bother, what he's saying is there's bugger all point in knocking the house down and building it somewhere else. He's already on record as saying he doesn't see why perfectly serviceable houses are being destroyed to let developers build new properties on the same land.

But while Starr's words are being radically reinterpreted, our friend Flo Clucas has also decided to have a go at reworking things, taking a liberty or two with history:

"We have not been able to conserve the birthplaces of John Lennon or Paul McCartney either, but retained the homes in which they spent the most time following the guidelines of the English Heritage Trust."

When she says "spent most time", she doesn't actually mean Macca's Sussex home or the Dakota Building; she means the houses they lived in in Liverpool for the most time. And when she says "we have not been able to conserve", she means "we allowed developers to knock down", and when she says "we... retained the homes they spent most time in" she seems to have become a little confused, as neither of those properties have anything to do with Liverpool City Council but have been saved for the nation by the National Trust - in effect, the Trust is subsidising the Liverpool Beatle Tourist Industry. But other than that, she's spot on.

Flo, Flo, we'd love to hear your explanation for how a two month investigation could describe something as being without value only for you to decide it's worth preserving brick by brick a few days later.

music the beatles ringo starr flo clucas liverpool liverpool city council john lennon paul mccartney