Return of the Royals

Dec 11 2007 by Mr Brocklebank, Liverpool Daily Post

AFTER the rip-roaring success of the Royal Variety Show, broadcast from the Liverpool Empire, is it not proof that this major annual showbusiness event should be staged here every year?

Most importantly, with the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh getting on, the Royal Train could not be better placed next door at Lime Street Station. Surely, that is much better than the Royal couple having to struggle home late at night on the Tube from the London Palladium?

WHILE scanning Liverpool Council’s "Soviet podium" at the show for chief executive Colin Hilton’s mum (who enjoys attending Royal events), Mr Brocklebank noted the CEO appeared to be seated nearer to Labour group leader Cllr Joe Anderson, than council leader Warren Bradley. What can it mean? Or was it a trick of the camera angle?

ANOTHER occasion, in contrast, to receive lamentably little publicity was the Sail Training International’s annual international conference, with a record 440 delegates from more than 30 countries – and the venue was St George’s Hall, Liverpool. As the organisers’ theme was "Attracting the fleet and crowds" and the delegates overwhelmingly rated the conference as "excellent", how come so little was heard of it?

ONE suggestion for European Capital of Culture year was the "plastic wrapping" of St George’s Hall by installation artists Christo and Jeanne Claude, famous for so treating Berlin’s Reichstag and Paris’s Pont Neuf Bridge.

However, Liverpool’s gone a stage further – covering important buildings with scaffolding. Just in time for celebrations, the key Port of Liverpool building and now the Strand side of George’s Dock Vent (Britain’s most beautiful exhaust pipe) are covered. All very clever and thought-provoking for the millions of visitors, but is it art?

FOR the last decade, Liverpool City Council’s top bananas travelled to work along Dale Street past the decaying Jamaica House.

Suddenly, they claim it must go, citing the structure’s dangerous condition. Workmen carrying sledge hammers were spotted leaving the property – presumably after "attending" to the 18th- century staircase? Could this be part of a bigger clearance scheme for redevelopment, perchance?

AFTER Liverpool nearly infringed its World Heritage Site status, Unesco demanded a supplement- ary planning document by consultants Atkins International to reinforce guidelines.

This was due in February, 2007, then delayed to June, then September, and unlikely to meet its February, 2008, deadline and the WHS agm. Meantime, the city promised any new refurbishment in the WHS would reinstate original shop fronts. Hence Dale Street’s Revive Salon must replace its "inappropriate" UVPC facade, while next door Georgian Jamaica House will be demolished, surely a far worse WHS guideline buster?