I’d hate to come across as a snob, but is the seaside town of Blackpool really worthy of UNESCO world heritage status, as is currently being suggested? Does it, you know, punch its weight alongside the Great Wall of China and the Acropolis? I thought it was just somewhere for Glaswegians to vomit.
I’ve been to Blackpool many times and almost always found it cold and disagreeable. I’m thrilled its football team have reached the Premier League, I have nothing much against its residents, I just don’t think it’s a place worthy of preserving under some new, foolishly democratic notion of the term ‘heritage’.
I mean, sure, it has a certain history attached to it, much as does the Reeperbahn or one of Stalin’s gulags. You might as well choose Bracknell town centre to be preserved as it too is redolent of certain stage in the development of Great Britain.
The great irony is that Blackpool is on a list drawn up by politicians. They absolutely loathe the place; every year party conference season approached, the people going to Brighton or Bournemouth or Harrogate would be hopping up and down with jubilation, the ones on their way to Blackpool would be snarling with fury.
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