AT THE time that Glasgow could call itself the European Capital of Culture, the gritty Caledonian city could not help but taunt its more genteel neighbour with its new lofty title.

Billboards were acquisitioned in Edinburgh to cheekily inform residents and visitors alike that they were just 42 miles from the city that all of Europe was looking to as a beacon of the arts, civility and enlightenment.

Fortunately, the current holder of the title has not dared to pull a similar stunt with its nearest metropolitan neighbour.

Given the animosity between Liverpool and Manchester such provocation would be likely to result in all out hostilities.

How quickly the territory between Leigh and St Helens could be shattered by a bloody conflict leaving it scattered with human debris, shattered limbs and torn shell suits.

Everyone knows that - like the Mods and Rockers, the Montagues and the Capulets and Biggie and Tupac - Mancs and Scousers just don’t get along.

They think we are arrogant and cold, while we love to portray them as over-sentimental and light-fingered.

Sometimes I feel writing a column called the Mancunian Candidate carries with it a moral responsibility to wind up the Mickey Mousers.

But personally, I have no problem with Liverpool.

I hold no particular grudge against the taxes imposed on Manchester’s Victorian industrialists by the Liverpool dock owners or the fact that the Beatles were bigger than the Hollies.

Of course, the field where the rivalry is most acute these days is football. And that’s because, as things stand, their most successful club has a couple more trophies in its cabinet than ours.

Thankfully, a certain obstinate Scotsman has made it his life’s work to correct that particular anomaly.

Liverpool has much to be proud of, especially in the fields of sport, music and the arts. It has a wonderful waterfront that has rightly been declared a UNESCO world heritage site.

But as a city it is simply not on the same scale as Manchester.

I tend to view them much in the same way as one would an affable but annoying cousin, who thinks he’s much funnier than he actually is and is always banging on about how much better his home is, despite seeming to spend most his time round at your house.

So readers, you will not think that I’m led by sectarian instincts when I say that, as we pass the half-way stage of their Capital of Culture year, I do not think they are actually making a very decent fist of it.

The whole event seems to be a trawl through bygone decades to celebrate all things Scouse.

Tall ships and events such as Paul McCartney playing at Anfield are headline grabbing, but they are not very imaginative and hardly help to advance the way the outside world views the city.

Another ‘highlight’ was Ken Dodd’s lecture on local humour. Now I know the man from Knotty Ash is still able to fill theatres across the country with old dears, but does he really have anything new to say about comedy in 2008?

Everyone from Claire Sweeney to The Farm have been pushed in front of the cameras to tell us what a ‘special place’ Liverpool is.

But the more has-beens they drag out, the more parochial and inward looking the whole affair seems.

Just how is Liverpool using its Capital of Culture year to impose itself on the international arts scene or to set the cultural agenda?

And what is Capital of Culture telling the world about what a 21st Century Liverpool has to offer?

As far as I am aware, none of my Manchester-based friends, an urbane and much-travelled lot as I am sure you’d expect, have yet made the journey along the East Lancs even though, as the Edinburghians were once goaded by their rivals, they’re supposedly only a few miles away from the best Europe can offer for culture.

I am sure that this has less to do with regional rivalries than the impression that if you don’t want to indulge in the Scouse-fest, then Liverpool 08 has little to offer you.

I was working in Bradford a number of years ago when the city launched its own ambitious bid for the 2008 culture crown.

So incredulous was the local populous of the scheme that the campaign leaders took to accompanying its expensive Back the Bid promotional campaign with such eye-catching slogans such as ‘O Ye of Little Faith‘ and ‘Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover’.

They might as well have gone the whole hog and plumbed for, ‘We've no chance, but what the hell...’ or ‘Alright, we’re having a laugh’.

Perhaps the civic leaders of the terminally depressed Yorkshire city were hoping to capitalise on the sympathy card.

If so, that was a gross error of judgment. According to the new Mayor of London, no-one does self-pity better than the eventual winners of the title on Merseyside. There is no doubt that there was an element of charity in the decision to make Liverpool Capital of Culture.

But then Liverpool is an area in desperate need of investment which - like Bradford - has lagged behind, while its larger neighbour has seen its city centre transformed beyond recognition by huge investments of capital.

So why not? There is no doubt that the injection of money and tourism will provide a much-needed boost for the Merseyside city and bring opportunities that were not there before.

It’s just a shame that the organisers of Liverpool 08 have not seized the chance to produce an event that builds on the city’s achievements and heritage to establish the groundwork for Liverpool to become an important international centre for culture for years to come.

And to do that, they need to leave the Beatles and co where they belong – in the past - and break the city’s sentimental bond with its own history.

The civic leaders of our own fair city have a chequered past when it comes to projects designed to put Manchester on the map.

But contrast the Capital of Culture with our own Manchester International Festival.

Commissioning a biennial festival of original work was a bold move that reflected the city’s independence and innovative spirit.

And what the organisers managed to achieve with last year’s event was a brave programme that was both forward-thinking and outward-looking.

The festival’s focus on international premiers, showed us not just as a city with a rich cultural heritage, but told the world that when it comes to art, culture and ideas, we are a match for anyone.

So what else can we expect from the European Capital of Culture before the year is out?

Is Cilla Black planning to revive Surprise, Surprise and stun Jimmy Corkhill with a shock reunion with beloved canine Cracker.

Perhaps, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher are going to recreate the roles of Joey and Billy Boswell in a remake of the Eighties sitcom, Bread.

Anway, perhaps it is wrong for us Mancunians to expect too much from a Capital of Culture Year in the city we love to hate.

They are only sharing the title with the Norwegian Stavanger and Sandnes in Norway, after all.