Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

Even from here I can hear the sound of pretentious bubbles being pricked. An ordinary South-East town?

How dare they? We are a city!

As someone who was born and lived in Brighton for 48 years, I fully agree with everything that Dan Kieran and The Idler said.

A once-enjoyable seaside town has been turned into a haven for pseuds, has-beens and the never-really-were.

Doubtless it's a great place for those whose idea of heaven is wall-to-wall clubbing and booze.

Not much for anybody else, though.

The place is still filthy, the drugs and homeless problems seem to be as bad as ever, congestion is a nightmare, the parking policy seems to have been devised by Dick Turpin, the Albion are still playing on a sports field and, to crown it all, the West Pier looks as though it has been dumped by Baghdad.

So, what happens when someone points out that all is not wonderful?

Why, the council politburo and its poodle, The Argus, sulk and start the playground "you're-more crap-than-we-are" argument.

Obviously, criticism is not allowed in Utopia.

-Tony Carr, Sompting