I’m unsure whether this is a bit of publicity stunt, or simply because of twattery.

Although there are reports elsewhere that suggest businessman Billy Palmer wants to keep the mural and convert the pub into a shop and bar, The Grauniad reports that Palmer wants to get rid of the rat and turn the building into ‘luxury flats’.

I suspect, and I hope I’m right, that this is a bit of scouse ribbing on the part of Palmer, who presumably know how well talk of more ‘luxury flats’ will go down in Chinatown, especially if that involves destroying some quite brilliant public art.

The Grauniad also reports that the rat on the side of the Whitehouse is ‘holding a machine gun’, which suggests a spot of remote copy filing to me, so I don’t know how much faith we can put in its reporting on this matter.

If he’s serious Palmer wouldn’t be the first to try to destroy the Banksy rat – which is clearly holding a marker pen that it has used to scrawl all over the building, for anyone doubting the meaning of the image – after Liverpool’s idiot City Council decided it was going to destroy it a few years ago.

Personally I’m all for keeping the artwork as is, derelict building and all. I’ve watched with dismay as the Ropewalks veers towards another cut-and-shut luxury flat and drinking pit grid.

The council has recently put together some sort of steering group to make sure Ropewalks doesn’t fall into disrepair, though I don’t think they’re talking about the disgusting state of Concert Square and Slater Street on a Friday night.

Bars and binge drinking may be the price of progress, but there are 101 derelict buildings in Ropewalks that the council could look at before its starts OK-ing the destruction of public works of art that bring something unique to the area, beyond the array of Jackson Pollocks that pebble dash the area in the early hours.

The other two corners of Berry Street and Duke Street would be a start.

• Image courtesy of Dave the Pap

It seems unpleasantly ironic that at a time when Liverpool is supposedly getting back on its feet, the store boasting the ‘Liverpool Resurgent’ statue is conceding defeat.

The fact that Liverpool’s resurgence was marked by a bloke with his cock out did not go unnoticed by locals and visitors, with the store regularly referred to as Dickie Lewis’s
In one of my first blogs a couple of years I remarked that the likely closure of Lewis’s to make way for another leisure/retail/lifestyle hub/haven/paradise was a rather depressing state of affairs and, sure enough, it’s come to pass.

It’s also a bit of a coincidence that a new exhibition of the store open in Liverpool this week, supported by a website detailing the experiences and memories of former staff.

Theoretically, Lewis’s could reopen in two year’s time, once extensive renovations on the building as part of the Merepark redevelopment are completed, but I’ll send Piers Morgan flowers by post if that happens.

People will mutter that this is the price of progress, and though it’s happening for different reasons the closure reflects the difficulties other parts of the city centre are experiencing.

Decreasing footfall spells trouble for areas like Lime Street, Clayton Square and St John’s market, a part of town rapidly becoming dirty, congested and fundamentally unpleasant.

Merepark’s Central Village, which will include the Lewis’s building, is set to redress the cash drain towards Liverpool One, but it’s not clear to me whether the city can support so many different retail/leisure/lifestyle hubs – is there genuinely enough cash being spent to go around Liverpool’s various city-centre areas?

How will the Cavern Walks, the Albert Dock or Met Quarter fare then? And what will the knock-on effect be on Liverpool One?

It remains to be seen, but as this kind city-wide regeneration is predicated on attracting people from other towns and cities it at least makes sense that one of Liverpool’s biggest transport hub gets a makeover.

Stand by for more QParks, Starbucks and Aparthotels. And a fucking massive concrete and glass skyscraper.

Although I fear the damage has been done, it’s a fairly bold move and the correct one in my opinion.

Both areas are littered with characterless bars that have served to make them both destinations in their own right for gangs of boozers on a weekend.

The difference from a few years back is that these groups would once have piled into taxis and headed for town, better equipped to deal with such groups.

These days, because there are so many options – some of which stay open past 11pm – people simply stay where they are, moving from bar to bar.

I’ve written before about my feelings on the explosion of bars on Lark Lane, and though there are several places I enjoy having a beer or some food on the Lane, the tipping point was passed some time ago as far as I’m concerned.

I suppose the licensing change will have little impact for the foreseeable future, unless bars start to fall due to the recession. I don’t wish closure on any businesses, but I think their explosion has been to the detriment of Lark Lane, particularly.

According to Councillor Richard Kemp, who represents Allerton’s Church ward, 70 per cent of people agree with the cap on bars in these areas. The police also support the move, having reported an increase in crime in both areas.

It hardly seems like rocket science to make the connection between the rise in the number of boozers and the rise in anti-social behaviour.

I don’t believe it’s the fault of pubs in particular, but the concentration of drinking establishments in these places was a problem waiting to happen.

Personally, I welcome the news. Quality, not quantity, as in most things.

The Rev was touring the UK as part of the Shopocalypse tour in Summer last year when this was filmed. The campaigning man of God can hardly have timed his event better, as it came a few months before the public rose up against the Tesco machine when it threatened to open a store on Hope Street.

Anyway, I just noticed this and thought I’d share it. Here’s the thinking behind the Shopocalypse tour:

There are always activists in the English cities and towns to greet us, sometimes exhausted after years of resistance the monoculture. We are taken to the part of a city or town where the community still flourishes, and we meet independent shopkeepers.

Day after day we have gone into Tesco and Starbucks. Everyone seems radicalized. The wave of evictions and foreclosures has its sinister origin. The political class is business partners to the landlord/developer class, and the resulting chains and malls are bad for jobs, bad for families, and boring.

They traffic in sweatshop goods and put everyone into cars. We say no because the Earth says no.

It was, financially, a good deal for Everton and an affordable way out of a crumbling ground badly served by surrounding infrastructure.

But it was also a good few miles away from Goodison and came with a bundle of other leisure and retail strings attached.

Communities secretary, John Denham, was apparently worries about the negative impact on surrounding areas of a vast out-of-town development.

It’s almost enough to make one what Liverpool One’s management team made of it all.

So, Everton are still looking for a way out, having ruled out tarting up Goodison. So is Liverpool, but it’s by far the more resistant of the two to any notions of ground sharing.

LFC is still banking on Stanley Park, but it’s now faced with a council and regional development agency keen on a shared ground.

I suspect that will also be the government’s view, with a mind on a 2018 Olympic bid, having turned down Kirkby.

LFC remain tight-lipped. I suspect a groundshare is a financially-attractive option but it’s likely to be a hard-sell to Reds.

So, the situation is unchanged. A goundshare may be still be the least-worst option for both clubs, and it’s moved a significant step closer to reality.

Addressing the TUC today and telling them that public services will have to put up with some hefty spending cuts is unlikely to go down well either.

But Brown should use the opportunity to highlight some clear blue water between Labour and the Conservatives going into the general election next year.

Labour should have a lot of ammunition over its successful response to the recession, a model that has been largely replicated the world over.

And, going forward, he should be able to paint the Tories as champing at the bit to start slashing spending left, right and centre. NHS, BBC, schools…it writes itself.

But, as ever, all of the talk in the media will be about how Brown is again fighting for his career, accompanied with a picture of Brown cradling his head in his hands, despite the obvious fact that the leadership is a massive poisoned chalice a year away from an election and no-one is likely to be queueing up to replace the PM.

The rather pointless survey today revealing that the public thinks ‘anyone’ would do a better job that Brown is rather undermined by the fact that, when pressed, pretty much none of those questioned could name another Labour candidate.

Brown is also on his way to Ellesmere Port today, the home of the new Astra hatch. That visit also conceals a fairly low-key but successful strategy of shoring up the British car industry – spearheaded by Lord Mandelson.

It’s something else to shout about and, although there are whispers that Mandelson was outmaneuvered by the Germans of the Magna-GM deal to buy Opel and Vauxhall, the reality is that a low-key lobbying operation has been underway to secure the new Ampera petrol-electric vehicle for Ellesmere Port.

Will it be enough to even slightly shift the polls? Unlikely, but Brown need to use the ammunition he does have if he’s going to try.

• Image by Dave Evans