The final bill to put on the Macca show - the Liverpool Sound - is anyone's guess with almost two months still to go and the Culture Company trying to keep a lid on every last detail.

Chickens are wandering around without any heads inside the Millennium House Fun Palace and everyone involved has been sworn to secrecy.

But we can reveal that council chiefs had been banking on the gig costing the city just £1.2million - even though the Harbarrowboy originally promised it would be"cost neutral."

Editor's Note: This is an accounting term which basically means: "I am trying to pull the wool over your eyes becaus I have no idea, so I am going to try and blag my way around this one and hope that I will be off-ski with a huge pay-off before the chickens come home to roost."

The £1.2 million cost to the city council was calculated once sales from tickets (now costing between £334-£288 on t'internet) and income from the BBC and other suppliers, souvenir-sellers and merchandisers etc had all been taken into account.

The actual bill to council taxpayers so far is, however, £2.5million - double what was forecast.

And given the financial mismanagement for which the Culture Company is famed, the final tab that council tax payers will have to pick up is likely to be at least FOUR times that original figure.

Meanwhile the Lib Dim council is closing two old folks care homes at Leighton Dene and Boaler Street as part of a £20 million package of cuts to the caring services alone.

Other services are being slashed and charges increased while the Lib Dims frantically try to plug the £62 million gap created by the spendthrift and stupid Culture Company. A sorry state of affairs which the Lib Dims of course allowed to happen, through their weakness and incompetence.

Liverpool subculture comment:

Paul McCartney's concert may well be fantastic and may well create a huge amount of positive publicity for Liverpool - God knows the city needs it after the chaos caused by the Lib Dims.

And frankly, four months into Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture, it is about the only event so far which will attract global attention and enthuse local people.

But......

Paul McCartney's concert will not keep open two old folks homes which the Lib Dims are closing, nor sweep the streets of dog muck, nor give the jobless new skills and training opportunities opportunities. Nor will it make life for the city's pensioners any better.

For one brief day, it will make a lot of people happy - and that is a good thing.

But will it bring any lasting benefit to Liverpool?

The McCartney concert is part of the bread and circuses roadshow which the Lib Dim council want to cover-up their legendary shortcomings.

We are not being killjoys, but let no-one forget:

W have the worst council in the country.

It is £62 million in the red.

It is closing old people's home and slashing services.

And it has paid out a fortune to incompetents and crooks.

As the bloke on the No 38 bus said to us only the other day:

"Did you see that on the blog? This bloody council is spending at least £2.5million of our hard-earned council tax money on a multi-millionaire global superstar, who may be a terribly nice guy who has always done his bit for the city with LIPA and all that, and who thankfully has just got shut of his horrible shrew of a gold-digging missus, couldn't stand her - a complete nutter obviously, and he seems a generally all-round good egg even though he is apparently a bit tight with the readies and is normally the last to get a round in I've heard, but then musically, of course, happens to be a bit of a once-in-a-lifetime-genius who has made some fantastic stuff and still appears able to turn it on big style even though he must be getting on in years, mind you he doesn't look so bad for his age, altho i expect he must be spending a small fortune on moisturisers and stuff and his new bird doesn't look half bad does she? I say good on him, you only live once, but then you've got to live and let live - or live and let die which of course was the title of one of his best numbers when Linda was still alive, amazing how the press have suddenly rehabilitated her now that she's gone when they were forever sticking the knife into her as a carrot munching headcase when she was alive, but anyway he's alright is Macca, but then he doesn't have to live here does he with that numsbskull the Fireman in charge and Colin trying to cover everything up and the Lib Dims killing each other in the public prints and the craven Echo burying its head in the sand and hoping it will all go away and services getting worse and have you been down Kenny lately? Fucking disgrace the way things have been left to slide there.....continued Page 94