Opinion by Hull Daily Mail columnist Ian Midgley.
CRAP. It's an emotive word. Look it up in the Oxford English Dictionary and it's defined as: "1. noun, vulgar, faeces, nonsense, rubbish".
Not much wriggle room there for any misunderstanding. You know, if something's crap, it must be pretty dire.
So joy of joys, how wonderful to hear that Crap Towns, the book that slated Hull as the crappest of crap places to live in the country in 2003, is back.
To be honest, I can't get that indignant about it all. I find it all vaguely amusing.
There's barely a person in the country, from Land's End to John O'Groats, who doesn't hate the place where they live. Most of us live under the misconception that the grass is always greener.
It isn't, of course. When you get there, you usually only discover it's green because it's radioactive.
Look at the Crap Towns website and there are moaning minnies on there slating everywhere from Bath to York via Scunthorpe, London and Leeds.
Plus, I actually like having a moan about Hull now and then. It ain't perfect. We all know that.
But the fact that we can have a laugh about it and take the rise out of ourselves – while secretly quite liking the place – shows that most of us are well-adjusted, self- deprecating grown-ups.
This time, the book's editor says Hull hasn't taken the top, crappest, slot. That dubious honour has gone elsewhere – like we should be grateful for small mercies.
So, bring it on. We'll take it on the chin and carry on regardless. We've got too much to be cheerful about at the moment to let a bunch of shandy-drinking southerners bring us down.
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