The Swindon swindle  Fancy that - an article on Swindon without
a single mention of Melinda Messenger...   It was always
certain that the contest to choose a single town to be upgraded,
in this millennium year, to the status of city would end in
tears, and although the process is not yet over, the tears are
falling already. A leaked home office document suggests that the
choice now lies between Wolverhampton and Brighton and Hove, but
that Brighton and Hove may suffer because, although it's a
single local government unit, it is really two towns rather than
one. Luton, imaginatively described by a local MP as "far and
away the most vibrant place to be at the moment", was the
bookmakers' favourite but is not, it seems, the home office's,
while poor Swindon was made the subject of many snooty
objections. It had no history, some anonymous civil servant
said, outside the 19th century when the railway came; it was not
a rounded community; it was guilty of feuding with Reading
(another contender); it was "particula