THAT Dome shenanigans was a joke.

The media devoted hours to London's white elephant.

Guess what they gleefully told us every time?

The shock revelations all screamed the same thing -- nobody cares about the poor old Dome.

It struck me that if nobody cared about it ,why did they think we were interested in reading and hearing about its woes.

But that's us Brits.

We may all love the underdog but we never miss a chance to kick a Dome when it's down.

And so, with London saddled with the building no-one wanted and no-one knows what to do with, the Dome kickers are looking oop north for a bit of fresh sport!

Oh yes, the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, we should be able to have some fun with that you can almost hear them say.

Read between the lines of any report on the progress made by games organisers and you can see the contemptuous disdain.

I blame Coronation Street.

The nation's view of the north west seems to be based almost entirely on the happenings of a fictitious street.

As such you could see why outsiders would be troubled.

In the Street everyone -- dear old Emily included -- has such a solid drink problem that they can't make it past dinner time without hitting the local boozer.

There must be fears that the Games' athletes' villages will be tucked down some cobbled back street and that instead of being given isotonic energy drinks the runners will be handed pints of Newton and Ridley's best bitter.

Well I've got news for you. Some of us drink Britvic 55 -- and like it! (The cheque's in the post).

And, it may come as something of a surprise to our soft southern ballet dancing buddies, but us oop north are quite used to putting on major sporting events without too many problems.

The region is the birthplace of modern soccer and it remains today a stronghold of the nations' favourite sport.

No we aren't blessed with the same climate as Sydney but we are a friendly bunch -- witness those lovely scenes down the Rovers.

We have a lot to be proud of in this region and being able to celebrate our Lancastrian heritage on a world sporting stage will make the games a wonderful occasion.

Our big northern party will be loud enough to drown out the sceptical mutterings of those Dome-day scaremongers.

Won't it Emily?