HOLLYWOOD has recently been accused of rewriting history and it seems Lancaster's other newspaper is trying its hand at Tinseltown's game.

Having unsuccessfully tried to steal the Citizen's thunder over the last few months by waking up to the fact that peoples' views matter, they gave over their front page last week to try and convince the readers that it's suddenly all gone pear-shaped because of the MBIs.

In a bid to shake off the oft-stated view that it's in the pocket of the council , The Grauniad's appears to be trying to beef up its credentials by lampooning the independent newcomers for the perilous state of council coffers.

It's obvious the new five-party council has led to chaos in the corridors of power but we can't let a local version of Pravda attempt to airbrush the giant cock-ups of the previous administration from the bigger picture.

You can't lose millions of pounds of public money and it not leave a big hole in the public purse.

Last week's front page uses the words of city treasurer David Corker and Labour's Ian Barker to exclusively reveal that the council's finances are a shambles.

Tell us something we didn't know!

We were also told about the CCS problems and cost of the auditor's investigations into Blobby -- things that Citizen readers were made aware of two weeks prior to the Grauniad's exclusive revelations

What it fails to mention is the fact that Mr Corker was treasurer during the £2 million Blobbygate fiasco and Mr Barker was one of the political inner sanctum which made crucial and what proved to be very costly decisions.

A telling choice for your sources of information.

What can we expect in next week's edition - George Best's clean-living page? Nick Leesson's investment tips?

Unfortunately for us all, financial earthquakes like Blobby and Salt Ayre (eventually reported by the LG 18 months after we broke the story) continue to reverberate throughout the city's finances and to solely blame the current incumbents is unfair. What agenda is the Grauniad working to? Perhaps they are trying to boost circulation -- Lord knows they would welcome any increase in sales at the moment.

Accuse the MBIs of not listening to the people of Ryelands or getting into a muddle over Summerbreeze - that's fair comment - but the current cash crisis has a complex history that can't be rewritten.

When the district auditor's report finally arrives you can bet they'll try to rewrite history again by claiming they were at the forefront of investigative journalism.

Thankfully, most local people know that's simply not true.

A new plug announcing the fact that the Lancaster Guardian has just increased its price to ten bob boasts that the paper is: packed tighter then Superman's underpants -- it's what his underwear is filled with that bothers me!