COMMENT & ANALYSIS: Independent state; MR BROCKLEBANK.

REGULAR commuters and passengers on Mer-seyrail's Wirral line anticipated yesterday's day-long closure of the road tunnels by snapping up tickets in advance, avoiding the morning crush at the pay desks. Wirral is now almost totally isolated and will seriously consider declaring itself to be an independent state. Mr Brockle bank wonders if any of the tickets, face value pounds 2.10, ended up on Ebay? Worth their weight in gold, or at least a second-hand Blue Peter badge (now apparently changing hands on the internet for pounds 30).

DON'T blame Blair or the unions but Adolf Hitler that the Mersey fixed crossing is not a bridge, but a tunnel that had to be closed for safety reasons during yesterday's strike. When the fixed crossing was first proposed, plans for a bridge across the river were vetoed by the Government, fearing it would be a target for aerial bombardment if war broke out. Given that the Queensway Birkenhead Tunnel was opened in 1934, it shows how far ahead war was expected.

AFTER its annual conference on Merseyside, those custodians of the English language, the National Union of Journalists described its meetings having taken place at the Liverpool Adelphi, whereas in fact the hotel's name is the Britannia Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool. Were the organisers getting mixed up with the swanky Chester Grosvenor, which styles itself in this fashion to avoid confusion with the Gros venor House Hotel, in London?" Tis a wonder that Brian Burgess, one of the Adelphi's star turns in the television fly-in-the-soup documentary series didn't jump out of the shadows and, adjusting his famous catch-phrase, point at the hotel sign and cry: "Just look will you? Just look?"

ONE of the world's biggest annual property conferences, MIPIN, held at Cannes, on the French Riviera, offers plenty of opportunities for confidential meetings to discreetly take place aboard floating gin palaces. Except there was a setback for Liverpool's leading family of developers, the Beethams. Their yacht was too big to dock, forcing it to anchor in the bay with guests having to shuttle back and forth by speedboat. And you thought you had problems getting the new car into the garage.

YORK is the latest city to get a Ferris wheel, hoping to cash in on the excitement generated by the London Eye, with the 150ft high Yorkshire Wheel being built at the National Railway Museum. Plymouth, Norwich and a Scottish site are preparing for these tourism cash cows. Don't worry, this column hears that Liverpool has finally ordered its wheel for 2207, ready for the city's millennium celebrations. That will put a giant spoke in rivals' tourism.

Worth their weight in gold