Lancashire nostalgia in 1991: Guild problems, Marmite mission and dreams of Rita

Guild hit by cut in cash claim Tories

Preston councillors warned Guild events will suffer next year after the Labour group refused to pay thousands of pounds into a special fund.

Labour has not paid an annual contribution to the Guild fund - this year pegged at £164,000 - and has instead used the cash to balance its budget which has suffered a £2m programme of cuts.

The fund, set up in 1977, is used for school pageants and processions and also helps to pay for the substantial publicity machine surrounding the Guild.

Tories and Liberal Democrats said they feared for the scale of the traditional celebrations.

Tory leader Coun Joe Hood claimed: “There is no doubt at all that the mishandling of the council’s finances will make it more difficult to provide the sort of Guild we have become accustomed to.”

But Preston Council town clerk Mr Tony Owens said the organisation of the Guild was going extremely well. He added: “The council leader Coun Harold Parker has expressed strong commitment to the Guild. We have a financial problem this year but that does not mean we will be diminishing our effort to finance the Guild.”

Minor’s Major Marmite mission

John Liddiard, aged three, had a pressing question for Prime Minister John Major when he visited Southport.

Never mind addressing the Conservative Central Council at the prom’s Floral Hall - young John wanted Mr Major to address a more probing question: “Do you like Marmite?”

His mother Anne, 36, said she had been harangued into writing to Mr Major - in the middle of the Gulf Crisis - to ask him if he was a Marmite lover.

Anne, of Hawthorn Crescent, Formby, said: “John kept seeing Mr Major on television when he took over the leadership from Mrs Thatcher. He points to him and wants to know whether he likes Marmite. We have not received a reply yet.”

Her son, nicknamed John Minor, wasn’t too disappointed as he caught sight of Mr Major in his car.

TV fans dream of Rita!

People in the North West dream about TV programmes more than in other parts of the country.

More than 20 per cent of Northerners admitted in a new survey that they had regular dreams about top soap Coronation Street.

Rita Fairclough is the character they dream about most and psychologist Jack Dykes, who carried out the survey, says people often relate to her problems.

About 13 per cent of Midlanders dream about TV but under 10 per cent of Scots, Welsh and Southerners admit to tuning in to the box after their head hits the pillow.

However, once they wake, another survey has revealed that men in particular lie about what they do watch on TV.

Macho males claim to enjoy watching news and documentaries, such as The Natural World, New at Ten and Tomorrow’s World.

But, when their appreciation for programmes was measured, the three they most enjoyed were football, Saint and Greavsie and golf - none of which appeared in their original top 10.

Women were unashamed to admit their favourite programmes were Coronation Street, Home and Away and EastEnders.

The survey by The Broadcasting Partnership for a BBC conference on woman and broadcasting found that women tend to dominate decisions about what is watched.