COMMENT: Thinktanks are the miserable ones - I'm proud to live in Wolverhampton

Because you'll find about as much useful material in either of them,

.

Apparently, the latest think tank tells us, we are the most miserable place in the UK.

Now, we're quite used to this kind of slight in Wolverhampton.

Over the last few years we've been declared one of the 10 worst cities IN THE WORLD by Lonely Planet (to put that into perspective, no cities from the Helmand Province of Afghanistan featured in the Top 10 and neither did Mogadishu) and every time there is a poll by someone or other on which UK city has the worst accent or which city represents the biggest eyesore, we're right there at the top.

Of course, the sheer spanner-headed folly of the thinking of the Legatum Institute becomes readily apparent when we look at the other end of the spectrum, and note that the top four 'best' places in the UK are in London, and are specifically where all the rich people and MPs live. Funny, that.

Misery, of course, is a nebulous and immeasurable concept – you can't just turn up and get a misery print-out at your local GP.

So all we can rely on is anecdotal evidence. And I have some!

I've lived in Camden and Hammersmith, two of the UK's supposed Best Four Places Ever Ever, and spent pretty much all my time broke, frequently weeping, and yearning for the warm embrace of the Black Country, where a pub pie doesn't cost £12 and isn't served in a plant pot or something equally ridiculous.

I came bak 'ome two years ago and now, all of a sudden, I can afford to go to the pub for the evening without having to phone Wonga first.

I earn less money, obviously. But, as to prove the old adage about what money can and cannot buy, I'm also blissfully happy, mainly because I live in a city that doesn't care two flying hoots for the nonsense that erupts like idiotic lava from 'think tanks'.

Right, I'm off for a pub pie. It will cost £3, and it will be served to me in a dish. Bliss.