Our Prime Minister recently announced a few new ideas to drum up a bit of national pride, after he got wind that us Brits don't hold our heads as high as we used to.

It's been a funny old year really, what with farming diseases, rubbish football, terrorism and a summer so bad that we all have a collective urge to spend winter sleeping in a cave somewhere.

Hardly a cause for patriotism. Among the proposals put forward by the government included an interesting idea to develop a national motto for us all to embody and be proud of, which would be displayed on public buildings and things like passports.

Of course most of our cities had civic mottos long before some slick marketing guru mooted the idea to the government. The Victorians also thought it was a cracking idea to sum up their towns' values in a snappy phrase.

Here in Bradford we have a couple of mottos which have been used by the Council at some point or another. One of the mottos is the rather simple statement Progress, Industry, Humanity.' Unfortunately, while this might have been appropriate in the mid-19th century when Bradford was an important forward-thinking city, I feel it needs updating to something a little more appropriate today.

It's time for Bradford to think hard and come up with a new motto for itself. Something catchy to get our citizens feeling proud of their city again - and before anyone out there suggests it, we can't adopt the motto "We're quite near Leeds, you know."

It's at this point that I must stress that I'm not suggesting some lame feelgood campaign because the public can see right through them and they never work.

A bit of research tells me that when Bradford was having a particularly nasty time in the 1980s, the Council organised a Bradford's Bouncing Back campaign' which basically consisted of a giant bear saying how great the town was.

The campaign soon lost its bounce' and the bear vanished in mysterious circumstances. So no cheesy PR stunts this time round, just a simple motto will do.

After much thought and consideration, I would like to suggest that the City of Bradford officially adopt the motto Give Us a Break.' The idea came after we failed to secure lottery money to build a new park in Centenary Square. The scheme was a good idea, well presented and well supported by the public. So of course it was destined to fail.

It seems every good opportunity for Bradford is rained upon by some external force.

So will the run of bad luck end soon? Will scores of high street shops open up here? Will government money come flooding in? Can the city centre become a genuine destination? Give us a break.