Leading article: Fit to bus?

If ever a sports team deserved an open-top bus tour, Blackpool is surely that team. For the tiny Seasiders to win promotion to the plutocratic Premier League is a remarkable achievement in anyone's book.

That said, the open-top bus tour for football teams seems to becoming almost routine these days. Norwich took to the streets earlier this month when they were promoted to the Championship. And so did Bournemouth and Rochdale when they won promotion to League One. Once an open-top tour was reserved for Cup winners; now it seems that promotion is enough to merit closing the roads and hiring a bus.

Perhaps the difficult economic times are responsible for this proliferation of victory laps, with the general gloom leaving people desperate to celebrate. One can certainly understand depressed Blackpool's keenness to stage a party.

But it does raise the question of what celebrations would be in order if one of these smaller teams were ever to win one of the big trophies. For where do you go after the open-top bus? Ticker tape? A fly-past? Royal guests of honour? Times are hard, but perhaps they should start saving now.