RARELY does a government deliver three times what it promised. But on March 14th the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, announced that not one but three British towns have been granted city status as part of the Queen's diamond jubilee celebrations. That is one each for England (Chelmsford), Scotland (Perth) and Wales (St Asaph). Northern Ireland must make do with a lord mayoralty for one of its existing cities, Armagh.

City status is doled out periodically—generally in association with some royal occasion—and has no set rules. A town need neither a cathedral nor a university to be considered. Even its population is irrelevant. Picking one city for each British nation certainly suggests that “merit”, whatever that is in a game with no published rules, plays little part in the process.

Creating new cities spreads cheer at minimal cost to the government. Champagne flowed in Chelmsford, the 3,500 residents of St Asaph greeted the news "rapturously" and the people of Perth were "delighted".

Yet becoming a city confers no new benefits, rights or duties. Some community leaders have argued that possessing city status will lead to economic advancement. When little St Asaph first applied for city status in 1999, it did so in the hope that the title would help fill a new business park. In Chelmsford, local residents said they hoped the change of title would help bring in tourists and trade. Yet the belief is baffling: there is no evidence for a link between economic bounty and officially becoming a city. 

At most, city status enriches signwriters and stationers. Even the raised profile only lasts for a brief period of time. Not many people, when thinking of British cities, alight upon the Welsh village of St Davids (population 1,800), which was granted city status in 1994. As the fuss dies down, local politicians would do well to recognise that investors are not going to toddle up unbidden. It will still take good policies, solid infrastructure and attractive incentives to attract them. That holds true for cities as much as it does for towns.