DARNED right it's a crime ridden midden. The figures speak for themselves: 110 crimes of serious violence in 2006/ 07 - everything from murder to rape and possessing firearms with intent.

Drug offences? 109 of supply, possession, money laundering and the rest. Anti-social behaviour? 928. Breach of the peace, petty assault, drunk. Basically, every yobbish little crime imaginable.

I could go on but who needs the figures - it's a criminal hotbed and should be flattened immediately.

But I am not referring to Paddy's Market. I'm talking about the area around all those designer stores at the bottom of Buchanan Street, the unacceptable face of inner city crime.

The numbers speak for themselves: Paddy's Market is a haven of peace and tranquillity by comparison.

Oh it's got more than twice the drug crime, but a third of the breaches and about half the violent crime.

Still, where money talks, Glasgow City Council shouts.

Paddy's sits in the middle of prime development land, so it has to go - an argument bolstered by out-of-date crime figures proving' it is a crooks' paradise.

Except council-crunched stats released this week are a year older, and coincidentally higher, than those published in January by the Evening Times from police figures.

That is not to defend crime around the Briggait and King Street. Instead, it highlights the necessity of a flea-market like Paddy's.

Every city in the world has them and, like the designer malls in and around the city, they cater to a market.

Perhaps not yours or mine, but one too poor and too, let's be brutal, scummy for designer stores whose security men would huckle them straight out the door at the first sniff.

To the snoots at the City Chambers Paddy's is an embarrassing eyesore, not a thriving market for the poor.

Evidence? Read Councillor Gordon Matheson's words: "This plan ... provides a clear way forward that will regenerate this area to the benefit of local people."

Presumably they will flock to the new designer blocks and bijoux little stores ready to pop up and replace the 80 or so traders who earn a crust from second-hand clothes and junk.

Of course, the council has quantified the cost to local tax payers: policing at £95,000, Customs and Excise £42,000, Federation Against Copyright Theft £30,000, cleansing £80,000 and trading standards £30,000.

Customs officers are probably involved because of cheap cigarette sellers earning an illicit living due to Government-imposed tobacco duty pushing prices to a level that makes smuggling viable.

Police are there, most likely, as foot soldiers to defend the other three groups of investigators.

Trading standards and Federation Against Copyright Theft look out for the indisputable rights of brand and copyright owners determined to stamp out fakes, rip-offs and copies on behalf of big business.

Not that big business feels much hurt since Paddy's customers are unlikely to ever be able to afford the real thing anyway.

They say as much in the City Chambers: Paddy's Market? No loss!