GREAT BRITAIN.- Culture, according to Matthew Arnold, is "acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit". For the 12 British towns and cities whose bids to be European capital of culture in 2008 must be submitted today, that means plugging their theatres, concert halls, galleries and other municipal glories. All the bidders have high hopes of a cultural year's impact on inward investment, tourism and regeneration. They look longingly at the rewards Glasgow reaped during its year of cultural glory in 1990: a consultant recently estimated that the year brought up to £15.5m and 5,500 new jobs to the city. Liverpool, priced at 5-1 by bookmaker Blue Square, claims to be "unconventional, pioneering and unpredictable" according to the city's bid document. "It lives on the edge of Europe, the edge of America, and the edge of Africa, on the fault-lines of culture. The city takes a very broad view of the nature of culture, and is the richer for it."

The bookies' view is that this is a three-way contest between Liverpool, Belfast and Newcastle-Gateshead, where old trans-Tyne hatchets have been buried in the quest for mutual advantage.

Newcastle-Gateshead's bid contains plans for investment worth £3bn leading to 17,000 jobs. Events will bring in four million visitors and establish new links with Europe.

Liverpool and Newcastle-Gateshead already have plenty to boast about. Liverpool has one of the finest waterfronts in Europe and is planning a fourth grace to add to the Liver, Cunard and Port of Liverpool Authority buildings; Newcastle-Gateshead can hit back with the Tyne and an array of bridges, including the magnificent Gateshead Millennium Bridge.

Liverpool claims to have some of the finest public buildings in Britain; more museums and galleries - including an outpost of the Tate - than any city except London; and the Fact building, a center for film, art and creative technology which opens in the autumn.

Gateshead, whose Angel of the North blessed the town's use of culture as a tool of urban regeneration, responds with the Baltic, an international art factory which opens in the autumn, and the Music Center, a home for the Northern Sinfonia and an innovative music school, now rising next to the Tyne Bridge. Newcastle-Gateshead counters with its reputation for innovation in the visual arts and a list of backers that includes the British Museum, the Royal Opera House and the Royal Shakespeare Company. It will also have the unique Center for the Children's Book.

Belfast is plugging cultural diversity and tourism as part of its bid and in April will host an event no other bidder could stage: a Titanic Festival to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Belfast-built liner.

Bids are submitted to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, with a shortlist due to be declared in September. The winner will be announced about six months later.