I spend every August in Edinburgh; basking in theatre, music, dance and literature. I am particularly partial to the book festival, which I haven’t missed in years. And yet I am dismayed that this Wednesday its cultural leaders will go to Paris seeking to become Unesco’s World City of Literature.

I do not object to this accolade on the grounds that Edinburgh has little literary tradition. It clearly does, with a roll-call that includes Stevenson, Burns and Spark. Even the railway station is named Waverley after Scott’s novels. Nor is the contemporary situation too terrible. With writers such as Ian Rankin and Irvine Welsh in residence the city retains, up to a point, a lively scene — though the claim of ownership of JK Rowling stretches the bounds of credibility a bit far.

I take exception because incessant claims for cultural accolades promote the impression that every city or town, from Birmingham to York, deserves a title for something creative. Soon there will be nowhere left without one.

There is already a decoration for the World Book Capital awarded on an annual basis. Who really cares that Antwerp secured the trophy for 2004 and does anyone even know that Montreal has won the accolade for 2005? Submissions for 2006 have just closed, so we don’t yet know which unexceptional city will be chosen next. The suspense is simply soporific, particularly with World Book Day due to arrive just five months down the line.

With standards this low, in no time at all bookshops and libraries will award customers a gold star just for entering and a rosette for going so far as to pick up and flick through a novel. As for reading one, maybe a declaration will be issued.

So many literary titles are meaningless. This pile-up of prizes signals nothing of distinction. After a while, every city will have been chosen as a World Book Capital and a World City of Literature. It may also have worn the title for European City of Culture, due to be rebranded from 2005 as the European Capital of Culture, as if that made any difference to a year-long jamboree. All that can be said for European Cultural Month is that, thankfully, it is much shorter.

A lack of aesthetic accountability runs through the literary awards. The World City of Literature is a “non-competitive prize”. If the very title, World City of Literature does not mean it is more remarkable than the rest, what purpose does it serve? As for the winner of the World Book Capital, all it needs to do is to foster reading during the period between one World Book and Copyright Day and the next. What is read has no bearing on the decision: quality is not taken into account. People could be racing through Mills and Boon or deconstructing Proust in French, it doesn’t matter.

Nor does it make a difference if anything is actually written or not. Authors may be penning a revolutionary style set to change the novel or facing a block and spending all their time in the park. Neither is the number of libraries or bookshops taken into consideration.

The important point is the more we hear about the crowned cities and the titled towns, the less we hear about the actual writing — the outstanding phrasing, mediocre character development or just plain poor prose. These city designations do not engage with the work beyond the covers. There is an evasion of comparison in all these awards.

Judgment has disintegrated under the threat of accusations of elitism. This cultural inflation hides the low regard in which literature is held. In Edinburgh it is badly funded, even compared with other art forms.

Out of a budget of more than £67m for the year 2004-5, the Scottish Arts Council gave the relevant department just over £2m, out of which the fantastic Edinburgh International Book Festival gets a tiny £132,100.

Two good bookshops with an extensive stock have passed on. James Thin has been taken over; Bauermeister is a tatty tartan gift shop. The mainstream bookshops stock little that is not on the bestseller list or has an old publication date. Asking for a novel published more than three years ago makes you feel as if you have turned into one of those grumpy old men.

You can forget about regional, international or historical diversity. The Edinburgh Libraries Strategy sets out an aspiration that the city will be known as a Library City. It is a great shame that it too is struggling for resources and drowning in policy and strategic documents. Other aims include meeting the targets for social inclusion and demonstrating best value, debatable priorities at best, especially when adding to the collection of books, a core priority of libraries, is neglected.

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