Along with 'always the victim' it deserves to be consigned to the bin as so much newspaper originated 'terms' should be, it did in fact come after Jamie Bulgers murder though and was perpetuated and used mostly as a stick by football fans.
As with other 'terms' invented by journalists they have to be spoken about so as to educate before they can disappear, ignoring them as reality will only perpetuate them in the psyche of the more ignorant (see: chelsea fans).
Jonathan Margolis: Liverpool I love you
Fifteen years ago this month, I was foolish enough to provoke a public fallout with nearly half a million people - the entire population of Liverpool.
I was writing in a Sunday paper about the distressing aftermath of the Jamie Bulger murder case when the phrase "self pity" tripped off my keyboard.
A headline writer coined the phrase Self Pity City - and it entered the language.
It wasn't just the anger of Liverpudlians that rocked me, but the response of many liberal left-wing people elsewhere who complimented me for "sticking it to those whingeing Scousers".
"It's not like that," I'd bleat. But the thing built up its own malign momentum, exposing a quite shocking anti-Scouse racism.
Over the past few months though, friends in Liverpool - I still have a few - have been eager for me to come up and "see if you notice a few changes to the old place."
To be honest, all the stuff I'd read about urban regeneration and the fact that Liverpool has been crowned European Capital of Culture 2008 sounded like so much boring official-ese.
But what I discovered here is utterly stunning. Trust me, they're building one of the modern wonders of the world beside that grey, choppy old Mersey.
So much for Self Pity City, for shellsuits, for "calm down, calm down" and jokes about Scousers nicking your hubcaps. What's happening here is real.
And it's going to take the world by surprise.
The rebuil ding of Liverpool is costing more than £5billion partly from EU funds, but mostly private money.
It's the biggest project of its kind anywhere, and there are plans to spend another £50bn turning the whole of Merseyside into what I believe will be Britain's second city by the middle of the century.
Every corner you turn, however far you walk, has some glorious old structure being restored, and to a stupendous standard.
Then there's the new building. Not just a new mall or two but an entire city engaged in an orgy of fantastical modern architecture, the likes of which doesn't exist anywhere else. You can walk for half an hour here and still be surrounded by construction on a monumental scale.
Across the city, as far as the eye can see, are cranes. Whole streets are being built. Astonishing new structures at strange, striking experimental angles accost you every corner you turn. That waterfront, the one with the Liver Birds building, is going to end up as beautiful as Sydney's if it's not careful.
But buildings need people, business and a culture to match, and boy does the new Liverpool have all three. The place oozes confidence and prosperity.
My friends Ajmail and Sudarghara Dusanj, Punjabi Sikhs from Kent came here a few years ago to try to breathe life into a dead Victorian brewery, Cains.
Ajmail bought another 150 pubs, won a load more real ale awards, become one of the most successful brands in Britain, increased the workforce from 100 to 1,000 - a typical Liverpool story.
Any problems with the workers? "You're kidding. They're a fantastic team. Brilliant employees," Ajmail says. And it's a little known fact that you and your hubcaps are safer in Liverpool than in much of the rest of Britain.
Across a range of crimes, from violence to burglary to bike theft, Merseyside is safer than Bedfordshire, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall and North Yorkshire. Violent crime is 32 per cent lower than in bloody Hampshire, for goodness sake!
And culture? I've never seen so much of the stuff in one relatively small city. It's almost ridiculous, bewildering.
Community? Whatever you want, Liverpool has it.
What you notice here above all is how much people just love their city. That doesn't happen a lot these days.
Oh yes, and poetic, cultural Liverpool is becoming a major tourist destination again. The cruise liners are returning. A flash new cruise terminal is almost finished and 38 cruises bringing in US and Japanese tourists are already booked this year.
With tourist hordes in mind, someone has opened the Hard Days Night Beatles theme hotel, where I'm writing this.
It's actually not tacky at all, even if all day and night Beatles music in the public areas is enough to drive even a fan to want to stick on a Stones album instead.
Some will wonder if Liverpool is trying to squeeze a bit too much out of the Beatles legend. On the other hand, what a legend it is.
As Ricky Tomlinson himself, who lives in one of the smart new apartments on the waterfront, would say: "Self Pity City, my arse."
