There is an old joke that does the rounds in the north-east and that is what is the only good thing that ever came out of Dundee?

The answer, as virtually every Aberdonian can testify, is the A90 north.

The rivalry between the two cities is just as intense as that between Edinburgh and Glasgow and just as baffling and pointless too.

But in recent decades there has seemingly only been one winner in the battle of the cities and that is Aberdeen on account of the oil and gas industry.

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It is something that Aberdonians of a certain age always laugh at as the city seemingly saw off a rival bid to become the hub for the newly fledged North Sea industry.

While the wealth and international recognition flowed into Aberdeen, Dundee stagnated and it is fair to say became the poor relation of Scotland’s four great cities.

If entire cities could walk, then Aberdeen walked with a swagger wearing a stetson while Dundee ambled along, head down with hands in pockets avoiding eye contact.

But it is fair to say that nobody is laughing at Dundee now after the city has undergone a remarkable transformation.

It is the site of the only V&A museum outside of London, which is the centrepiece of a rapidly redeveloping waterfront.

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Further along, sites in the city’s port are assembling huge turbines to be used in the vast offshore windfarms that will power Scotland for decades.

It has also been rated as one of the most intelligent cities on the planet due to developing life sciences and computer games industries.

Now planning permission for the city’s £130million Eden Project has been approved by councillors.

The charity’s Cornwall site, billed as “the largest indoor rainforest in the world”, attracts about a million visitors a year.

So it is fair to say the City of Discovery has been punching well above its weight recently as it shakes off its jute, jam and journalism image of the past.

Meanwhile, 70 or so miles up the A90 in Aberdeen, things are not going particularly well.

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As the oil and gas industry declines, the city now has an air of decay about it similar to that of Dundee 40 odd years ago.

But help may be at hand a lot closer than the city fathers might care to admit, namely Dundee and further afield in Glasgow.

Glasgow reinvented itself brilliantly from the 1980s with firstly the Garden Festival and then the European City of Culture award helping to herald a wider transformation of the city centre.

Within a decade, it became the biggest retail centre outside of central London, a position Buchanan Street still holds today. Pre-Covid, Glasgow gave off the vibe of a city entirely comfortable with itself.

Edinburgh, by contrast, is pretty much just Edinburgh which seems to continue to thrive despite the loss of the prestigious financial HQs.

This leaves Aberdeen as the poor relation of the four cities now and every attempt by the council to reinvigorate it is met with casual indifference from its citizens.

It is of course not too late, with several big ticket initiatives in the pipeline, and they must succeed for the good of the city.

One thing’s for sure though, Dundee’s had the last laugh and everyone involved  deserves great praise for putting the city well and truly on the map.