Elected Mayor 'Robocop' Ray Mallon and those tickets

A mention in Ray Mallon's column this week brought back memories of the regional assembly debate.
Ray had been branding opponents of the regional assembly as 'southern Tories' (as a result of the hijacking of the campaign by James Frayne under the control of former Head of Strategy for the Tories, Dominic Cummings). The Yes campaign had been on the backfoot for a long time and saw a glint of light when the Tories, under the control of the above two, bumbled into the arena. After a great deal of publicity and propaganda for the Yes campaign we reversed the agenda by inviting Ray Mallon to come to Sunderland to see if he dared call our campaign a bunch of southern Tories. After all, the campaign against the North East Assembly had been up and running in Sunderland with support from across the North East for over two years.
Mallon, a man of his word and conviction duly came...and we had ensured maximum press and media coverage.
What emerged was the fact that he could not win the regional assembly argument, so talk soon turned to football, and the fact that he had been a keen Sunderland football fan. After photographs and handshakes he was ready to depart...but did make an offer of two tickets for the Riverside Stadium to join him when he next had the chance.
I am sure that, as such a busy man, he has not yet had time to stick them in the post.
However, in order to return the offer I INSIST that he joins me at the next home game ... and witnesses first hand what it's like to watch 35,000 loyal and passionate supporters suffering what must be the most extreme of experiences football fans have ever had to endure.
They will be in the post this week.