Herron on BBC Culture Show...7.30pm and 11.20pm

Surprised?
... but Herron has no 'culcha' 'cos he's a 'shaven headed loud mouthed chav' as was once claimed by a poster on the Conservative Democratic Alliance forum....not a place I visit but it was brought to my attention.

What was quite amusing was that the forum owner had also been attacked by a couple of libellous posters ... and he traced them through the ISP and has just recently won £10k libel damages against one and it is reputed another settled out of court for £30k.

Funny thing was that he also traced the one that posted the comments about me.

I must confess that I do shave my hair ... because of male pattern baldness, not my politics. 'Loud mouthed?'... perhaps after working the markets for 17 years, and raising my head above the parapet on contentious issues could perhaps attract comment.

But 'chav?' I do not own Rockports or burberry. I drink imported lagers, beer or Guiness when the mood takes and am partial to a bottle of Pinot Grigio when dining out with the family. I do not drink White Lightning or smoke anything at all, be it legal or illegal, and I haven't got a string of 16 year old pregnant girlfriends called Tracy or Shaz and my children are not called Britney.

So who posted the offensive remarks?

Well before I reveal that, the BBC Culture Show programme was about 'urban renaissance' and the former Vaux Brewery site in Sunderland...bought on the open market by Tesco who, surprisingly want to build a supermarket there.
Trouble is that the Council and its 'urban regeneration' partner, the arc have different plans. They have spent hundreds of thousands on visions and dreams...but don't own the site.
If the Council had any vision whatsoever, they would have snapped up the 15 acre piece of prime real estate adjacent to the City centre. They didn't and now, some 6 years later they are objecting to Tesco doing what they want to do... hence the site lies derelict on right next to one of the gateways to the City.

Nice one Sunderland. The threat to compulsorily purchase will cost at least three times what they could have bought it for...and you have spent hundreds of thousands on designs for someone else's property. Bit like my neighbour putting a planning application in to build a pond in the garden next door AFTER I had bought the house!

So who was it? The poster on the CDA Forum? Who was it?

Well, the ISP was traced to the home address of the Director of the Democracy Movement, Mr. David Russell Walters.
Mr. Walters at first denied all knowledge of posting the offensive remarks and then later claimed that it must have been one of his friends when they had been visiting his house.

Hi Neil
"I've been on holiday. Baffled by your interest in this trivial matter. I didn't write it and don't understand it. If it came from my IP address then maybe one of my many political friends and guests was responsible. Why would I attack my own organisation and one of its allies? Can you think of a reason? I can't.
To be honest the whole thing is so obscure and unimportant I think it is a waste of your time to care."
Russell

I haven't met any of his friends as I have never frequented any of their 'Fever' parties I am not quite sure how they would have come to that conclusion ... unless it was just because I am from 'up Norf' and look a bit raggy round the edges and have a baldy head.

As for legal action... it would only have damaged the eurosceptic cause but it's nice to know that people care so much about what I get up to that they post things on political party websites, and besides, we all had a laugh.

Being in this game my skin has become as thick as a rhino's arse, but it has been great to have the opportunity to finally share the moment.