Graffiti

Out running tonight, I came across South Tyneside's latest public artwork: a spray painted Arbeit Macht Frei on the underpass by Boldon Lane; the letters had run down the concrete wall like egg yolk. I couldn't decide whether the author was an admirer of Lorenz Diefenbach, an advocate of using Weimar Republic public work programmes as a panacea to South Tyneside's continued unemployment problems, a confused Nazi, or just the same bloke who'd pissed in all the nearby bus shelters.