Station toilet vandalism is an embarrassment to Sunderland

Sunderland's new £27million railway station has attracted much comment.

It's up and running and a vast improvement, but not finished. Yet that hasn't prevented a rush to judgement from both sides.

Some criticism is constructive. Other criticism cascades from those who unfailingly bore everyone else by moaning about anything that happens here.

But some things are not even debatable. The embarrassing and almost immediate vandalism of the toilets in the station is undilutedly depressing for anyone with even a modicum of intelligence.

At the time of writing, the new conveniences are closed. We don't yet know what joy lies behind their currently locked doors, but can shudder to think.

Worldwide, those who hang around railway stations with no intention of commuting tend not to form overly impressive quiz teams. But even by the standards of such hobbledohoys and ne'er-do-wells, this is low.

Who to blame? Well, the question will inevitably lead to verbal bun fights over security. But that at least partially exculpates the idiot community; and it shouldn't.

There is only so much the decent folk of Sunderland (about 99% of them) can do about the vacant cinema, the cancellation of city centre free-after-three parking or major retailers abandoning the place.

But in the case of lower primates smashing up public conveniences, we can at least grass them up; good and proper. Contact the police, anonymously.

Every time a better sort of person sees the compliment "Oo-jah is a grass" daubed on a wall by half-wits and supposedly insulting, they should think "Good old Oo-jah, I like the cut of his jib".

So get them grassed.

A while ago this column had the temerity to mock those who uglify walls with that woefully unoriginal hip-hop "art" (which what they call vandalism).

Afterwards I received a somewhat unhinged (and anonymous) email claiming that this stuff is not only top notch, but also essential, "with the BBC being what it is" (?).

The same person could see smashing up the bogs as an artistic statement.

The only defence life's lavatory smashers possess is that being very, very stupid makes it largely impossible for them to grasp that they are very, very stupid.