AT BRIGHTON Pride this year I decided I wanted to stand out from the crowd.

Amongst all the exotic and, sometimes, erotic outfits, I was determined to be noticed.

So I went dressed, uniquely, as a boring middle aged man.

Colleagues told me that I carried off the look effortlessly, as if I lived the life of a boring, middle aged man every day.

It is with this persona that I write the following: I hate graffiti, especially mindless, destructive tagging. Some shallow individual with obviously no life, in a pathetic attempt to be noticed, creeps around town spraying tags that are neither artful nor edifying. It puts private individuals, the council, charities and businesses to unnecessary expense.

The Argus ran a front page feature last week on one tagger. I suspect this recognition will have brought some satisfaction to the criminal concerned (damage to property is a crime).

While middle class Brighton might decry tagging, it has a contradictory and permissive attitude to so-called street art and I see very little difference between this and night time tagging.

Both deface buildings and public places.

While the artistic merit of street art might be one up from tagging, it does nothing for me.

There are some exceptions – an art project on hoardings around building sites, for example.

Yet most “legitimate” street art is itself no more than elaborate tagging and I am sure it offends more people than just me.

Andy Winter is the chief executive of Brighton Housing Trust