Peter Barron was born in Saltburn, and raised in Middlesbrough. He joined The Northern Echo as a reporter in 1984, rising to become the paper's editor in January 1999.

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WE are not in the habit at The Northern Echo of publishing photographs of naked people, although it's not easy to avoid it when thousands of volunteers line up starkers in the middle of Newcastle in the name of art.

There was hardly a murmur from our readers when pictures of artist Spencer Tunick's mass nudity event were published in June 2005.

There has, however, been quite a stir over my decision last week to publish a photograph of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's wife, Carla Bruni, posing naked.

The photograph, taken during Ms Bruni's career as a professional model, is to be auctioned in New York and its release coincided with the couple's state visit to Britain.

Rightly or wrongly, I published the picture on the grounds that: it wasn't full frontal, I considered it to be artistic and I didn't believe it would cause offence, given that there was nothing more to be seen than is now commonplace on beaches throughout Europe.

That said, I fully respect the fact that some readers took a passionately different view and thought this was a step too far for a paper like The Northern Echo.

One email, from Leonard Thompson, stated: "In printing the nude photograph of Carla Bruni you have now joined the ranks of the gutter press. Circulation must be on the wane for you to descend to that level, and my respect for your paper has hit rock bottom."

Circulation isn't on the wane as it happens - it's on the up - but I can assure Mr Thompson and others that this is certainly not a case of The Northern Echo preparing to introduce Page Three girls.

Interestingly, the mid-market Daily Mail used the photograph with the word "CENSORED" across Ms Bruni's breasts. The next day, the same paper used the picture on its front page with her breasts on display from every news-stand in Britain.

A case of double standards fully exposed.

THERE are times, I admit, when I envy Jeremy Clarkson.

It's well documented that I got his job - by mistake - as a trainee reporter on the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph nearly 30 years ago.

We both had curly hair and they got us mixed up, but he was the one who went on to be a multimillionaire television personality, with a fleet of flash cars at his disposal.

But fame and fortune aren't everything. I opened the Daily Star last week to see a page devoted to Clarkson on holiday in Barbados.

He was described as "Michelin Man" because of his badly neglected bodywork and there is certainly nothing artistic about the "Telly Tubby's"

bare flesh.

The gist of the - hugely important - story was that he'd worn the same pair of swimming trunks during his Caribbean break for the past four years.

I suspect I've stuffed my steadily-increasing waistline into the same pair of holiday trunks for at least the past ten years - but no one cares.

I like it that way.

ISPOKE at a meeting of retired Unison members at Darlington Rugby Club last week and Alec Haswell raised the subject of falling standards of English.

Teletext, for example, has been reporting that "the Transporter Bridge is closed due to high winds in both directions".

ENGLAND'S game against France last week coincided with an invitation to the annual Big Band Concert at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College in Darlington.

The talent on display was tremendous, there were some brilliant virtuoso performances, the coordination and team spirit were a joy to watch, and the result truly uplifting.

And then there was England

10:57am Monday 31st March 2008

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