Attack of the clones

I used to be quite snobbish about graffiti.

Tagging, the scrawled style you see here, was a blemish on the canvass of graf art compared to the glorious multicolour lettering you'd get on the side of railway bridges and, sometimes, on the trains themselves.

But this tag, 'welcome to clone town', was wonderful. I even got off the bus just to take this piccie. It was on the side of the new Costa Coffee in Didsbury Village, just opposite the mecca of all good food, the Cheese Hamlet.

I say 'was' because a few days later, Costa opened its doors for the first time and the graffiti had been Cillit Banged away.

There's a simple way to make your protest against a chain coffee shop Didsbury doesn't need. Use the two dozen independent coffee shops in the borough instead (see the South Manchester Reporter for more).

Or, in the words of one friend who saw this picture: "What's a clown town?"