A North East newspaper which ran a page full of scouse jokes after Newcastle lost out to Livepool in its bid to become Capital of Culture 2008 refused to run an advert that suggested Liverpudlians were thieves.

The Newcastle Evening Chronicle decided not to carry an advert, from Newcastle radio station Metro FM, which read: "We're not the first to be robbed by Scousers and we won't be the last" after deeming it potentially offensive.

But a few days earlier the same newspaper had run a full-page article which included visual jokes taken from the Internet, including one depicting an areoplane on stilts and missing its wheels, and another of a 12-year-old 'Scouse Mum'.

Editor Paul Robertson said he felt there was a difference between the editorial piece and the advert.

He said: "We rejected the original wording of the advert on the grounds of taste after taking advice from the Newspaper Society.

"There is a fine line between humour and something that is potentially offensive.

"If you replace the word 'scousers' in the advert, with the word 'Irish' or 'black' you begin to see the problem."

But he admitted that some of the paper's coverage following the announcement had been greeted with an adverse reaction and that with hindsight could have been handled better.

He said: "Some of our own coverage has been criticised as sour grapes but since the announcement I have appeared in print, on national radio and local television congratulating Liverpool, extolling its virtues, as well as talking up our own area."

The dispute over the advert has now been turned on its head, with a new version of the advert running in the Evening Chronicle today.

Readers are being asked to complete the wording of the advert - with the best entrant winning a weekend in Liverpool.

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