FOR decades a slogan daubed on a Hampshire wall has been considered by locals an historic monument to the plight of a European country.

The "Long Live Dubcek" slogan was thought to have been painted on in support of the Czechoslovakian leader at the time of the Russian invasion in the late 1960s.

But a Southampton man has come forward to reveal all is not as it seems and he should know - for he claims to have written it!

Alan Sims got a shock as he read the Daily Echo to see the wall at West End, featured after residents were angered yobs had painted over the message.

"I was just amazed when I saw it," he said. "I wrote it so many years ago, and it just made me laugh when I saw it.

"I have never heard of this Dubcek man, and I only wrote it as there was a song out at the time which my best friend Steve Baczek used to sing all the time.

"He used to get the words wrong, and sung Dubcek, so from then on his nickname was Dubcek which is why I wrote it on the wall.

"I used to live nearby, and when we were teenagers we used to drink round there so I was probably a bit under the influence when I did it."

Mr Sims, of Burgoyne Road, Thornhill, admitted he was shocked when he discovered how old the wall was.

Residents won a battle several years ago to keep the 210-year-old wall on Romill Close intact after it was threatened by new development.

"If I had known how old and historical it was then I probably wouldn't have done it," said Mr Sims, who is on disability benefit.

"When I saw it in the paper I was actually quite chuffed that people had fought to keep it because they thought it was a political slogan."

But some are slightly sceptical about the wall revelations.

Lesley Kimber, who was West End Parish Council chairman at the time when the wall was threatened, said she wasn't sure about the claims.

She said: "People may claim to have done a lot of things but without proof it's impossible to tell."

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