So just how dirty is politics in Liverpool after Herbert says it pushed him out of the Liverpool mayor election?
There is no doubting that politics can be a dirty business.
Celebrity stylist Herbert Howe says it is worse than show business, and today announced his shock decision to pull out of the race to be Liverpool's first elected mayor.
He says he was told 'we are going to find skeletons in your cupboard'.
The 67-year-old insists his life is an 'open book' and that there are no skeletons, instead that this made him realise just how filty politics can get.
The hairdresser said he had come to realise that it was a lions' den and that the knives were out for him.
When I spoke to him earlier, he also mentioned he was worried about the negative effect on his business.
Some people will wonder why Herbert didn't realise that politics can be a nasty game. Certainly he was naive to think that the race for mayor would be different to any other election.
In fact I have been surprised at how clean the race has been, until now.
Lib Dem candidate Richard Kemp reckons Liverpool politics is dirtier than any other city. I am not sure about that, but it is certainly very tribal.
We all had hopes the the mayor election would create some public debate about the future of city. Certainly a bit of controversy and shock will help generate interest.
But it would be better to have the debate about policy. And there would have been the odd publicity stunt like his idea to have a plane fly around the city to promote his campaign.
That Herbert has felt the need to bow out is a shame, as he brought something different to the Liverpool mayor election.
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David Bartlett
City editor of the Post and Echo covering politics, regeneration, and urban affairs.
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Not buying it either. Stands for Mayor: gets attention. Employs the ludicrous Berni Turner: gets more attention. Pulls out of Mayor race: oh! guess what - more attention still. What do luvvies love? That's right. They love attention. And the ever-obliging local Press provide it
If he had no skeletons hidden away then why would he quit? Or was it the sudden realisation he was destined to lose? Or the sudeen realisation that he was going to have to do more than champagne parties? Or the sudden realisation that he was never going to run the city as he was not capable?
Or was it that his campaign manager was a liability? Considering her past, there is some gall in pulling out on the grounds of being worried about so-called dirty tactics.
So not getting a referendum on whether you want a mayor now appears to be drifting towards not getting a choice of who it will be.
Could do with Warren entering the fray now. Not neccesarily as a candidate but just to come up with someone good and nominate them, fill in the forms and, providing the candidate does not find out they are a candidate, there could be some choice come polling day.
Of course there's a choice, I Wonder Who Will Be Major. There's always a choice (including the choice not to vote...). Here's your choices so far.
Joe Anderson (Labour), who everyone thinks is going to win hands down. He certainly seems to be the most vocal candidate so far.
Jeff Berman (The Liverpool Independent Party), who cites one of his main objectives as sorting out the Allerton Maze road junction... high priorities, indeed. Give him his due, though, he does say lots of stuff about supporting young people and businesses.
Tony Caldeira (Conservative). Granny tax, reducing top rate of income tax, pasty tax, jerry cans, NHS reforms, university tuition fees, council cuts, youth unemployment, Cam Dine With Me. Good luck, Tony.
John Coyne (Green) - will be interesting to see what his manifesto holds.
Liam Fogarty (Independent) - ex-BBC man who's been banging on about getting an elected major for Liverpool since, well, forever. Never quite managed to get enough people interested to force a referendum on the matter. Probably thought this day would never come. Interesting to see how he does.
Richard Kemp (Lib Dems) - Granny tax, reducing top rate of income tax, pasty tax, jerry cans, NHS reforms, university tuition fees, council cuts, youth unemployment, Cam Dine With Me. Good luck, Richard. Interestingly, the Lib Dems are against the concept of an elected major, yet still put forward a candidate. Nice to see them sticking to their principles again!
Jonathan Maher (Independent) - a youthful 28, the PhD student with a degree in environmental sciences. It will be interesting to see how his environmental themes play out against those of the Greens.
Tony Mulhearn (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition) - like a remake of Back to the Future, Tony's back with pledges such as reversing the government cuts to the council, which may well sound good and look good on paper, but which many will find difficult to equate to the reality of the current situation. A socialist candidate in the truest sense, but does he carry too much baggage, and does the city really want a mayor who plays confrontational politics with the city's future?
Steve Radford (Liberal) - the Liberal party could well end up welcoming in the remnants of the Lib Dems when the implode after the next General Election (or sooner...) What are your policies, Steve? You're not going to win, but it would be nice to see them anyway.
Paul Rimmer (English Democrats) - like the UK Independence Party, but with a St George flag. Let's get out of Europe, introduce and English parliament, ban political correctness, end mass immigration, and give free copies of the Daily Express and/or Daily Mail to all in need. Yay! Go, Paul. No, really. Just go.
Angus the Monkey (Bananas for all) - if only!
Hello everyone, I'm quitting the mayoral race too. I'm sorry if that disappoints anyone but there are a number of issues for me, explained here: http://wp.me/p2e4u5-9N
Thanks for looking at my ideas and I hope they end up in some other parties manifesto's, which if I'm honest I've been really disappointed in reading. Why are they so lacking in ideas for all the money and members that these parties have? From my policies, the reducing litter ideas, gun and drug crime ideas, and council salary cap appear to be the most popular policies in terms of views.
I'm endorsing Steve Radford who I think is an excellent councillor, someone you go to if you want something done- and livepool has plenty of things it needs to get done. So good luck Steve, I hope you win. If he wants my website (I don't know if he has one), he can have it and adopt all of my policies if he wishes too.
I think he may have realised that retaining his current lifestyle including loads of extravagant holidays and a taste for champagne and showbiz would have led to lots of negative headlines. The local media would cut him some slack initially, but just imagine the way the Daily Mail could have juxtaposed this with the poverty in the city.
Perhaps he also realised the scale of the job. Talk of giving money to the Boys Brigade and other groups to invest in youth is naive because in the main it is not those type of kids we need to get to in order to turn lives around.
As for his other policies, Lime Street is already on the council's agenda, as is LFC.
Being backed by radio has-been Billy Butler - who doesn't even live in Liverpool - didn't help either.
But he would have brought some colour to the campaign, so it is a shame he has quit.
Maybe Joe will flee in disgust at the Pasty Tax. Might have been a cunning ploy by the Tories.
Why is nobody campaigning on the LDL platform? This parasite is sucking tens of millions out of the city every year. The fact that Joe has been so quiet since he took over is ominous. I don't have any confidence that we'll be any less abused by LDL when Joe's mayor.
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