TO TAUNTON, and a tale of misplaced, irrational anger.

We don’t even have to go to Taunton to learn more about this ‘scandal’. The whole thing was played out on the internet. Which is great, because Somerset is miles away.

The story setting virtual tongues wagging on the web is of an 89-year-old veteran, selling poppies, who was allegedly told by Morrison’s staff that he had to stand outside in the cold for the afternoon because they were ‘trying to run a business’, with sneering store bosses saying that he should wear a warmer coat if he felt chilly.

We learned of this via a lady who posted her experience on Facebook, which was then screengrabbed and posted across the internet, going viral in the process.

Her fury drew her to the internet – “how totally shocking” - and gained a lot of support from a lot of people, opinions to which they are entitled of course. But it was all a bit, well, militant.

In the end, the story turned out to be a bit different to how Angry Of Taunton described it. The British Legion advised their volunteers to sell outside the store because there was a greater footfall. The store knew nothing about the allegations made by the complainant, and while she has stood by her statement, well, it’s something and nothing.

If this had happened in the real world – because the internet doesn’t count – it would have been played out through a newspaper. She would have felt compelled to ring her local reporter, to whom she would probably have complained to in the past about bin collections or obtrusive A-boards cluttering up the streets, or speeding mobility scooter drivers.

The reporter would have chased the story up, getting all sides of the story, before printing the story which would have been balanced in nature.

By furiously posting to Facebook – “I’m absolutely furious” were her opening words – she has deprived Morrison’s and the Royal British Legion to putting their side of the story across, which would have shown her account of events to be slightly different to how it actually played out.

The fuss created by the story allegedly resulted in death threats to staff in the Morrison’s in Taunton. Those rumours proved to be completely unfounded – again, the internet at its finest.

Whenever I see these types of thing appear on my timeline, I do my best to check them out. A quick Google search usually filters out the stuff that is rubbish, or events that happened years ago and the names have been changed to fit an agenda. The internet is full of it, we’re in a constant battle to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Four years ago, a former Sunderland footballer, Steed Malbranque, was rumoured to have left his new club to look after his son who had cancer. It led to messages flooding in from the internet – some from teammates – wishing his sick son well in his recovery.

I was one of few who questioned it in the first place. Something didn’t seem right to me, I couldn’t guarantee the source was correct, and because I didn’t tweet a few hundred characters of what frankly would be insincere support, I was questioned by a few fans.

It turned out that the player didn’t even have a son. Nobody knows where it came from.

So when you read something on the internet that starts with “You won’t believe what happened next” – my advice is simple: don’t.