A PATTERN is emerging on the BBC, ITV News and on Sky News.

Manchester’s biggest demonstration, in defence of the NHS at last year’s Conservative Party Conference: ignored. June’s 50,000-strong March Against Austerity outside those broadcasters’ front doors: ignored.

July’s 150,000-strong Durham Miners’ Gala, ten times the size of all Orange Parades put together: ignored. The following weekend’s Tolpuddle Festival: ignored. Tens of thousands marching through London against Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip: ignored.

Now last Saturday’s huge rally in Trafalgar Square, at the end of the People’s March for the NHS along the 1936 Jarrow Crusade route, was also ignored, like its causes the Health and Social Care Act, and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

How are these events not news?

Lying by omission is still lying.

It is common to meet students and new staff at Durham who have never heard of the Gala. There is no other country where an event that size would not be known.

Durham is on the east coast main line yet London media find it easier to cover the United States.

D Lindsay, Lanchester.