ONE of many wishes I have for 2015 is to see a reduction in what I call the ‘plebgate syndrome’ infecting our media.
This is when a totally insignificant event is made into a drama of enormous proportions with thousands, even millions, spent in legal fees and major coverage on TV news and in the papers for weeks.
In the original ‘plebgate’ example, a tired, grumpy politician, forced to cycle home in London traffic to show how ‘green’ he is, is met with an equally tired, grumpy policeman, bored with having to enforce a petty health and safety issue, to ensure cyclists go through the correct gate.
Unsurprisingly, the result was that one was slightly rude to the other.
Clearly both men needed a sit down somewhere warm, with a nice cup of tea and a Snickers bar to end their day.
Quite who or what is to blame for such outbreaks of hysterical non-news remains a mystery.
With genuinely important issues for us to face at next year’s 2015 General Election I just hope we get less ‘plebgate’ distractions and more fair and detailed coverage of political manifestos and grown-up debate.
Charlotte Bull, Darlington Ukip
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