Published: July 27th 2010 - at 2:40 pm

This really is getting silly:

You might remember the story last November about police being issued with a 90-page elf ‘n’ safety manual on riding a bike. It was rubbish, as the Association of Chief Police Offers was quick to point out:

This work was neither requested nor drawn up by ACPO and we do not endorse it.

It was put forward by a group of well meaning police officers with an interest in this area. ACPO will not be taking it forward.

Some enthusiastic cycling policemen proposed a cycling guide for the force and it was rejected. Just another non-story (albeit one that snuck into the Independent). Except that, er, it’s now popped up in the government White Paper on police reform:

Whole shopping trolleys’ worth of guidance is loaded onto the police during the course of a year. Whether this is guidance for officers on how to dress or 92 pages on how to ride a bike – this has to be reduced.

It’s not the first time a Tory’s used tabloid rubbish to make a point, but you’d think a government document laying out policy proposals might have better standards of evidence.

I hope Jamie doesn’t mind this being exerted in full but this needs to be publicised. There is no reason to base policy on lies, there are enough real problems in the world to worry about.

Hey look over there!

This is why, despite my occasional scepticism I am still convinced of the need to blog the media until they are honest. I’ll leave the conclusion to the ever excellent Angry Mob:

My point is, as it always is, that tabloid journalism has real consequences for all of us – whether we read a tabloid newspaper or not. We are all passive tabloid readers, unavoidably inhaling the hatred, the outrage and the distorted media narratives on a range of topics that impact on our lives.

You cannot stop inhaling tabloid messages by turning your head any more than you can stop inhaling a rank smoke that engulfs us all. In the end we all have a choice, we either quietly gulp it down and pretend it does not exist, or we do everything in our power to challenge it and stop it at its source.

About the author
Left Outside is a regular contributor to LC. He blogs here and tweets here. From October 2010 to September 2012 he is reading for an MSc in Global History at the London School of Economics and will be one of those metropolitan elite you read so much about.
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Reactions: Twitter, blogs

1. Liberal Conspiracy

   Government uses tabloid lies in its own white paper on police reform http://bit.ly/bSWInx

2. Louise Dore

   Sigh RT: @libcon Government uses tabloid lies in its own white paper on police reform http://bit.ly/bSWInx

3. ANN LANGLEY

   RT @libcon: Government uses tabloid lies in its own white paper on police reform http://bit.ly/bSWInx

4. Geoff Owen

   Beyond facepalm RT: @queenoffrog Sigh RT: @libcon Government uses tabloid lies in its own white paper on police reform http://bit.ly/bSWInx

5. Derek Bryant

   RT @libcon: Government uses tabloid lies in its own white paper on police reform http://bit.ly/bSWInx

6. Myles Winstone

   RT @libcon: Government uses tabloid lies in its own white paper on police reform http://bit.ly/bSWInx

7. Political Scrapbook

   Liberal Conspiracy have also picked up story on "tabloid lies" in the government's police white paper http://is.gd/dMimp

8. House Of Twits

   RT @psbook Liberal Conspiracy have also picked up story on "tabloid lies" in the government's police white paper http://is.gd/dMimp

9. Andy Sutherland

   RT @psbook: Liberal Conspiracy have also picked up story on "tabloid lies" in the government's police white paper http://is.gd/dMimp

10. colin marrs

    RT @libcon Government uses tabloid lies in its own white paper on police reform http://bit.ly/baaGL6

11. Left Outside

    media-cracy RT @libcon Government uses tabloid lies in its own white paper on police reform http://bit.ly/baaGL6

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