Silly Season Kicks off with Dubious "England T-Shirt Ban."

I had a strong feeling we would, sooner or later have another "banned England shirt" story following on from the "ban" on England World Cup paraphernalia in pubs story , which was distinguishable for being complete bullshit, but about a contentious issue that is mired in half truths, and complete fabrications. A toxic combination if ever there was one. But sadly dynamite for disreputable tabloid agendas. That is presumably why we get this article about a women whose kids were apparently chucked off the bus for wearing England shirts that "offended" the driver, who was of Eastern European birth.

Actually from the women's transcript of the "encounter" we learn she won the argument (with the help of other "irate passengers", none who seemed to be pissed off enough to come forward.) and was allowed to stay:

"Miss Fardon, who also has a ten-year-old step-son, from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, said: 'He (the driver) said: "He won't be wearing that during the World Cup, will he?"

'I said Dylan would and the bus driver said: "I find that really offensive. You should dress your family in less offensive clothes."

'I was completely gobsmacked. He said we'd have to get off the bus but I argued with him and other passengers backed me up, so he let us on."

The story; I suspect -is PA wire copy, stuck in the mail to fill space, and raise the readers blood pressure (the online article, which is now missing from the news stories page, as well as in today's printed paper -has 30 comments all in arms about the supposed incident). The article is loaded with quotation marks and "supposeds" and "allegedly" comments, indicating no ones checked to verify the veracity of the article, which would presumably be easy, as the driver on that specific route should be easy to track down. Indeed the bus company responded to the article with this:

"Paul De Santis, Commercial Director for First said: "We have carried out a full investigation and can't find any evidence to substantiate this claim. No driver fitting the description given was working on any routes in this area at that time. Our buses were busy around the time yet no one else has been in touch with us about this alleged incident. "We expect the highest level of professionalism from our drivers and such an act would not be tolerated. However, in this instance it now appears that no such incident took place."

In a longer version of this statement, First busses even say they are going to put banners on thier busses supporting England in the World Cup, which doesn't allay feelings that this story is either a misunderstanding or fabricated.

This kind of thing is what tends to kick off (sorry) the so -called "silly season" in the media, when at the summer wind down, editors have to look for stuff to fill pages to compensate for the down turn of hard news. Unfortunately these kinds of story can have a knock back. That pub ban is still being circulated as truth on facebook, and this story has spawned a group set up by a mate of the women in question calling for the elusive drivers head to roll. It also paradoxically has comments casting yet more doubt on the offended woman's side of the story, but how seriously we can take these is still a matter of some doubt. As with the pub story we have the unpleasant ant immigrant comments that use isolated incidents, and even pretend ones as a stick to beat all immigrants. It is not too much to say that on many levels, those who protest the loudest want these stories to be true, and will accept them at face value.

It would be horrifying to think that someone who was not ethnic British could be on the receiving end of furore at such dubious anecdotes.