I am well aware that many people in my city are offended by the way the BBC treated Labour in comparison to the Conservatives prior to the last General Election and indeed how it handled the Brexit issues throughout the last four years. However irrespective of whether it has any bias which clearly the Tories are now also claiming, the fact is that we first and foremost must recognise that people like Lauren and her many hard working colleagues including Laura Kuenssberg need to be well protected from such terrible actions by people in our communities, even if sometimes those people judge their approach to be something they disagree with. My friend Nick May who is the Brighton and Hove Divisional Commander of Sussex Police responded to Lauren’s tweet by writing “Lauren. Please do report this incident to Sussex Police. On line via our website or via 101. This is totally unacceptable in Brighton or anywhere and is an assault.“

It is really sad news that someone has carried out this assault in our city and they need to be identified and made accountable for their action. As another of my contacts stated “Sorry to hear this. But I’m afraid it’s what Brighton – and its toxic politics – have become. A sorry, up-itself, overgrown-adolescent place.”

My personal view is that the BBC does makes many mistakes and can cause a great deal of harm when it makes some of the mistakes, however making mistakes is a reflection of human decision making. By comparison to other organisations such as some of our media agencies it is very well balanced and a very valuable broadcaster. I have had the privilege to appear on BBC radio and TV on a few occasions and the staff I have met have been very pleasant to work with. Indeed during my engineering degree I had the pleasure to work for the BBC at what was then Radio Sussex in Malborough Place. Although I don’t know Lauren personally she clearly works very hard on our behalf and I hope that next time she comes into Brighton she will be welcomed. I also hope that the challenge to the BBC by Johnson and Cummings will be heavily restricted by their colleagues over the next few months and years.