IT STILL amazes me that something that lasted for about three minutes in 2012 is still headline news and looks like dragging on for another 12 months. Was it really so bad that a Cabinet Minister (Andrew Mitchell) might have called one or more police officers “plebs”? Yes, the Minister should have taken his bike out of the side gate, same as anyone else would have done.

This whole affair is way over the top, and has cost the UK taxpayer millions of pounds and wasted a lot of time.

The police officer who has now admitted lying and making up all his evidence is totally in the wrong, has done immense harm to the standing of the Metropolitan Police Force, and should lose his job and be heavily fined, but not sent to prison.

Despite this affair and the lawful shooting of Mark Duggan in Tottenham, I still trust the police far more than I trust the European Union, politicians, bankers, financial advisers, religious leaders, professional footballers, the BBC, barristers and local councils.

David Quarrie, Lynden Way, Holgate, York.