WHY is it so hard to own up to a mistake? Be honest. What is your first impulse when things go wrong?

Are you an ostrich who dunks your head into the sand in the hope that: (a) It will all blow over and no one will notice; (b) Someone will pick up on the misdemeanour, but will never finger you as the guilty party; or (c) You can buy yourself some time to concoct an elaborate tale should you end up as the number-one suspect?

As hard as it is to take responsibility for our cock-ups, honesty is surely the best policy.

Any other approach will most likely sink you deeper into the messy, smelly stuff.

Hapless bridegroom Neil McArdle is proof of this. He boobed big time. He forgot to book the register office for his big day.

On the morning of his wedding, panic set in, and instead of coming clean to his bride-to-be, he staged a bomb hoax at the venue, assuming that in the mayhem his momentous mess-up would go unnoticed.

Well, of course, it didn’t. And the whole sorry saga was played out in Liverpool Crown Court this week, with a tearful McArdle in the dock. He pleaded guilty to “communicating false information with intent”. And his punishment? A year in jail.

Like most decent-minded people, I can see the seriousness of issuing a false bomb threat and the need to discourage people from wasting police time and creating mayhem.

We saw this only too clearly in Knaresborough last week, when the town was practically shut down as police dealt with just such an incident.

But each case needs to be judged on its own merit. McArdle is a coward who couldn’t take responsibility for his own mistake and an idiot for setting off the chain of events that led to the woman he loved and their families standing in their finery as police swarmed the wedding venue.

His partner has stood by him, and they are still together.

Meanwhile, McArdle will have plenty of time to dwell on how he could have played this one out differently while lingering in jail at our expense.

And like most decent-minded people, I am wondering whether this is really the best punishment for the 36-year-old (and the best use of taxpayers’ cash).

Our prisons are full to bursting; surely a non-custodial sentence would have been the right way to go in this case.

Perhaps this is another mistake that someone needs to take responsibility for.

• EDITORIAL staff at The Press are busy this week packing up for a move. Our HQ on Walmgate has been sold and this weekend we will be moving into a smaller space on the ground floor of the building.

It means we’ve had a mass clear-out; giant blue skips have been filling up for weeks with the detritus we have all amassed in 24 years of office life.

I’ve spent 16 of those years beavering away on the first floor of the building; and despite twice annual clear outs, still managed to fill half a skip with scores of dusty reporters’ notepads.

We’ve unearthed some lovely finds too; such as a the York Herald Newspaper Company Minute Book from 1877, handsomely bound in red leather with pages of beautiful hand-written script inside detailing the company’s business concerns in the late 19th century.

Another gem was a newspaper style book from 1969, giving guidance to journalists on spellings, grammar and the correct use of words. It was eye-opening too see a particularly offensive word appear in the list with the advice: “avoid this word, it can give offence”; journalists today would not need to be told this.

And reporters were urged to “keep out of the class war. Prefer sitting room to lounge or drawing room unless the context makes these words appropriate. Blenheim Palace can have a drawing room and a pub can have a lounge bar.”

Rest assured, none of these are heading for the tip.