AS is often the way in the social media times we live in, at the height of any particular debate some lose context and balance.

And those determined to make political capital out of something will jump on it, make sweeping generalisations, and blow it out of all proportion.

The perfect example of all this was the recent debate around so-called ‘milkshaking’ - the throwing of milkshakes at political figures.

The debate reached fever pitch after Nigel Farage and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, more widely known as Tommy Robinson, were on the receiving end.

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Firstly lets get this absolutely clear - throwing a milkshake like hurling anything in the street at anyone is likely to lead to prosecution. So it proved this week as 32-year-old Paul Crowther pleaded guilty to common assault in relation to what happened with Mr Farage in May.

In recent weeks commentators have waded in to highlight what happened, Piers Morgan among them calling milkshaking “very intimidating” considering MP Jo Cox was murdered on the streets two years ago.

But here is the key to all this, we should be able to recognise milkshaking is not as bad as far more serious crimes and be able to put it into perspective. Throwing a milkshake is not vicious and is meant as comedy humiliation.

That is of course not to excuse or justify it, it is a crime. I also recognise that, with each incident, political figures may not feel safe on the streets, which is a shame when the law abiding majority of course pose no threat.

Which leads me to another key point - these type of incidents are in fact very rare, so to make this out to be bigger than it really is makes me think there is an agenda here.

And that does show itself in the way right wing commentators label it as a ‘problem on the left’ or ‘teen yobs’ (politically active young people) ‘being a nuisance’.

Ask yourself if a Labour or Liberal politician was on the receiving end would the coverage in right wing papers be completely different?

I suspect yes, and suddenly it would become ‘snowflakes can’t take a joke’ and they should ‘grow up it’s just a milkshake’.

As I always think, be wary of the real intentions behind what political commentators are saying.