Tennis star Novak Djokovic’s gender pay ‘apology’ was a PR car crash

Tennis player Novak Djokovic spoke rashly on social media. He should have followed the example of the humorous Garda road-safety Twitter feed, writes Terry Prone.

THEY are faceless, nameless, anonymous, but possibly uniformed. We don’t know their age or gender. We don’t know their names or their ranks. We don’t even know if the output is generated by one half-mad bloke in the attic, in Garda HQ, giggling furtively behind his or her hand. But hats off to the folk who man (or ‘woman’) the road-traffic Twitter feed at An Garda Síochána. They’ve created something that’s consistently funny, while also being educational, mainly about road safety. A couple of weeks ago, they ran a picture of a canon on its way to the 1916 commemorations, with a reminder that every load — including heavy artillery — should be properly secured.

At the weekend, they put up a picture of the back-end of a pickup truck — number plate compassionately obscured — with a solar panel crossways on it, said panel extending beyond the curtilage of the truck on both sides, frighteningly so on one side.