It’s tempting to ignore the government’s announcement, made in the doldrums between Christmas and the New Year, that it is to become legal to sell wine and champagne in pint bottles.

In a nutshell, the consultation explores the possibility of removing the requirement to use metric units in some areas of trade and commerce. It is a deeply flawed survey over an unnecessary, wasteful and potentially damaging proposal.

Ex-BBC journalist also argued the media failing to tackle the impact of leaving the EU “feels like a conspiracy against the British people”. / Emily Maitlis has criticised the BBC for “both-sideism” in its coverage of Brexit – suggesting its attempts to hear both sides of the argument led to “superficial balance”.

Emily Maitlis has been widely praised for her criticism of the BBC's coverage of Brexit. / “It might take our producers five minutes to find 60 economists who feared Brexit and five hours to find a sole voice who espoused it," she said. “But by the time we went on air we simply had one of each; we presented this unequal effort to our audience as balance. It wasn’t.”

Recalling Newsnight's coverage, Maitlis said: "It might take our producers five minutes to find 60 economists who feared Brexit and five hours to find a sole voice who espoused it. But by the time we went on air we simply had one of each; we presented this unequal effort to our audience as balance. It wasn't."

In the debate over Brexit, accusations of an anti-Brexit or pro-Brexit bias by the media have been a recurring feature.

The UK’s most-read national newspaper titles have shown a strong bias favouring Brexit, Press Gazette analysis of the final month of campaigning shows.