IT must have looked like a scene from a Keystone Cops film. Deploying a plane, helicopter and squad car in pursuit of evidence after a young female motorist was caught eating an apple at the wheel does appear absurd.

Spending £10,000 chasing nursery nurse Sarah McCaffery through the courts over a £30 fine would be laughable if only it were not real life.

But still, amid all the outrage over Northumbria Police force's action, I can't help thinking they do have a point. Too many of us are guilty of lapses of concentration when driving - I've eaten an apple or taken a slug from a can of Coke a few times myself - and it doesn't hurt to be reminded of just how dangerous irresponsible actions like this can be.

Cars - or rather bad driving - can kill. Miss McCaffery was only pursued through the courts because she insisted on contesting the perfectly reasonable £30 on-the-spot fine. If she hadn't been stopped and had gone on to plough into a bus queue or a mother and toddler because she wasn't in proper control of her car, £10,000 wouldn't appear too high a price to pay to avoid potential disaster.

And if all this publicity makes other drivers take safety more seriously, who knows how many lives could be saved? Since this case, many have complained police should be off catching "real criminals" instead. Presumably, they mean people who steal our money, jewellery, DVDs and other valuables. But bad drivers can rob us of loved ones. And you can't get more valuable than that.

THE new reality TV show, So You Think You Can Teach?, in which three celebrities turn teachers for a couple of weeks, makes fascinating viewing. Apart from giving us a glimpse of how demanding teaching is nowadays, it highlights just what a waste of space some celebrities are.

It Girl Tamara Beckwith is brainless, arrogant and lazy. After not bothering to do any preparation for her first lesson, which she messes up, she complains: "I haven't been to school for a long time and I've had a lot of champagne in the middle. So I think it's all gone a bit squishy."

Worryingly, she is later shown confidently telling her class: "Seven eights are 64." At this point, I began to wonder about the morality of messing with youngsters' education for the sake of light entertainment.

Still, I suppose Tamara gives all failures hope. She proves that while those who can do, and those who can't teach, those incapable of doing anything in particular can always become celebrities.

PRINCE Andrew spent £325,000 of public money chartering helicopters and jets because he said trains were "unreliable". I wonder if he's given any thought to the many people who wait on platforms on freezing cold mornings and squeeze into overcrowded trains on a daily basis to get to work to earn the money to pay for his little luxuries.

FOLLOWING the various power cuts we have suffered over the past few weeks, I have lost count of the number of people who, like me, say they enjoyed the momentary lack of TV and computers. Most families played board games or cards and relished the precious, quiet time they had together. "I was really sorry when the TV came on again," was a typical comment. How come we're all so pathetic, we can't just turn it off?