Smoking ban or smokescreen? Beware the wedge issues that distract and divide.

What is a wedge issue?

A wedge issue is a clever distraction that is used to draw public attention away from a more serious issue.

They cause the public to spend time and energy arguing over a different topic, while the government continues to push ahead with unpopular policies.

A very recent example of this is the proposal to ban smoking in cars.  How many of you heard your local radio station discussing this, or saw articles about it in the paper, or were talking about it with colleagues or friends? The vast majority of you, right?  Why did this topic suddenly pop out of nowhere, while the country is going down the tubes and we're being hit by  cuts and charges?

Think about it, before the proposal to ban smoking in cars, if someone asked you to list the top 10 things that needed to be done to fix the country, would that ban even cross your mind?

If you got to Google News, and type in "Ireland smoking in cars" it returns over 13 MILLION results, from news articles in papers and radio websites across the english speaking world. And this is just a proposal.

Now type in 'rape crisis network ireland funding cut' and it returns 7 results. This is despite the fact that
their funding is in real danger of being cut off, and has only been extended by a short period.

Less newsworthy than smoking in cars?

And how many other cuts are being done quitely while we have the 'I'll smoke where I like' versus 'Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children' argument?

How well informed can the general public be if they keep chasing these sensational headlines rather than focussing on what is important?



Relatively few media pieces mentioned the fact that Engineers Ireland said that the cost of installing water meters is likely to be three times the government figure, and it would be cheaper to simply replace 5,000 kms of water pipes, which would save far more water than metering ever would.

Or the fact that today 43 million euros was given to bondholders.  Or a host of other issues that we should know about instead.

What are the typical features of a wedge issue?

• They don't come from public pressure, they seem to just pop up from thin air.
• It will divide public opinion (if everybody agreed on it, it wouldn't be much of a distraction.)
• There is usually no simple middle ground (e.g. Abortion, smoking in cars, you can't half-smoke or half-abort)
• It makes a great headline 'Government to ban (x, y, or z)' 
• The topic doesn't require any great knowledge for most people to form a hard opinion. 

Why are they so effective?

• People can get so sick of thinking about a problem that they unconciously welcome a distraction.
• Wedge issues are usually simpler to grasp and form an opinion on than the bigger problem.
• Mainstream media loves wedge issues, because they are sensational and controversial in nature.
• People on social networks love posting on the screaming headlines about the "latest big news".
• We like to think that the politicians are stupid, coming up with these "silly schemes".
• Loads of unpopular decisions slip by unnoticed, while we argue about a red herring.

If you ever wonder why governments have so many PR advisors, this is your answer. 

Everytime we ring in to Joe Duffy, or some other talk radio show to discuss a wedge issue rather than the REAL problem, we are doing their job for them and proving Mary Harney right when she said "People have short memories" or have you forgotten that already?.