Exploding whale tale drives home council's stay at home message

Doncaster council's attempt to push the stay at home message using a cautionary tale of an exploding whale has struck a chord with social media users.

The Council in South Yorkshire decided to recount the 1970 story of a disastrous attempt to blow up a dead whale on a beach in Florence, Oregon, in the United States.

The South Yorkshire local authority said the decision to blow up the whale went "horribly wrong" but could teach everyone lessons about our response to Covid-19.

The council said: "The problem hadn't gone away, only now there were thousands of bits of problem spread for miles around."

"So why do we tell you this story? Well, as far as we can see, there are three#coronavirus lessons here:

"DON'T IGNORE THE ADVICE THAT EXPERTS GIVE YOU. They know what they're talking about.

"Sometimes, it's better to just sit at home and do nothing than go outside and do something ridiculous. Let nature take its course.

"When you ignore expert advice and act like an idiot, you cover everyone else with decaying whale blubber. #StayHome and stop being selfish."

The council began to trend on Twitter as the post was retweeted more than16,000 times and liked more than 27,000 times within a couple of hours.