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Over the last few days, the blame game and who has the responsibility for saving Doncaster Sheffield Airport has really swung into action.

On one side of the argument, Labour says that everything possible has been done at a local level to try to save the airport and it now lies with Prime Minister Liz Truss – who has pledged action on three separate occasions – to step in and save it under the Civil Contingencies Act.

That means because the airport provides vital services – such as police aircraft and search and rescue planes – it could be considered critical for national infrastructure and the Government has the power to save it.

On the other hand, Don Valley Conservative MP Nick Fletcher has repeatedly laid the blame at the door of South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard, saying he has the ‘devolved powers’ necessary to step in and save the airport, and along with it, 800 jobs.

Oliver Coppard and Nick Fletcher have been trading criticisms of each other on social media.

The Labour mayor has already had the offer of a financial lifeline to owners Peel turned down, with the company saying it can’t accept public cash while a search goes on for a private buyer. Peel has made it quite clear it doesn’t want to play ball with anyone, under any circumstances.

No-one appears to be quite sure how much buying the airport outright and taking it under local authority control would be. One thing is for certain, it would come at a cost of millions and could well lead to cuts in other services to pay for it.

Whichever side of the debate you stand on, this whole sorry mess has been played out in the public arena on social media.

Both Fletcher and Coppard have used social media to take digs and swipes at each other.

Attempts to clarify what is clearly a muddled and complex situation have resorted into almost childish, playground-esque insults and side swipes of a ‘he said, she said’ nature.

Constituents - and this publication included – have repeatedly begged for the pair of them to stop the silly and quite frankly, embarrasing and pathetic bickering and concentrate on the job in hand.

These are elected officials and Doncaster deserves better than grown men acting like kids.

For God’s sake, stop the insults, stop the fighting, work together and grow up.

Doncaster Free Press opinion: "Grow up and stop playing silly games over airport"