Who could be against the 1914 Christmas Truce on the Western Front? British and German troops in some sectors clambered out of their trenches into No-Man's Land and mingled. There was even supposedly a football game. But here's the thing. Breaking the enemy's morale is a key part of war. The Germans were, and are, even bigger on Christmas than the British. Many British Christmas "traditions" were introduced by our German Royal Family; don't be fooled by them calling themselves Windsor these days. The Christmas Truce boosted German morale to a greater extent than it did the British. Of course, the Germans didn't throw up their hands and surrender in the sectors where there was no mingling. But The Truce did boost their will to carry on with the fight. 

I sometimes wonder if the collapse of journalistic standards has stoked the fires of misinformation. An ever increasing number of people now get all their news via social media. Sadly, their scorn for "traditional" media is fed daily by sloppy journalism. It is hard to believe anything that comes from a media source that tells you one Russian rocket destroyed 72 apartment buildings in Ukraine. Unlikely, unless the Russians are using tactical nuclear weapons. Maybe try try 72 flats in a complex of more than 300 apartments. Can a bus overturning on an icy road in a single vehicle accident really be said to have been involved in a collision? Recently several reporters could not tell the difference between an unmarked  potential gravesite and a mass grave.  Another reporter spoke of "portable water"; more likely that water was "potable". Or is it too much to expect for the newsreader to say which country is suffering from anti-government riots? From the politicians named, it was Peru. No wonder so many folk ignore the increasingly inept mainstream media and end up falling for lies and conspiracy theories. 

A lot of people apparently believe I'm a red-head. Not flame ginger red but red just the same. In fact, the hair on the top of my head is a dirty blond. As a toddler I was, like my brother and cousins, a golden blonde. What fools people is my beard. It is indeed red, or was; it's now streaked with grey. Somehow, all people saw was red hair. The beard is now more of a goatee but in the old days it was full. Well, full some of the time. I used to stop shaving during my two week summer holidays and by the time I went back to work I had a good enough beard. It would then grow for a while. Then I would attempt to cut it with the kitchen scissors. Year after year all I did was cut doorsteps in my facial fungus and had to go clean shaven until the summer holidays came again. Oh, my eyebrows are black. Three hair colours on one head. 

The BBC World Service recently celebrated it's centenary. They played a recording  of the first head of the BBC, Lord Reith,  speaking at the launch of what was then called The Empire Service. He apologised for the poor  quality of the programming and promised it would be get better. He must be turning in his grave. The Newsroom programme had an item about the supposed reintroduction of beavers to Britain on the legendary first Duke of Wellington's former estate. Less than a minute on a search engine shows that beavers were reintroduced to Scotland more than a decade ago and have been in northern English rivers as well  for several years now. The only recent development is their arrival in Hampshire. Is it BBC World Service policy that nothing that happens north of Watford counts? Or, let's look at the 23 January edition. What the heck is World of Witchcraft? I've heard of World of Warcraft. This was one of several examples of sloppiness in an edition that could be taught at broadcasting school as a "how not to do it". Or what about mentioning several times mentioning the Archbishop of Canterbury was on a joint visit to South Sudan with the Pope with only a brief aside that the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was also a member of the party.  But then again, Canterbury is south of Watford.  

We get a radio programme here in Canada, courtesy of the BBC, called In The Studio. It's usually pretty dull, pretentious, people talking pretentiously about their latest project. The interviews and updates are usually assembled over a period of several months. But the biggest problem is that the programmes are often presented by the subject's best friend or someone who wants to be their new best friend. Too often the programme stinks of "you scratch my back and later I'll scratch yours" careerism. I'm reminded of a student journalist's interview with Andrew Neil when he was editor of the Sunday Times. It was so sycophantic. It was pretty obvious that the student hoped Neil would give her a job when she finished college and didn't want to upset him with any probing questions.