POTS AND KETTLES...

Of course, it`s the traditionally `done thing` on this the first day of 2018 to wish everyone a happy new year and I do so quite genuinely and unreservedly.  So, Happy New Year to you and yours.

The alleged `festive season` is thankfully drawing to a close and being a curmudgeonly cynic, a few things have come to light in the past week or so to make me wonder whether people have deliberately turned to irony in their quest for attention. 

Perhaps the best example has emerged from the Vatican where it is reported that His Holiness Pope  Francis is going to deliver his annual communications message.  In it, he will decree that made up stories -`fake news` - is `a serious sin.`  He has reminded journalists that they must provide precise, complete, correct and unbiased reports and not fall into the `sins of communication,` disinformation or just giving one side of the story.  Such actions, he said, are ` a grave sin` that hurts the hearts of others as well as the journalists themselves.

And all this coming from the appointed head of yet another organisation that thrives on being based on myth, legend, fairy tales and threats of dire consequences if you don`t believe them.  Anyway, thank God someone has taken the unprecedented step of speaking out against made up stories that have no bearing in fact but are nevertheless taken as gospel.

Oh, and by the way, please be assured that my good wishes to you for 2018 are entirely genuine, precise, complete, correct and unbiased.  Honest.