… what I would ask is that journalists describe the evidence clearly, and describe the strengths and weaknesses, and also give a balanced picture of the weight of medical opinion.

Evidence? Described clearly? Balanced picture? Has he EVER READ a British newspaper?

The future they have glimpsed is one in which consumers and employers live in a permanently connected world. Broadband communication networks would pipe all manner of information and entertainment to television sets, personal computers and other appliances not yet imagined. Ubiquitous wireless gadgets would make it possible to work, communicate and be entertained from anywhere.

They weren’t that far wrong, even if the merger didn’t work out. Michael Skapinker says: “The problem was that, having precisely foretold the future, they could not get their company to deliver it.”

The headline for Stafford’s match report refers to Jason Price, who scored two of Millwall’s four goals, delivering “FA Cup knockout punches”. Stafford himself may not have written that, but the sub who did undoubtedly got the idea from Stafford’s liberal – some might say excessive – use of boxing metaphors.

Millwall’s “slow start and devastating finish” must have resonated with Haye, we are told. Two late goals “knocked the stuffing” out of the Blue Square Premier team, AFC Wimbledon. Those goals “skewed the scorecards”, obscuring the fact that the lower-league side “went toe to toe” with their more illustrious opponents for long periods.

Although the game finished 4-1, the first half was “evenly fought” and the midfield battle “fiercely fought”. AFC then “struck out in classic rope-a-dope fashion” and nearly scored. It was 0-0 at half-time, but Millwall “came out swinging after the bell” and took the lead in the second half. Showing “grit and determination”, AFC “fought back” and their keeper displayed “cat-like reflexes” to make an important save.

Millwall then scored again to make it 2-0. Strangely, even though the match was not yet over, Stafford describes AFC as “beaten but not bowed” (shurely shome mishtake? Ed). But there was to be no “comeback”; although the non-league team did manage to reduce the deficit to a single goal, they then conceded another one and Millwall’s fourth “finally put AFC on the canvas”.

Which is pretty much where I was when I reached the end of this report.

Why did senior executives believe they deserved to earn so much? “Because,” they said, paraphrasing the L’Oréal advertisement, “we’re worth it.” A war for talent was raging. If you paid peanuts you got monkeys.

As Skapinker says, this way of thinking doesn’t really work any more.

The problem, as is now clear, is that companies paid far more than peanuts but got monkeys anyway. The financial blow-up demonstrated that many highly rewarded people did not know what they were doing.

He seems to think that this latest public furore over pay is different to the others he has witnessed in the past 23 years and that reform is on the way. I’m not so sure. Many of those I’ve spoken to while researching the topic don’t seem to think anything will change much. Skapinker asks if journalists will still be writing the same pay stories two decades from now. I can’t help feeling that we will.

… by leaping into home ownership many people risk borrowing much more than they can afford, overstretching themselves and getting into financial ruin.

Answer: Martin Lewis, the self-styled “money saving expert”. Kudos to him for that. Read the rest here. His advice at the time was “plan for the worst and hope for the best” – advice which some people would have done well to take!

It’s always easier to stir up fear and anger against something that’s amorphous than to stir up enthusiasm for it.

He’s talking about US healthcare proposals, but he could just as easily be talking about anything to do with the EU.

Today, we learn that sales of Stella Artois are surging. That’s a beer better known to hardened drinkers as “wife-beater”.

Can’t be just a coincidence, can it?