I AM beginning to think that if a baby was discovered in a manger in a town called Bethlehem on December 25, it would still take second place on the BBC to the news that Julian Assange had choked on a Brussels sprout. They are becoming obsessed.

Assange’s Wikileaks website has done some good work but let’s not kid ourselves that it’s recently told us anything we didn’t know.

Most thinking people are of the opinion that many things in Russia are corrupt, President Sarkozy is short and vain and that Silvio Berlusconi can’t keep his trousers up. We didn’t need Assange to tell us that.

In fact, the real shock would have been to discover that our leaders are principled, intelligent, decent folk, who only want to do their best for humanity.