Two choice selections from Wednesday’s paper. First, in the corrections column, the paper withdraws an entire story:

We said in error that the rap artist 50 Cent is billed to appear in a Sunderland pub on February 29. Neither the performance nor the date will take place. The next leap year is 2008.

Goodness knows how they managed that but the words “press” and “release” and the phrase “cut and paste” spring to mind. Meanwhile, Simon Hoggart on Mark Oaten’s chances:

The reason why [Lembit] is backing Mark’s campaign may be because it is slightly more likely that a heavenly body will destroy all life on earth than that his candidate will become leader of the Lib Dems.