Who's the daddy?

I have a radio in every room, sometimes tuned to different stations. (This is mainly because tuning a digital radio requires a PhD in engineering, which I don't have - and even if you get them all tuned to the one station, there's still a 2 or 3 second delay between radios and that is really annoying). Anyhow, last week at some point I heard someone say that 20% of men are bringing up a child who isn't theirs. I was on my way out, so I didn't hear what this was about and by the time I got downstairs to the car the radio had moved on to something else.

I thought about this for about, oh, 30 seconds. Did they mean there are so many 'new' families that a lot of men are bringing up the first husband's children? Or did they mean there's a lot of extra-marital shenanigans going on and women are passing off other men's kids as their husbands' offspring? And how do the people who came up with the 20% figure know this is happening? However, life moves on and I forgot all about this. 

Then today I see a headline on BBC news online: 

Tests reveal Archbishop's real father

The BBC have got this from the Telegraph (London variety, not Greenock). No surprise the BBC reads the Telegraph. although a tad surprising its online editor thinks this is the most important thing happening in the UK today. It seems the Telegraph uncovered this story and that led to the Archbish having a DNA test. I don't know what business this is of the Telegraph or why this private family matter would be splashed all over a newspaper and a BBC website. Especially since both the press and the BBC seem to have accepted David Cameron's argument at the start of last week that his father's financial shenanigans were a private matter. 

No doubt the Telegraph would argue it published this 'in the public interest.' The papers don't seem to understand what they mean by that phrase: just because some of the public find this kind of thing interesting doesn't mean it's in 'the public interest.' 

And, inevitably, I have to ask: is there really nothing else happening in the UK that is more important than the paternity of a churchman? Do we just forget about:

- the death of the steel industry in the rest of the UK

- the EU referendum

- the continuing refugee crisis in Turkey and the Lebanon

- the continuing fiasco that is austerity

- the persecution of the sick and disabled by an elitist government?

Or maybe that's the point? Give the readers bread and circuses and they'll forget the state we're in.

Crumbling infrastructure, soaring levels of inequality - what do these matter when the Archbishop of Canterbury is revealed as being a bastard? Oh, and on the Telegraph's front page there's a photo of Duchess Kate (the benefit scrounger) dressed in clothes described as 'drab.' No doubt that also involved a high level of investigative journalism.