Failure To Fact-Check

Any publisher knows that a book should never be released until all the facts contained therein have been checked.

Unless that publisher is the European Union, in which case someone needs to check on the fact-checkers.

Apparently, there will be no Christmas or Easter for European schoolchildren. It's not in their official diary, three million of which were sent out to Europe's teens.

John Dalli is quite sorry.

Sorry that an Irish priest, of all people, noticed that not one single Christian holiday was included in the Europa Diary and lodged a complaint.

Quite embarrassing, to have it pointed out that you've got Sikh, Muslim, Chinese, etc. special days noted. But Christmas and Easter? Not worth including.

Money's tight, so the EU will not be printing a new run of diaries. The kiddies get a one-page insert that lists the missing holidays, and they'll have to make the best of it. Diary spokesman P. Nikiforos Diamandouros said the EU's apology was sufficient.

So stop your whingeing, Europe. The EU "blundered" on a grand scale. Their determination to be politically correct and all-inclusive, but still not bound to the Vatican, went astray.

And if the Irish clergy weren't so damned attentive, no one would have noticed.  


P Nikiforos Diamandouros