What are the chances that if someone asked you a question you would give exactly the same answer, word for word, that you gave someone who asked that question earlier in the evening? I remember a rival newspaper wanted everyone to believe just that. Not only were the words exactly the same but the punctuation was duplicated. Most people don't speak punctuation marks out loud and there can be some flexibility in where, say, the commas go. Now, if the quotes were given to the two reporters involved, perhaps at a press conference, then the words would be same. But not when two reporters are operating completely independently. Less conclusive but a red flag is when all the facts of the story are recounted in exactly the same order. Slightly different words. It's called rewriting. It's called plagiarism. It's called theft. In Canada all the newspapers used to be members of a news cooperative called the Canadian Press. In places where there are competing media outlets, the stories submitted to the cooperative are not distributed to the local competition. But the unscrupulous scum newspaper chains who also own an outlet in Calgary simply pass the story onto their sister publication in Edmonton. A smart operator would then use the information as the basis of their own story but do all their own news gathering. It takes a real couple of stupid scum just to steal the story outright. Probably more than one person in the newsroom was involved, at least one editor and possibly a reporter, so we're not talking about a single rogue operator. Not like the guy from the same paper who used to pretend to work for us when he phoned bereaved relatives. At first I thought people, often in times of crisis and grief, were just confused when they said they'd just spoken to us. Then I noticed that every time this happened it was the same rival reporter's name on the story next morning. And when he left our competitor 's employment people stopped saying they'd already spoken to us.

Ha, I give writer Denise Mina a hard time for not replying to me email about her suggestion that Glasgow cop Bob Muncie framed serial killer Peter Manuel; and now I'm failing to answer someone's email. It came in as spam and I tried a new, supposedly, safer way to deal with it. But I boobed and it got deleted with no hope of retrieval. It was from a guy called Nick Bullen and was about an ancestor called Richard Bullen. I was intrigued about his work making clogs for horses during the Crimean War and very interested in finding out more about his time in Campbelton. Unfortunately, Mr Bullen's email address was lost when his message was accidently deleted and I haven't had any success tracking it down - though I'll know it when I see it. So, if you're out there Mr Bullen, please get in touch again.

Something I heard on the News Quiz suggested the BBC World Service is in danger. Hey, if there have to be cuts, let's get rid of the outrageously sexist The Conversation. And sack everyone involved and the managers who gave the programme the Green Light. When it first started it boasted that it was completely untouched by male hands. That is actually illegal under employment law. It's called sex discrimination in the workplace. The fact that the flagrant breach of the law was a matter of pride for the production team tells you all that you really need to know about them. The fact that this illegal sexism was allowed tells you more than you want to know about the stupidity of World Service management and the BBC overall. The Conversation continues and I don't think anything has really changed beyond no longer advertising with such pride a basic breach of employment law. By the way, I can't think of any must-listen-to programmes on the World Service these days but there are now several definite just-switch-offs-without-missing-anything-worth-hearing offerings. These are folk who brought us painting appreciation on the radio. Not totally insane but getting up there. And who told me this week that the last time the monarch read the Canadian speech from the throne was in 1957. Try 1977. Even an outfit with a modicum of professionalism..............

Now, forgive me if I've suggested this before in this blog. But I think people should have to pass their motorcycle test before they can drive a four wheel vehicle. On a motorcycle it doesn't matter whether the biker or the motorist is to blame, it's usually the former who comes off worse in any accident. This means that caution and road safety awareness become deep rooted in a biker's soul. It makes them far better drivers when they do graduate to four wheels. Of course, the snag is that the British roads in winter are not always safe for motorcycles. I had to give up my bike because it didn't fancy sliding through a junction on black ice in the early morning and under the wheels of an articulated lorry. But where there's a will there's a way and think of the lives saved if folk drove a little more safely.

They tell you work hard and do a good job and you'll be OK. It's not true. The incompetents who have self-awareness to realise just what they are often do better. Instead of expecting a good job well done to be the key to success, they start early in sucking up to the bosses. It's amazing how well it works. I wouldn't even say the bosses fall for it. Many bosses fear the competent because they don't want anyone who could take their job anywhere near them in the promotion stakes. I remember once the Big Boss, the capo di tutti capi, came to visit. His accompanying high powered management team behaved more like a troop of red-arsed baboons fighting over who would get to pick the fleas off the Alpha Male than anything else. I was right to despair as the company was sold not long afterwards to its inept but deep-pocketed rival.