It has been a bad day for Wikipedia and for British politics. The latest shocking accusation that the Tory leader David Cameron has thrown at the Prime Minister is that he got the age of the artist Titian at his death wrong. Wow! Clearly this man is unfit for power. What else could disqualify a leader from wrestling with the credit crunch? Being unable to recite Tennyson by heart? A less than intimate knowledge of the novels of Thomas Hardy?
The only problem is that the date of Titian's birth isn't known, so some bright spark from Conservative Central Office decided to alter the Wikipedia entry to match the age at death given by his leader. Someone should have told them that there are other works of reference. Encyclopaedia Britannica says he was born in 1488/90 and died on August 27th, 1576.
And people say the blogosphere can be puerile.
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