Charlie Catchpole, writing in today’s Daily Mirror in the Charlie Catchpole Column, says (tongue firmly in cheek, while commenting on The Weakest Link game show) that coming soon to cable and satellite TV is a programme called Cruel Sports TV.

‘Thrill to fox hunting from Berkshire, pro-celebrity pig sticking live from Lahore, bullfighting from Spain, badger baiting from Northumberland and hare coursing from Yorkshire.’ Says a proper Charlie.

‘No angling though’, he says. ‘That’s not at all cruel. Fish love having their mouths ripped open by metal hooks, didn’t you know?’

We’ve got news for you Charlie, but you won’t want to hear it. Anglers don’t rip open the mouths of fish with today’s barbless and micro-barbed hooks.

If you knew what you were talking about you’d know that.

But it wouldn’t sell half as much copy would it, and ‘journalists’ like you strengthen the belief that the tabloids never let the truth stand in the way of a good story, right?