Everybody knows that the Daily Mail loves nothing more than to print anti-BBC stories. But really, this latest attempt breaks new ground, even for the Mail.

The story is that the presenter of the BBC’s flagship news bulletin, Huw Edwards, was wearing a poppy which fell off just before the programme went to air. So in the first report, he picked it up and reattached it. Fascinating stuff.

In the world of the Daily Mail, though:

When BBC Ten O’Clock news presenter Huw Edwards took to the news-room floor during Monday night’s bulletin – viewers were immediately alerted to the fact that he has forgotten something – his poppy. Viewers were doubly confused when the poppy suddenly appeared on Edwards jacket after the broadcaster cut away to an interview with its top political correspondent Nick Robinson some way into the show.

Terribly confusing for all concerned, I’m sure. But far from jumping to the obvious conclusion, Daily Mail readers

could have been forgiven for thinking that the PC brigade were at it again

Somehow, the Mail then draws a connection between a poppy falling off someone’s jacket, and the fact that the Beeb have decided that ‘distracting’ religious symbols might not be the best idea on a newsreader – or, in the world of the Daily Mail, banned Fiona Bruce from wearing a cross. Which, incidentally, was blatantly untrue.

How on Earth does something this stupid make the pages of a national newspaper? It’s astonishing, even from the Daily Mail.

But my favourite bit of the article is this:

The poppy incident marked an eventual [sic] night for the Welsh news-reader after it was revealed that a contagious eye infection almost caused him to miss his broadcast.

Eventual?