Drink less, drink more?

WHILE applauding Whitehall's latest plan to improve literacy in our schools, I bet the problem goes deeper than we believe. Take this headline on a recent column by Charles Moore: "The letters NHS stand for a litany of blame, waste and pessimism." No, they don't.

AS the harrumphing and horse-trading continues over which political leaders should be allowed on to the TV election debates, a reader says we should certainly invite the person best placed to tell us what the UK will and won't be permitted to do during the next five years. Angela Merkel.

ACCORDING to a new biography, Prince Charles aims to shake up the honours system to ensure honours and awards go only to those who deserve them. Good old Prince Charles. Or as we sometimes know him: His Royal Highness Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales, KG, KT, GCB, OM, AK, QSO, PC, ADC, Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland.

FIFTY shades of confusion. My recent reference to Lord Gray delivering the 1914 prediction: "The lights are going out all over Europe," should of course have been Sir Edward Grey, the then foreign secretary. Mind you, as Sir Edward himself could never remember having uttered the famous words, it might as well have been Lord Gray.

OOPS. Just when The Secret World of Lewis Carroll (BBC2) was persuading us the jury was out on the issue of the author's alleged paedophile tendencies, the jury suddenly reappeared, brandishing a damning photo. It was a newly discovered, full-frontal image of 12-year-old Lorina Liddell, sister of the Alice who inspired the Wonderland books. It seems to have been taken by Carroll (Charles Dodgson) and if the author were on trial today, that single photo would surely be Exhibit A.

AND yet can we ever impose our prejudices and conclusions on another age? It is hard enough recalling how attitudes were in the 1970s when Jimmy Savile was abusing at will. How much harder it is to judge Lewis Carroll who lived at a time when the age of consent was 12 and images of naked children, in both classical art and photography, were commonplace. I've just finished reading Richard Holmes' excellent Tommy, a superbly researched study of soldiers in the First World War. A chaplain described how a soldier, blindfolded and only seconds away from death by firing squad, asked to be kissed. The priest kissed him on the lips, whispered: "God has you in his keeping" and the firing squad did its work. I suppose you could use this incident as evidence that homosexuality was rife in the trenches. Or that all army chaplains were gay. Or that gays were routinely executed. Or you could take the view that it is almost impossible in 2015 to pass judgment on 1915. The past is a foreign country.

TRIVIA corner. Lewis Carroll never wrote a book called Alice in Wonderland. It was entitled Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Guaranteed to start a fight in the pub quiz.

FAREWELL to dry January and let the booze-paranoia recommence. In the space of a single day last week I read that according to three groups of researchers, a single glass of wine may lessen your risk of heart attack, two glasses of wine may raise your risk of stroke and a bottle of beer per day may protect you from Alzheimer's. Can't wait for this week's advice.