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November 8, 2011

Corrections round-up: Mail admits Winterval did NOT replace Christmas

By Dominic wireposts

The Sun today revealed that it wrongly reported that an MP had his Rolex watch stolen in prison while the Daily Mail has admitted that councils did NOT seek to replace Christmas with “Winterval”.

On 9 August, the Sun reported that jailed MP Elliot Morley had been assualted in Ford Prison and forced to hand over a £3,000 Rolex watch.

In a page eight correction The Sun reports today: “Mr Morley has never owned a Rolex watch and suffered only a minor theft when his room key and ID card were snatched from his lanyard. He did not lose a watch or any other valuable. There was no ‘lockdown’ of the jail.”

Meanwhile the Daily Mail has admitted that there was never any politically correct attempt to rename Christmas Winterval – which has become something of an urban myth.

In today’s page two correction, the Mail says: “We stated in an article on 26 September that Christmas had been renamed in various places Winterval. Winterval was the collective name for a season of public events, both religious and secular, which took place in Birmingham in 1997 and 1998. We are happy to make clear that Winterval did not replace Christmas.”

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