Sure enough, at least three newspapers - the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, and Metro - today run the old news about alcohol-related deaths, pumped out by the Conservatives and commented upon here.

None mentioned the fact that the change of coding affected the figures - or that they weren't new. But you have to admire Daniel Martin's intro in the Mail. "The number of people drinking themselves to death has soared by 40 per cent under Labour" he says.