You would have thought that with the egg on their faces over Brexit and the American election, the media would be more careful with the truth.

But listening to the BBC on the urgent and long overdue work to restore Buckingham Palace, it seems that accuracy is not a priority. It’s one thing for the United Kingdom’s minuscule republican movement to spread the untruth that taxpayers are to pay for the £369 million ($600 m) 10-year program.