If you haven't yet viewed the footage of Shipley man Gordon Holmes's video purporting to be The Loch Ness Monster then I really think you should do so right away.

Who cares if it's a twig or an otter or, as has been suggested on our always-entertaining comments section at the end of the web version of the story, a piece of human effluent?

The fact that someone can be bothered to spend a weekend up at Loch Ness actually looking for a monster, coupled with practically every newspaper in the country hungrily following the story up, fills me with joy.

Yes, al-Qaeda hitmen are waiting in the shadows, poised to murder us in our beds. Yes, hoodie-wearing youths want to ram Stanley knives into our faces. Yes, Russia is pointing its nuclear weapons at Europe. Yes, Big Brother is on for the next three months.

But in the face of all these points of horrendousness , people in this country are willing to put it all to one side and speculate on the existence of a legendary dinosaur that might be in a Scottish loch. And that's what makes people special, in my book.

That and the fact that this footage is obviously the actual Loch Ness Monster. I mean, how much more convincing do you require?