What we need in these difficult times is a slice of good luck to cheer us all up. So why has the city council risked bad luck instead by leaving its Christmas decorations up after Twelfth Night?

Questions must be asked. Well, they have been. The reason many of the 200 small Christmas trees adorning buildings in the city centre still have not been removed is that taking them down has proved more complicated than expected, a city council spokesperson explained. The lights have to be turned off at each individual tree first, making for a slow process.

Possible bad luck aside, this is apparently not costing us much.

Low-energy lightbulbs were used, the spokesperson said. “And the total cost of energy needed to light the decorations since Twelfth Night will be negligible.”