A CHRISTMAS tree in the Daily Mail newsroom has died within 45 minutes of its arrival.
The five-foot pine was belatedly bought with money from petty cash after editor Paul Dacre declared it was time to ‘inject a bit of cheer into the place’.
However the seemingly-healthy tree rapidly withered and died once moved into position between Richard Littlejohn’s desk and the ‘celeb nip slip’ team who are manacled to their desks.
A source said: “It wasn’t as if the spines just fell out. The whole thing sort of withered and turned grey.
“It’s limbs went flaccid and the baubles dropped off and rolled across the floor.
“It’s almost as if the life force was being sucked out of it. A similar thing happened when we got a cheese plant in 2008, and indeed I once saw it happen to a sparrow that flew in through the window.
“I was putting the poor little thing in the bin when Dacre told me he wanted it for his sandwich.”
