This has not been a typical August so far. Normally at this time of year, with politicians and captains of business sunning themselves in Chiantishire and the South of France, the media are pretty short of stories. The skeleton staff left behind therefore have to find something to fill the newspapers and usually resort to such frivolous stories such as ladies putting cats in rubbish bins, footballers dyeing their hair or politicians defecting to rival parties.
Not so this summer. There has been the ongoing turmoil arising out of the sovereign debt crises in Europe and the effect that has had on the Eurozone. America has had similar problems with the markets following the loss of its triple A rating as a result of the standoff between Republicans and Democrats over agreeing to lift the national debt ceiling. The UK was shocked and outraged by the phone hacking scandal that has engulfed News International, where for a time new stories seemed to be uncovered on an hourly basis. And just as the Murdoch saga was calming down the riots in London have given us more to be shocked and outraged about. All in all anything but silly season, more like very serious season.
It seems an age ago now that the world was looking at Britain enviously as it celebrated the Royal Wedding at the end of April. Given the proximity to the Easter holidays, many of us took advantage and enjoyed an extra long holiday. Perhaps the natural order of things has been disturbed this year and we have already had our silly season?
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