The week in review: Whatever happened to the silly season?
We never seem to get a proper silly season these days. In 2010 the thrills of the new coalition government kept us all busy. In 2011 the August riots presented us with some serious news, when we should all have been sunning ourselves and knocking off to the golf course at 3pm. In 2012 the excitement of holding one of the most successful Olympic Games ever kept us more than occupied. This year, a woman gave birth to a baby boy.
The birth of Prince George matters because a lot of people cared about it. I might have launched into a fit of despair about the media frenzy earlier this week, but the truth is it was an incredibly newsworthy event. This was no ordinary babe-in-arms emerging into the world. It was a future king. All that was left to do was try and write about it in terms which were not inane or pointless. The result was, on those grounds, a complete failure. But at least it embraced the craziness, or tried to anyway.
Against this backdrop, actual stuff was happening. David Cameron's big effort was in trying to tackle pornography on the interweb. His promise to get everyone to opt-in to watching adults do things involving the bodily fluids of other adults was welcomed by anti-smut campaigners, and contained some important side-proposals about clamping down on sickening indecent material featuring children. Not everyone was impressed by the package as a whole, though. By the end of the week he had fled for Portugal. Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, for those of you who care, is in Spain.
That leaves Ed Miliband, whose summer holidays this year are en Francias. Before he headed across the Channel there was time for a bit of leadership over the union clash. His Monday evening gig announcing a special conference next spring, where the issue would be settled once and for all, was thoroughly overshadowed by news of the royal birth. Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary, made clear he would support the changes – so long as the Labour party did not continue being a "pinkish" version of the coalition. The battle lines are being dug ahead of what promises to be a monstrously messy confrontation.
The economy showed itself to be picking up. Over half of the losses seen since the great contraction started in 2008 have now been recovered, but there is still a long way to go. And it's taking ages.
That, and the royal wedding, and Friday morning's Today programme interview with Justin Welby, were the reasons to be cheerful this week. The Archbishop of Canterbury does not like to play by the rules and is certainly approaching his new high profile with a refreshing zeal. He was – shock horror – open and honest when brushing up against John Humphrys. Given how much trouble the Church was in over payday lenders, this was all the more impressive.
As riot police took on protesters in Bulgaria – the only place in western Europe where actual politics was really taking place this week – we finally discovered where the silly season had gone. The Big Apple, that's where. The frontrunner in New York's mayoral race, Anthony Weiner, has once again been caught engaging in questionable behaviour with a young 20-something. His wife has forgiven him, but will the voters? If they do, a new record will have been set in the escaping-from-clearly-unacceptable-sex-scandal.
Our political leaders have left Westminster behind, and so – for the weekend at least – we're going to as well. It's officially summer. So stop reading this and go out and drink in the sun instead.
