AUGUST in London is officially the silly season. With Parliament in recess, and the British political class soaking up the sun in their Italian summer homes, the media is starved of its usual spate of political rows. An opportunity, you might think, for more reflective, in-depth coverage of long-term issues like global warming or nuclear disarmament?
But no, the story that's been dominating both the tabloid, popular press and the 'quality' broadsheets, not to mention the august BBC too, is the future of an unwed mother who's carrying octuplets There's been endless speculation about the chances of her carry ing all eight foetuses to term, against medical advice, about the rights and wrongs
The News of the World contract ing to pay her an estimated million if she does. Public voyeurism has been stimulated by salacious details about her life, not least the fact that she's white and the father of the octuplets is black.