August is traditionally known as Silly Season on Fleet Street. It’s the annual journalistic jamboree, slap bang in the middle of recess, when half the country is trying to enjoy its summer holidays, and, in the absence of anything newsworthy to report on, journalists start to scrape the proverbial barrel in order to fill their column inches.
So far, 2021 has not delivered the usual summer lull – the Olympics, the pandemic and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan have kept reporters busy. But history proves that a frenetic August is the exception rather than the rule. They say no news is good news; well, in the British press at least, no news tends to mean silly news. So here are seven of the silliest Silly Season stories to brighten up your summer.
Scilly Season – Harold Wilson’s Dinghy Disaster
In 1973, Labour leader and former Prime Minister, the droll, pipe smoking Harold Wilson – who would be elected again the following year – nearly drowned.
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