Amy dreamers

Last weekend, 76 people were murdered in Norway and one of Britain’s best-known singers died in her flat.

And so we were torn. Our sympathies were instinctively drawn to the horrendous Norwegian events, but our fascination to Camden Town. Before long, people were deciding on the helping of compassion the victims in each story deserved, like portions of grief porridge. An undertaking as unnecessary as it was in dreadful taste, but one seized upon with undue relish by swathes of the blogosphere, Twiteratti and professional media.

Prized apart

The problem isn’t losing, it’s winning. Losing attracts back-slaps of commiseration and sympathetic platitudes. Losing brings assurances of injustice and judges with poor taste.

Winning, on the other hand, gives rise to accusations of undeserved spoils, notions of being overrated and, above all, great expectations. Such is the curse on the Mercury Music Prize.

Hacked

News of the World, for many years the boorish drunk of the print media, is finished. Up to its red top in charges of  illegal, corrupt and venal practices, its owner has cut it away like a necrotic limb.