Every Summer on this side of the Atlantic the main houses of Parliament take extended holidays and the press endures what is known as silly season. This period is particularly rough from mid-August to September in Britain where newspaper readership drops off and events like Prime Ministers Question of course cannot take place. To counteract this trend often newspapers print attention grabbing headlines and are forced to dramatize relatively insignificant events on the world stage in order to try to grab readers.
However, the British Isles are not the only nations to suffer from this period of informative drought, although the times and dates may change the premise is the same. In Germany he period is known as Sommerloch (Summer hole) and in French it is la morte-saison (the dead season). The Swedish have the nyhetstorka.
