It is enough to make an Australian choke on a cork from their hat with laughter – a British village is complaining that life is being made impossible by flies.

Residents claim that they have to sweep up piles of dead flies every morning. Local shops have sold out of fly spray and fly paper. The villages also suffered invasions of house flies in 2001 and 2003, but this summer is said to be the worst….Mr Draper said that he had found a newspaper cutting from 1862 in which a horse-rider complained of the large number of flies in Collingbourne Valley. He added: “If it’s a natural phenomenon, then there is little anybody can do about it.”

Except of course the obvious – put in fly-screens on windows and doors.

I think, now the shooting has stopped in the Middle East, the media silly season might be declared to have officially begun.

I found this piece on Japanese hanko, personal seals, fascinating. The short account: having a physical stamp as your main form of proof of identity is not very practical in this day and age. Almost as silly as the British fixation on (eminently forgable) utility bills.