Doom and gloom abounds in the British press at the moment. Check out, for instance, Bryan Appleyard’s Sunday Times piece where he writes frenziedly about the oncoming demise of global civilization. By the time you get to his praise for the “Cuban idyll” you should be wondering about why he hasn’t appealed for the restoration of British gun rights for self-defense in the coming anarchy. The same breathless doom-mongering can be found in the Independent. Luckily, The Times’ Ben McIntyre is on hand to show we’ve been through this before. Much of the current British obsession seems to be down to unwarranted fear of bird flu, to which this March Siegel piece is a healthy antidote.

There used to be an English word for such stories. Humbug.