It's the little things

Never has the oldest truism in British journalism - little happens in the silly season - been more apt.

It seems the coming of the annual news drought has been marked by a dwarf story in the popular press. Today we have the report of a vertically challenged burglar being, er, caught short and landing himself in the dock. The man in question admitted the charge.

But it's not the first time this has happened. This January, in the post-festive haze, came a story about wee people being concealed in bags by gangs in order to allegedly commit robberies.

What is fuelling the newsworthiness of smaller people and their part in what would otherwise be fairly mundane incidents? Have the tabloids got a warped fascination, perhaps fuelled by an underlying national intrigue? I Googled 'dwarf news' and tripped across this strange organisation - clearly for some people reading such news is no longer enough, they crave (in)appropriate 'ownership rights' too.

Mere coincidence that these stories seem to happen when newsflow is low? I smell a small conspiracy.