When Arianna and I first started talking about launching HuffPostUK, in my infinite wisdom, I promised there was absolutely no point launching before September and "there'd be nothing to write about" during the summer.
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When Arianna and I first started talking about launching HuffPostUK, in my infinite wisdom, I promised there was absolutely no point launching before September and "there'd be nothing to write about" during the summer.

Shall we just say, I was wrong and move on?

A feeling now exists that in years to come our children, our grandchildren even, will be studying these months in history lessons. Hackgate, for can it ever be known as anything else; Oslo; and now this week's riots. Six weeks of news that have pushed MPs, the police, not to mention journalists, to their limits, and left us all wondering just where it all came from.

There is little I can say about the riots that has not already been extensively written and blogged about. (Read some of the best, here). The analysis, the handwringing, the pontificating speeches in Parliament, will go on for months. And, in the meantime, what about those still cleaning up their shops, hanging on the phones trying to track down the insurance money to restock? Further than this are all the millions of small businesses indirectly affected. A week in the middle of August, with more than one balmy summer evening - normally London would be awash with after-work social drinkers, couples making their way out for a bite to eat. Bars and restaurants, even hotels in the capital, suffered this week as everyone rushed home as soon as possible - even on Friday evening, when chatter had died to a minimum, the end-of-the-week swell was severely diminished.

Cast your mind back a few months, with the UK on a post-Royal-wedding high. We happily patted ourselves on the back: no one knows how to put on a party quite like the British, we smugly told each other, while newspapers calculated just what the 'Kate effect' would have on the tourism industry. I think it's now safe to say that's been negated entirely by events since.

The positivity, however, that the massive clean-up effort has brought must last longer. Forget the multi-million-pound tourism campaign hastily stopped in its tracks this week. When it's finally turned on again (being a digital campaign, the head of marketing at Visit Britain says it can be switched back on with no cost implications) they should replace the stars of the campaign, Judi Dench and Jamie Oliver, with footage of the army of clean-up volunteers instead or Tarik Jahan, the proud father of murdered Birmingham 21-year-old Haroon.

So, now let's look forward, dig past the front pages and hope for some good news to report on before the summer is out. The finance pages are unlikely to deliver those. If all else fails, maybe it's time everyone started following the cricket.