The empty plinth

There is no Keith Hann column in this morning's Newcastle Journal; the first time I have taken a break since, I believe, October 2007. I wonder whether anyone will notice?

I am not taking a holiday as such. But a few things have upset me in the last week or two, and writing about the thing that was top of my mind (usually such a blessed relief) seemed sure to reignite the argument that was one of the things chiefly upsetting me. So, on the whole, I decided that a period of diplomatic silence might be the best course.

There is unlikely to be a column next week since on Monday 17 August, when I would normally write it, Mrs Hann and I expect to be moving into a new house.

Whether there will ever again be a Tuesday column is open to question. It depends on whether the readers or management of The Journal show any signs of missing it, or whether they heave a collective sigh of relief at this respite from what one correspondent recently described as my "self-obsessed shit". It also depends on whether I have the energy to write it, given that the recent arrangements I have made to support my wife and son mean that I will be expected to attend a meeting at 9.30 every Monday morning, in precisely the time slot I have set aside each week since early 2006 for writing.

If I do not reappear, thank you for your kind attention. I shall leave this website as a crumbling memorial to a journalistic career that ambled along the runway for a bit but never really got off the ground.