I am quite sure that everyone will be as horrified as I am over the recent events in the north-east. This time last week, I was petrified to hear there was a gunman on the loose; on Saturday morning, we woke up to the news that Raul Moat was dead. I must say, I have a very uneasy feeling about the whole affair – a strange feeling that I need to get off my chest. The whole thing reminded me, in a strange way I cannot explain, of a Stephen King novella – such things, like the massacre at dunblane, do not happen here. There’s a sort of eerie, uncanny feeling to it. Yet, most of all, it just strikes me as sad how inevitable it’s denouement was. And there was nothing I or anyone else could do but watch the news, horrified.

Troubling. Very troubling indeed.