A CONSEQUENCE of a tragedy like the one that has overwhelmed my family – the death my son Stephen – is that it brings news values into sharp focus.

Well, at least for me it has.

Until the recent Westminster atrocity, the ‘news’ that had held the main headlines longest over the previous two months or so was – wait for it – the debacle over two envelopes at a showbiz do. Yes, that’s right – the papers and the broadcast media (I overlook on-line, a foreign world) were full of what The Daily Telegraph, a serious-minded journal surely, splashed over the top quarter of its front page as the ‘Oscars Fiasco’. The media gorged on both the original gaffe and then ‘background’ of how it had happened, with columnists and cartoonists galore adding their hap’orth of scorn or delight.

Of course it would be wonderful, wouldn’t it, if our world were so benign, so much a paradise, that, for two or three days, there was nothing more worthy of our main attention than a blunder at an event that perhaps better illustrates the phrase ‘vanity of vanities’ than any other. But I’ll give you a more recent example.

The BBC news devoted several minutes to the new Dr Who series. The newspapers weighed in heftily too. The chief tag was that Dr Who’s latest assistant is gay, declaring herself such in her second sentence.

It’s part of today’s obsession with ‘inclusiveness.’ I’m far from convinced that this particular example, in a programme popular with kids, is a good idea. Today we seem almost to be encouraging kids to question their gender.

But that’s not my prime point here. Following the BBC’s National News plug for Dr Who, Look North led with a report that a pilot scheme on Tyneside for the Government’s new Universal Credit was causing hardship among claimants, some of whom faced possibly losing their homes. To me, this merited nationwide attention – raising alarm before the scheme is implemented elsewhere, which the official response suggested would still happen despite the adverse experience on Tyneside.

Of wider significance than that, what I considered the major news in the two months since my son died (apart from the truly momentous triggering of Brexit) slipped by virtually unnoticed.

On the very day the Oscars mix-up filled the front pages, it was quietly reported that the Ministry of Defence was urgently researching the use of helicopter drones to combat those deployed by terrorists.

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon described the terrorists’ use of drones in Mosul as “a wake-up call”. Later he also revealed more spending on cyber defence.

“Nato must defend itself as effectively in space as it does in the air, on land and at sea,” he declared.

Yes, we fight everywhere – in space now.

We are brilliant at adopting technological progress for war. Powered flight wasn’t ten years old before planes were spitting bullets.

We mastered fighting under the sea as well as on it. The wheel made it easier for us to spread warfare around.

But maybe we should take our cue from that ‘Oscars Fiasco’ after all – aim for a world where the worst thing that can happen is a muddle over two envelopes. Meanwhile the swallows are due to arrive. That would have been my son’s big news.