The uproar, in media circles at least, over the current issue of OK! magazine reminds me of a famous incident from the 1950s.

OK! has chosen  to publish a black-bordered "official tribute issue" for Jade Goody while the unfortunate woman is still living. As a measure of desperate and inappropriate publishing decisions, this is off the scale. One can only assume they imagined she would have departed this mortal coil by the time the thing was printed and distributed. Oh dear oh dear.

Back in 1955 the limitations of the colour printing and pre-press technology of the day meant former royal nanny Marion Crawford had to submit her column to weekly magazine Woman's Own more than a month in advance. Thus her "report" on the Trooping of the Colour, complete with gushing description of the Queen's outfit, appeared somewhat incongruously after the event had actually been cancelled because of a rail strike.

Northern & Shell has no such excuse.