Eyes closed

Earlier this week, on a day when the former prime minister of the UK faced the House of Commons privileges committee in a hearing that could theoretically end his political career, one tabloid newspaper decided that the biggest story of the day was that Ed Sheeran no longer takes drugs (an admission he’d made during a lengthy interview with the US Rolling Stone magazine). That perhaps tells you something about said paper’s political allegiances and news values, but it also tells you something about Ed Sheeran: 12 years after his album + catapulted him into the mainstream consciousness in no uncertain terms – it ended up in the UK’s bestselling albums of the year chart for eight years in a row – he’s still an exceptionally big deal, big enough that a tabloid newspaper can just about get away with filleting a few quotes from a magazine feature and sticking them on the front page as a distraction tactic.