Friday, April 29, 2005

Blanket Coverage

Another election comment.

Last night I was listening to the radio (Radio 4, naturally. Can't be doing with all the loudness on the other stations.) The reporter was looking at how other nations were covering the UK election. The Europeans were, unsurprisingly, relatively interested. After all, a change of government in Britain could result in changes in the European project.

Admittedly, these changes would probably consist of a bunch of men in grey suits lining up along the white cliffs of Dover, making faces and saying "Ya boo, sucks to you" to the continent across the water. Not a dramatic change then.

The reporter turned to the American press and remarked on the limited coverage (certainly compared to the wall-to-wall US election coverage that the British people were subjected to last year.) He sounded a little petulent about the whole thing and commented "Basically, we're interested in them much more than they are in us"

He said this like it was a bad thing.

Idiot.

America is like one of those bulls that the Spanish take such joy in tormenting. Its a huge creature; capable of inflicting immense damage on those that piss it off and blessed with a tiny brain. Of COURSE you want to know what its up to. And the last thing you want to do is attract its attention. So I'm good with the lack of coverage. It means George Bush hasn't noticed all that oil under the North Sea yet...