Priorities

I haven't been inclined to go near this blog for a while, but at this point I find myself compelled to. We in the UK are quite happy to look down our neighbours across the pond for being crass, whipped up their media into pointless frenzies over nothing in particular. We pride ourselves on being higher-minded, not as petty, with a healthy dose of cynicism.
Why then, are the American people, to a man, having a (mostly) considered debate on who they want to implement their needs and protect their interests for the next four years, in a time when a lot of previously quite cash-strapped Americans are facing even more testing times? I didn't think their brains'd be dense enough for such cogitation, on account of all the air and water in their Wonderbread. But here's the real kicker- what are we, custodians of measured argument and logic in a world gone to fickle shite, debating, as we do, in the oldest and most truly representative democratic institution in the world? What great issue have we been turning our collective cultured mind to for the last week? Two dickhead Londoners abusing an elderly gentleman on radio.
It wasn't very clever, I admit, but I'm not going to discuss the ethics of it. That's been dealt with quite sufficiently by every single journalist and talking head in the country over the last week or so. It still amazes me, though, that the infamous incident got two - count them, two - complaints at time of broadcast. Then, of course, the Daily Mail picked up the story. Last I heard, the number of complaints received by Ofcom had passed the 20,000 mark. This sickens me. The story is still on the front pages of all the red-tops and the Independent, and only a pensioner foiling an armed robbery keeps it off the front of the Mail today. It came up at Prime Minister's Question Time, for fuck's sake! And that ended up on the front pages earlier in the week.
I know quite a lot of middle-class England are sick of hearing about this Credit Crunch jobby, but I don't think a story like this has any place on any newsstand, especially when our American cousins have (for the most part) realised where sensationalist pointless journalism has got them in the past, and are actually putting some thought into electing their leaders this time around. And we still resent Gordon Brown, because he just doesn't smile as nicely as Mr. Blair did. This is why I try not to talk about politics...