Not Going Dutch

Predictable whingeing in certain quarters at the non-coverage of the trial of Geert Wilders. But nothing that happens in any foreign country except America receives much attention from the mainstream British media, which treat American stories as if they were internal British ones.

For example, leaving aside the merits or otherwise of the man himself or of his office, look at the way in which everyone in Britain reacted to the appointment of Herman Van Rumpuy with “Never heard of him”. The Prime Minister of a country headed by a monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and whose capital can be reached from London by train.

But then, we don’t even know about countries with which we share a Head of State. We don’t even know about the country with which we share a land border. We don’t know about any other country except one, and we refuse to accept that that really is a foreign country at all. At PMQs yesterday, William Hague repeatedly referred to Obama as “the President”, as one might say “the Prime Minister” or “the Queen”.

I thought that that was what you neocons liked.