Spare any change, mister?

There was an excellent article the other day featured in my newspaper of choice, the International Herald Tribune. (Actually, that's not entirely true - I get the e-mail version, as well as BBC news, and only sometimes do I deign to buy some newsprint.)

Anyway, it was all about the US and immigration. So here's a link. If it's gone, I'll just have to talk about it all later on.

Link

The thing that gets me is that, even when the US Government is getting all antsy about people crossing its borders, and the rest of the world gets upset about American hypocrisy etc etc, the US takes in huge numbers of people every year. More than 10 times what the UK takes in, so it's actually out of proportion on the positive side. Ain't that strange?

It's also a sobering reminder that we in Britain are anything but a multicultural society. Actually, we're a bunch of insecure isolationists who are only just nicer to foreigners than the rest of the Europeans. I think it's about time we were honest about this. Anyhow, how can we be multicultural when the sum total of people living here who are NOT of white North European extraction comes down to about 6% of the population?

And it seems to me that the Americans have a much more honest approach to discussing the whole subject than the 'don't mention the war' attitude we tend to display here.

Which makes me all the more disturbed that, apparently, the Americans think the British press are much better at news than their domestic product. Excuse me while I pee. Apparently, it's all because the Americans are sick of US journos being deferential to politicians, and they are turning to the Brit Press because we are rude to people in power, stimulating informative reaction, and because we like to ask the questions others don't.

Well, maybe, but I'm not convinced that the result is more accurate information. That's mostly down to UK journos highly developed sense of poo detection, along with an excellent ability to read between the lines. The rude stuff actually makes for more spin and less respect, and we are suffering as a society for that. Democracy is visibly eroding away before our eyes. The public dislike and distrust the politicians; the politicians HATE the public.

I'm worried about this because I have huge respect for US journalism. Attention to detail; attempted objectivity (kinda); actual real investigative reporting; bullet-proof research; lack of pomposity - all of these qualities British journalism lacks, often because of editorial decisions to abandon them.

So, please, yanks, don't borrow from our experience - you'll be sorry.

*****

And now for something completely different: