That is very true. The delivery is very tabloid style.

I think you've hit it on the head there Dunroving - I am not sure it is possible to live a happy life in the UK if you watch the TV news or read a tabloid, I think it generates a conditioned response of outrage/depression.

Unfortunately the tabloids have the majority of the circulation and the main TV media have also bought into doom and gloom - not just recently, it has been like that for as long as I can remember.

There was a 9 person slaughter near where I am staying at Xmas (California), didn't see a great deal of it on the news after the first night, probably had to move onto the next shooting. In the UK it would have blanketed the media for the next few months with long diatribes about how UK society was going to the dogs/to hell in a handbasket/feral society etc etc.

Funnily enough, that approach is my coping strategy here. Oz 'news' (and I use the term ludicrously loosely) is so light and fluffy and rarely reports anything newsworthy or negative (read reality) to the point that I gave up about 3 yrs ago. I do watch BBC World on Fox, but not all the time.

My approach in the UK news has always been 'I know the problems are here, but I only react to what ACTUALLY affects me in my day to day life'. I think constantly watching the doom and gloom news can be a self fulfilling prophecy if you let it. Bit like reading the Daily Mail

I like your tabloid-style sensationalist use of the word "slaughter", when "killing" or "murder" would have sufficed.

Sorry, couldn't resist

I'm sorry, you're correct, it was officially a massacre

I just spent 2 weeks in Dubai and out there the news is "the Sheikh Makhtoum Fan Club show" (rosy stories about all the wonderful things happening in Dubai all thanks to his excellency). When I lived in the Bahamas it was similar also.

In countries like that, you crave incisive, realistic, biting analysis. Similarly, in the US, you just want one journalist to ask "W" the difficult question, and keep asking it until he gives an answer. I think we have fantastic journalism in many of our newspapers in the UK. I absolutely love watching the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday morning. It's the constant drip-drip of "woeful tales of terror" that get me down.

I think some of it is down to my personality though, too. For example, I know East Enders is just acting, but I can't watch it. A half-hour of the scowling, screaming, carping and general ill-temper on that program gets me down. I'd much rather watch Corrie. Even though it's not all sunshine and roses, there's just a touch of tongue-in-cheek and enough heartwarming threads to keep me going.

I was just talking with my step-sister on the phone. She is a single mother of three (different fathers) who hasn't had a full-time job in years. Things aren't easy for her, but she has a house (provided by the state), free health care (provided by the state) and a weekly allowance (provided by the state). Even though the current economic problems mean we have a tough time ahead, as a nation, and I hate to think of people losing their jobs, we're in a much better situation than many countries. And for those of us who are fortunate to keep our jobs, maybe we'll have to holiday in Margate this year instead of Marbella, cancel the Sky Sports subscription, and forget buying a new car for a couple of years. That's hardly destitution (actually, that's how I've lived my whole life and it never hurt me).

I just read the BBC News Web site summary of the BCC and BRC reports. OK, here are a few choice words and phrases:

" ... bleak picture ... frightening deterioration ... results were awful ... truly awful numbers ... a torrid December despite a blizzard of promotions and deals ... customers couldn't be seduced into spending ... plunging domestic demand ... plummeting confidence ... downturn is deepening at an alarming pace ... results highlight a frightening deterioration ... truly awful results ..."

One of the hallmarks of trustworthy research is objectivity and impartial language. This is almost laughable in its resemblance of the old penny dreafuls. There may be some truth in the figures behind the report (clearly we're in some pretty deep doo-doo) but I just find this kind of "research" and "reporting" pathetically sensationalist.

At least we can all be proud of pet poodle Blair.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7827020.stm

Why are you singling out Blair?

John Howard also recieved the same award for the same reasons.

G

Can't find anything in the paper today about Howard, sorry.

I have a pretty poor opinion of how this country has been run under the Blair/Brown "leadership" and can't fathom why Blair is still Gung Ho about the decision to invade Iraq.

Despite this, I have to say that Blair's public appearances in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 were stirring. I still have a recording of (I think) the first speech he made following the attacks and even now when I listen to it, the hairs stand up on the back of my neck (of course, in comparison, Bush's speeches are like the Howdy-Doody Show).

I think Tony Blair was one of Britains hardest working and best ambassadors for the UK. He did make Bush look like the irresponsible cowboy he really is simply by conducting himself so well on a world stage. I believe TB deserves his trophy but I am sickened by the thought of it being presented by someone as low in morals as George Bush.

It says so in that link you posted.....have you not actually read it

Here's another as you didn't read your own

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/s...53-952,00.html

G

My Mum recently said, "Brian says stay where you are, it's crap here" on the phone.

This guy (SIL's Dad) is a workshy git who openly boasts of conning the DHSS and has had multiple life-saving operations on the NHS, plus goes on holiday to places like Goa and Vietnam, but of course the country's 'crap' because they let 'coons' in