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Having lived for large amounts of time in both the UK and the US, I would say the level of political discourse in the UK is generally higher than in the US (I a
by abstractbill 17y ago
Having lived for large amounts of time in both the UK and the US, I would say the level of political discourse in the UK is generally higher than in the US (I attribute this mostly to a very strong and reasonably independent media in the UK that's really not afraid to hold feet to the fire and ask intelligent questions, and usually doesn't "dumb things down").
- hga 17y agoWas this true before 1986 (the Wapping dispute)? In Gerald Warner's ... eulogy to Michael Foot, "champion of the closed shop" (http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/geraldwarner/100028361/stockholm-syndrome-rules-as-journalists-laud-michael-foot-champion-of-the-closed-shop/ http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/geraldwarner/100028361/sto...), he relates this bit of relevant history: "One day in the mid-1970s, shortly after having a comment article published in the Daily Telegraph and while I was wondering, with the enthusiasm of youth, if journalism might be my métier, I bumped into an official of the NUJ who rejoiced in the title of “Father of the Chapel”, or some such quasi-masonic honorific, who told me he had seen the piece. “I hope you are remembering,” he said, “you are only allowed to publish two pieces a year (or perhaps it was a couple more) without an NUJ card… And just try getting one, you Tory b——,” he added with a sardonic laugh." On the other hand I don't know squat about ITV and any other independent electronic media, and there's always magazines like The Economist which I hope didn't also live in a closed shop environment.