Across the pond

Back in UK after our French holiday and greeted by an orgy of media comment on the first 100 days of the Cameron/Clegg coalition. I did not learn anything significant from it that l did not already know. Not because my colleagues in the mainstream press were not doing their job properly.

On the contrary. They had talked to the movers and shakers in the coalition and contestants for the Labour Party leadership. And reported what they said. They had done their vox pops of ordinary folk, and reported what they said.

All very professional.

But what they did not do, was to attempt to explain why the British electorate at the polling booths refused to be bullied by Gordon Brown, or, more politely by David Cameron.

They voted for a hung parliament. Which both Brown and Cameron said would be a disaster, which would destroy international confidence.

They were wrong.

The pound has not plunged in the currency markets. Obama, the EC and other world leaders are talking to our new government. Which is not seen as being the prisoner of a far right minority in Europe.

The British electorate also rejected, what the media call Cleggomania. They did not rush to vote LibDem, despite their distrust of Labour and the Connservatives.

The mainstream media worry about this.

Perhaps it means that British voters think all politicians are corrupt.

But maybe, just maybe, the British voterrs realise that we live in a very complex world. And that no party can miraculously solve all the problems.

Perhaps the British voters, most of whom have not had a university education, are quite able to think such things out for themselves.