Beyond Eastbourne...

View from the Shoebox, with Beachy Head in the distance

 

Before we moved back to the UK I subscribed to the Financial Times on my Kindle.  At a time when I was deeply concerned about where the euro was heading the FT was a useful addition to the French media.  And the FT was great, although as time wore on I felt more and more ignorant about economics - there seemed to be as many theories about the euro's fate as there were economists. 

 

When we returned to the UK I subscribed to the Guardian, again on my Kindle.  It seemed fine at first: less targeted to a readership comprising solely teachers and social workers than I recollected, and the broader coverage was welcome.  However, as time wore on it became clear that the foreign section was woeful.  Or perhaps I mean, in particular, the European coverage.  After several weeks of reading the Guardian I felt my grasp of European politics not just slipping, but disappearing altogether.  Syria, China and the US got ample coverage.  M. Hollande, Frau Merkel and S. Monti didn't get a look-in - let alone Brussels and the EU at large.

 

Thinking it was a problem with the Grauniad alone, I bought a hard copy of The Times.  Perhaps it was too much to hope that a paper forever tarnished by its Murdoch ownership would approach the status of a journal of record that it once had.  In brief, it was the same: Syria, China and the US.    

 

As I look out to sea from the Shoebox I can see Eastbourne in the distance, and Beachy Head beyond it.  If I were to turn my eyes further to the left I should be able to glimpse the French coast.  I haven't succeeded yet, but I'm told one can sometimes see it.  Perhaps someone could alert the UK press that it's still there.

 

Antony Mair