I watched an exert from Dave’s performance on ‘The Late Show’ with David Letterman and was at once reminded that it was Mark Twain who said .. “God created war so that Americans would learn geography.”.. as Letterman asked the most dumbed down questions about the United Kingdom and Europe .. “What’s the deal on Wales?” .. “Is Northern Ireland part of England ?” etc. In fact this line of questioning has been described in the press as an “idiot’s guide” to Britain for American viewers.
Having seen people in New York being interviewed as they left the theatre, it was pretty obvious that few of them knew who our Prime Minister was. One guy said that he thought David Cameron “was cool” and was going to look him up on ‘Wikipedia’. I even got the impression that some probably thought he was one of the footmen from ‘Downton Abbey’.
Now back in the 70’and 80’s I made a few trips to various parts of the United States and found that, during my time there, it was almost impossible to find out what was going on in the ‘outside world’, and that most of the lovely Americans I met did not have a clue about life in Europe, and wouldn’t be able to point to “little old England” if you put a map of the world in front of them.
I thought that things must have changed in this ‘digital age’, but I have to wonder just how many of our American cousins still believe that all Scotsmen wear kilts ?.. we all know ‘er Maj ? .. we live on fish and chips ? .. we talk like Dick Van Dyke in ‘Mary Poppins’ ? .. we serve warm beer ? .. we live in thatched cottages ? .. and that we all love …
… ‘Monty Bloody! PIE-THON ?
bigjohn 
