I
think it was Descartes who said " Distance lends enchantment to a view
", who ever it was they weren't entirely right. For example as an Expat.
you live a distance from home and yet the only news you ever hear about the
"Old Country" is bad.
Take the slant on current news from Britain from both the newspapers, TV (local and international), and the Internet. Through all this media Tony Blair comes a cross as a mostly benign, self-centred dictator who is accreting power round the Prime Ministers office purely to get the job of EU President when he retires. He talks a good game but fails consistently to deliver anything important.
The Railways are falling apart, nothing runs on time, or in some cases at all. Accidents abound and the people in charge run around looking for someone else to blame. The Schools are so short of competent teachers, or in some cases any teachers, that the education of an entire generation is at risk. Call that forward planning? The Hospitals are worse, not only are there acute staff shortages, but there have also been a spate of stories telling how the vested medical interests have been covering up incompetence of some staff for so long that whistle blowers are loosing out when the speak up for the safety of patients. So doctors, it seems, have had 5 times the failure rate of colleagues without any one being willing to stop them killing people with their "kindness". Crime is soaring. In particular gun crime despite the country having the most draconian gun laws in Europe. The country is now seeing permanently armed police on the streets, an unthinkable thing only 10 years ago, and will soon see no-go areas for the police unless something is done, i.e. Railways, Hospitals, Crime, and Schools are all prime examples of "his failure".
