Doom, Gloom, Blame & Outrage
Oh to be British...
Have we always been such a wretched lot?
The UK press continue to fuel our misery with gloomy weather reports and inflame our rage with tales of broken Government promises, delinquent youth culture and cheating celebrities.
And let's not forget the damaging impact of foreigners on Britain. The Daily Mail have today published an image of a Somali woman "standing proudly with her arm draped over a 36in television". To think she should have a television at all. Let's have her stoned to death. Oh hang on a minute, isn't that what they do to women in Somalia?
This negative disposition extends to Twitter. Seldom will a day go by without some proud exclamation of outrage, a complaint about customer service or over-dramatic use of the #FAIL hash-tag. And when the UK Twitter mob congregate in fury there is an air of vitriolic self-righteousness I had not witnessed previous to joining the social network site.
Those in the PR industry will be aware of the struggle to achieve positive brand messages within a bleak media landscape. Negative stories achieve bigger shows and many of us have to go down that route to create an impact with a client story.
And with the general election looming, I expect to see many more stories of woe and despair. I expect to see more of David Cameron blaming Labour for everything and, rather than focusing on his own policies and positive plans for Britain, I expect to see him leap on every opportunity to bring Brown down. Cameron's recent response to the Brown Bullying allegations was predictable to say the least.
But in an untypically British manner, I am going to stick my neck out and say that on the whole, I am very fond of this country.
Yes, we pay high taxes, but in return we receive a decent standard of living.
We have a free health service which we were quick to defend the minute it came under attack by US Republicans and amongst other Labour achievements we have record numbers of police in England, Scotland and Wales.
Yes changes have to be made. Education is key and I'm not denying Cameron could be the right man to take us forward.
But is Britain really as "broken" as we like to think? I recently read an article in The Economist debunking that notion. The article looks at statistics which show, for example that crime overall has dropped by 45% since its peak in 1995, domestic violence has dropped by a staggering 70% and the total number of homicides recorded by the police is at its lowest in 19 years.
But that isn't what we want to hear because it doesn't fit with our deep-rooted yearning for misery and discontent.
Ooh is Eastenders on tonight?
Written by Harriet Crosse
72Point Blog
72 Point are national news PR & survey specialists. Achieving daily print & online news exposure for the UK’s largest brands and PR agencies.
February 25th, 2010 - 10:02
I too get fed up with Twitter mob rule, it always reminds my of the townsfolk on the Simpsons. And also agree that to get a story in the paper, bad news is news. Simon Jenkins wrote that in the old days, editors would salt their news pages with a sprinkle of good news to break up the diet of unerring gloom, but that habit appears lost. Your article is right, we have much to be happy about, and it’s right on occasion to count one’s blessings.