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Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Frank Newman: Straight Talk - a Foreigner's Insight


Sometimes the obvious just needs to be stated, and sometimes it takes a foreigner to say it.

Stuff reports on an article appearing in the Bristol Post about a UK man and his wife Mike and Yvonne Rowland, holed up in a dinky hotel room in Auckland - see HERE

Their main sufferance is watching breakfast TV, presumably having tired of all other activities like having another cup of tea, reading an ebook, or watching the wind blow leaves about their non-existent courtyard.

Mike said the breakfast news here is like a sixth form experiment compared to Good Morning Britain. He added, "It really is desperate. Piers Morgan is a God compared to what we are looking at."

He's right of course - about breakfast news being like a sixth form experiment. 

Most New Zealanders have known this for many years which would explain why so few people have cereals and TV for breakfast nowadays. It does seem like morning TV here, One in particular, can't really make up its mind who its audience is. 

Mike may be a bit generous when saying its pitched for six formers, but his point more generally is that its certainly not intended for grown-ups seeking to be informed, at least one hopes not.

Fortunately for Mike and the rest of us, there's no shortage of radio stations to listen to and thanks to modern gadgets we can tune in to virtually any station any where in the world and hope they are doing a better job than our local channels. 

And then there is always virtual sport, which is the only sport being played at present. 

I am anxiously waiting for virtual fishing, given only people like the Deputy Prime Minister can do it for real nowadays. 

Virtual mountain biking would also be good, so bikers and the Minister of Health can do that without getting dobbed in by their neighbours.

Maybe virtual fishing and virtual mountain biking could screen on breakfast TV? 

The mental well-being of Mike from Bristol may depend on it!

Frank Newman, a writer and investment analyst, is a former local body councillor.

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