Distraction Tactics

The economy is screwed, tens of thousands more public service workers will be sacrificed to the Great God Deficit and international capitalism seems to be on its last legs - but don't worry, here are some pictures of those cute pandas arriving in Scotland. That's certainly the way it felt on Sunday if you tried watching any news programme. On the news channels, any story, no matter how important, was being constantly interrupted by newsflashes taking us to Panda-related press conferences. Now, I really don't have much interest in the sex problems of pandas at the best of times, (any species which is apparently so disinterested in breeding surely deserves extinction), but when we're in the middle of a global financial crisis and are being told that in the UK we're facing a decade of economic stagnation, I really couldn't give a fuck, (neither can they, apparently).

I would have hoped that our media would have become a bit more sophisticated in its distraction tactics by now. I'm also insulted that they think a couple of bloody pandas are enough to divert my attention from Osborne's economic mismanagement of this country. But of course, the Panda story could only provide a temporary smokescreen for the government and by Monday economics were dominating the headlines again. So, what next to try and distract us while 'Gorgeous' George tries to perform more financial sleight of hand? Can we look forward to the BBC showing us pictures of fluffy bunnies, in the hope that whilst we're all entranced by the floppy-eared furry creatures we won't notice Osborne picking our pockets to further bolster the bank accounts of his wealthy Tory friends? They must think we're stupid - but then again, we did allow this shambles of a coalition seize power...