No News is Good News.

I woke up thinking of that old saying today.

Ever since the events of 9/11 in New York in 2001, I have had something of an addiction to 24-hour rolling news. I often think I might miss something, if I don’t watch it at least a few times a day. Since Brexit, it has become extremely annoying to watch, especially as during the last five years or so, it has also become apparent that the BBC (the news channel I watch) has definitely been dumbing-down the content, and showing worrying signs of bias on many important issues.

As well as that, actual live news is often replaced by opinion pieces, or the use of so-called ‘experts’ who appear on screen pontificating on some issue of the day. Then there is the heavy focus on certain celebrity stories and sports coverage, as well as the long-term adoration of the British Royal Family, and the hordes of hangers-on who surround them. The result is that on the BBC News 24 dedicated news channel, News is actually just a small part of the output.

When I went away to visit relatives and friends in the south of England last week, I had decided not to watch any television, or to look at sites on my tablet. This meant that for the first time in over seventeen years, I had no idea what was happening in the outside world. I didn’t look at the weather forecast, the local news in Essex or Kent, and paid no attention to what might have been happening in Westminster, or The White House.

Last night, I had a quick look online, in case I had missed a war somewhere, or the collapse of the government in Britain.

So here are the ‘beetleypete headlines’, as far as I can tell.

Boris Johnson is trying to close down parliament to force through his ‘no-deal Brexit’. This has happened in the past over other issues, so for me it is a bit ‘seen it before, so what?’

Some government ministers have resigned in protest. ‘Yawn’.

The Queen didn’t stop Boris. Well, she can’t actually do that. Going to ask her for permission is just ‘being polite’. Britain fought the English Civil War in the 17th century so we didn’t have to ask a monarch what we could do.

Boris Johnson is an arrogant conceited man who doesn’t care about anyone but himself and his rich cronies. Well we already knew that, didn’t we?

Some members of parliament changed parties. That has happened since the first parliaments here, and political turncoats are part of our history.

The ‘peace deal’ with the Taliban has been cancelled. Like that was ever going to work in the first place.

India and Pakistan are squaring up to each other. That has been happening since before I was born.

Hurricane Dorian is causing chaos. Sorry to hear that, and I hope all my friends in the path of it are okay.

The Democrats in America still have no viable opponent to challenge Mr Trump. No change there then.

Iran is being accused of all sorts, and Israel and Hezbollah are on the verge of hostilities. Hardly ‘news’.

Brazil is destroying the Amazon in the lust for mining gold and farming for beef. We should have stopped them a long time ago. It’s probably too late now.

Five days with no news, and that’s all I can come up with. Nothing really changed, and everything that was going on before I left on Tuesday is still going on.

I have to come to the conclusion that I didn’t miss anything at all, and that my obsession with The News has now been purged from my system.