There have been the usual moans about the BBC spending £100,000 on coverage of the Chilean miners.
There have been the usual moans about the BBC spending £100,000 on coverage of the Chilean miners. I suppose the figure includes wages that would have been paid whether the people were in South America or Shepherds Bush, and, if accurate (I suspect the real cost was much more), it strikes me as minuscule — around two-thirds of one penny for every person in the country, an astounding bargain.
There are some events which, in Bagehot’s phrase, ‘rivet’ the world, both in his sense of binding us together and in the more modern usage of being utterly fascinating; 9/11 is the most obvious example. Other, slightly lesser occasions include the release of Nelson Mandela and the Royal Wedding. These become the milestones of our lives, an experience shared with people in every corner of the globe.
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