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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dealer who wrote (15154)	11/12/2000 8:46:33 PM
From: Dealer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 65232

Britons laugh at US vote tangle LONDON, Nov 12 (AFP) - Britain, considered to be the United States' closest ally in Europe, has become one of the countries the most ready to pour scorn and mockery on the degenerating wrangle which has come out of the inconclusive US presidential election. "What's happening is just typically American rubbish -- everything is false," Keith Hern, 42, a salesman, said, summing up the general jeer at the misfortune of the one-time colony. Paul Flivam, a 28-year-old recruitment consultant, for his part questioned the intellectual capacity of Florida's West Palm Beach residents, many of whom have complained that they voted for the wrong candidate because the ballot papers were confusing. "It says a lot about the intellect of the American people. They can't even manage to vote for the person they intended to," he said. Sola De Waal, a 20-year-old student, insisted the elections were not even democratic: "The fact that Bush and Gore are so close, that they are recounting each vote, I think that it is brilliant... it's fairly undemocratic anyway because they have to be rich to be able to go and stand for the presidency." Since the US was plunged into its constitutional crisis, the British press have been echoing similar sentiments. "It's beginning to make the US the world's laughing stock," wrote the popular Daily Mail. People said they were shocked by the cracks which had opened up in the US democratic system. Just as confused as some of the residents of Florida was Suzanne Evangelou, a 55-year-old housewife. "I've never really understood the voting process in the US, but it does sound very complicated. They could do a little bit of a reform in some way," she said. Alecos Ethelontis, a 30-year-old accountant, expressed consternation at the US system: "It is very strange that you could win an election without the majority of people voting for you," he said. "If they don't get a president very soon, people are going to start asking questions. It's going to be a very weak presidency," he added. Britons also seem to have a unanimously negative opinion of the US television networks' famously impudent rush to broadcast election results, even though the ballot results were uncertain. In Britain, exit poll results traditionally only go out after all polling stations have closed, although it has to be noted the country does not have to contend with different time zones, as is the case in the United States. "In the UK, they wouldn't go out until the very last minute, so I think that the US media have a lot to do," said Antonia Hislop, 26.