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:: Tuesday, December 05, 2006 ::

Local News Paper Reviews

I had the idea of setting up a blog specifically for reviewing local news papers, but then gave up on it as it seemed like far too much effort. Instead, I think I'll post some random examples here now and again when I can be arsed.

Introduction

In his book Down Under Bill Bryson explains why he likes to buy a local news paper where ever he travels. He thinks the local interest and day to day mundanity are fascinating and can tell you something about a place. I always found this difficult to reconcile with my memories of growing up in Bristol with the Evening Post (colloquially known as the bog roll) dropping turd like through the letter box every evening and spreading its heavily biased opinions on the state of the city, scare mongering stories about youths roaming the streets, and some old ladies stolen tortoise with a Lego wheel in place on one leg. So how does the rest of the country fair?

Western Morning News – 11.11.06

This caught my eye in a petrol station in Worle. The front page story being the long running and bitter dispute about the origins of the pasty that Cornwall and Devon are playing out across the Tamar. The rivalry between these neighbouring counties always fascinates me. It seems like no long established Cornish tradition is safe from Devonian one-up-man-ship. Often on the flimsiest of evidence. And always invoking the ire of the Cornish who are fiercely independent. The debate over Devon's newly designed flag (which when printed in black & white in a local paper looked exactly the same as Cornwall's) was raging when I was holidaying in the two counties in 2003. The pasty story in particular is so good I've scanned it in it's entirety for you [900KB PDF].

:: Dan 5.12.06 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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