Interesting that Joe Offer felt it necessary to give that potted summary for bemused Americans. No one would be likely to feel it necessary to do the same about some thread about the American political squabbles round their electiin, for the sake of puzzled foreigners.

Of course he's right, our media gives more attention to America than it does to most of the UK. But it does illustrate the truism that in some ways, the bigger the country, the smaller the world it lives in. I believe it applies to China even more than to the USA.