“The philosopher A.C. Grayling has complained that the British live in a post-rhetorical culture… that British politicians talk in soundbites, and that we have to look to the US to find the tradition surviving… [Yet] the reasons Barack Obama can do what David Cameron can’t are fairly straightforward. At the risk of perpetuating a stereotype, Brits don’t warm to speakers who sound as if they’re playing trumpet voluntaries to themselves. We are, in our political discourse, sceptical and deflating. In a country with a tradition of pantomime, as the former Blair speechwriter Philip Collins has pointed out, no politician could get away with ‘Yes, we can’. The reply from the other side of the house would be: ‘Oh no we can’t!’”
(Sam Leith in The Guardian)

I would add that the American media is too deferential to politicians by half.  We know they are lying. We know they won’t keep their promises, and we let them get away with it without explanation. Only when you see how the leaders are treated in the British House of Commons can you appreciate what “holding a government to account” really means -and even that is not nearly enough – by far!

People of Epicurean persuasion should not get excited – the whole charade is for the benefit of the 1 per cent.