Nothing strikes me more the the British addiction to the press. It is indubitably a fantastic aspect of British society. Everyday when I squeeze onto the rush hour tube and it amazes me how many people are either reading a newspaper or flipping through a book. What's more is the amount of information which is entirely free! You can pick up the Evening Standard, a former broadsheet offered for sale, at any time during the day for completely free. You can even pick up the informative Metro, or the tabloids London Lite or London Echo for nothing.
At the bus stop or even in a pub you find papers from all over the commonwealth readily available and free to take home for anyone who cares. The Australian Times, New Zealand Herald, and even the South African Mirror all updated weekly with news from the other side of the world. Newspaper stands sit outside almost every station where amongst the the limited supply of Lucazade and Walker's crisps there is an endless supply of left, right, weekly, daily fortnightly, papers, magazines and satire. Put this all together and you have a populace never short on the information they need to become fully engaged in the policy of the day.
During the Cuban Revolution Che Guevara installed a trend of teaching soldiers to read and building schools before military bases. The belief of literacy to liberate. Our own J.S. Mills put forth that education changes the gin drinking subject to the informed citizen.
The ability to read is fundamental to British liberty!
Kevin Conroy, London
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