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Monday 1 November 2010

Geography lesson

East Midlands Airport has been in the news over the weekend. Where is East Midlands Airport? Based on my sometimes fuzzy grasp of UK geography, I'd say somewhere vaguely between Nottingham and Leicester. I definitely know it's near Donnington Park circuit.

France 2 (France Télévision's, the French public broadcaster, "flagship" channel) news thinks East Midlands Airport is in.... London. Riiiiiight. Even the closest, and northern-most, "London" airport, Stansted, is about 100 miles further south.

The free weekly, 20 Minutes (think Metro) , situated the airport in "le centre" of England. That's close enough for me.

Conclusion:
- France 2 thinks its audience is too intellectually limited to cope with the concept of anywhere in England not being in London
- 20 Minutes credits its readership with a bit more nouse

2 comments:

Brennig said...

Poor geographical knowledge isn't exclusive to foreign news outlets. According to this article in the Telegraph, the M6 Toll Road now runs north-west of Birmingham: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/7971689/Toll-relief-road-has-failed-report-claims.html Oh really?

Anonymous said...

Ouch! My U.K geography is a bit fuzzy but still...

Note that maps on CNN are also sometimes entertaining :-)