It seems the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi needs to take revenge on all the British newspapers and the British, which have been relentless in attacking him and revealing his various escapades.
In the latest blow, the newspaper managed by Berlsusconi's brother decided to declare that the Italians have beat the Brits at everything. Now, leaving aside the fact that few of us actually knew there was a competition going on, the claims are rather funny and over the top, as "Il Giornale" tends to do on such matters.
Nevertheless, it places ITALY Magazine, i.e. a publication which straddles both countries, in a rather delicate position and in order to avoid any doubts about where our allegiances lie we should give our own take on the issue.
The Times Online provided a great summary of the arguments used by "Il Giornale" which we present below with our own take. We hope this will help settle things. Are the Italians better than the Brits?
Politics
Britain: Gordon Brown has suffered a collapse; the Labour model is in crisis
Italy: Since the G8 summit, Italy’s authority has grown
ITALY Magazine's take: Politicians should all take a good long holiday, because right now no-one is looking that great. Rather a far-feched claim beyond that.
Economy:
Britain: The City goes bust and the banks fail
Italy: The State has not had to bail out a single bank
ITALY Magazine's take: True, the City took risks and had a bad run. Italian banks are very conservative and anyone who ever tried or owns an Italian bank account knows full well why they can never go bust. The charges they have on any operation at the bank are amongst the highest in Europe. Still, Italians did invent banking... only problem is they haven't made many changes since the Medici.
Fashion
Britain: The gentleman tailors of Savile Row? Little more than a bazaar now
Italy: ‘Made in Italy’ is the world’s leading brand
ITALY Magazine's take: Savile Row a bazaar? All we know is that when you mention London to Italians they have all either been there or want to go because London is cool. Yes, Italy is all about fashion but the British, starting from a huge disadvantage, have made amazing strides and Milan should not rest on its laurels.
Tourism
Britain: Not even the “low-cost” pound attracts tourists
Italy: The whole world loves Italy (and that includes the British)
ITALY Magazine's take: We want the whole world to keep loving Italy, and attacking others and making false or dubious claims about what other's are good at is not going to help.
Industry
Britain: None of the great names is British any more
Italy: The Marchionne Model: Fiat conquers the world
ITALY Magazine's take: Erm, taking over a failed American car maker nobody wanted is hardly conquering the world and last time we checked plenty of Brits are running some of the largest companies of the world so I don't think Italy can come out of this one a winner.
Crime
Britain: The most violent nation in Europe
Italy: Taking a hard line pays dividends in falling crime rates
ITALY Magazine's take: Things are tough all around - we admit that perceptions would indicate that Britain is more violent but then again Italy is the home of the largest organised crime networks in Europe so I don't think Italians should be mentioning crime in any comparison...
Media
Britain: Scandal after scandal has undermined its credibility
Italy: Has been able to steer clear of scandal
ITALY Magazine's take: This said by the newspaper controlled by the same person that controls most of Italy's media. That kind of makes it easy to steer clear of scandal.
Football
Britain: The inventors of the game now pin their hopes on an Italian
Italy: From the mud to the stars: now the champions of the world
ITALY Magazine's take: "CAMPIONI DEL MONDOOOOOOOOO............."
Conclusions
We love Italy (and we make that pretty clear) - we also happen to love the UK. So much so that we made it our task to bridge the two. So all we can say is - these two players are on the same team for us. While it is fun to compare and competition is healthy - let's try not to take it too far, shall we?
