UK's silly knee-jerk reactions

THE DETROIT car repair shop owner shook his head impatiently at the British TV reporter, who'd just asked him, almost incredulously, how America could have elected "a man like Trump" as its 47th president.

"You guys over there in England just don't get it. Sure, we know Trump is a jerk. I knew Trump was a jerk when I voted for him yesterday. But he's OUR jerk. And even jerks can get things done.

"I'm something of a jerk myself.

But I run a great little business here in Detroit." As a neat encapsulation of what's just happened in the US, that random vox pop - a street interview with the common people is hard to beat.