Earth to the BBC World News:

The rest of the world doesn’t care that much about Tony Blair stepping down.

I kid you not: This morning on the 8 a.m. BBC World News on Portland’s 88.9 AllClassical.org radio, more than half the bulletin was taken up with British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s announcement he will resign as Prime Minister on June 27. This after he announced he was going to announce his resignation several months ago, and the actual date it will take effect is seven weeks away. It’s not like it causes a change in the ruling party in the British Parliament, and it wasn’t at all unexpected. Please, BBC, stick with your proven formula of telling us how many people were killed yesterday in Iraq, and which African country is suffering the latest turmoil. Recapping ten years of Tony Blair’s life at 10, Downing Street is not particularly interesting to your listeners in the rest of the world, when there are other more pressing current events to tell us about.

My older son reminds me Mr. Blair has been Prime Minister for half his life. But still.