This post is bound to cause some consternation amongst those from across the duck pond of the Atlantic, so my apologies in advance. But what the heck, let’s blame George Bush.

My friend from Colorado has informed me that Americans have realised that their reputation isn’t exactly at its peak right now. She’s also told me that Americans have realised that George Bush, as the figurehead of American culture, is to blame for the international disillusionment towards them.

But I had to suggest that some Americans don’t exactly help themselves…

On a Greyhound bus from Vegas to Denver this time last year, our bus driver commenced our 14 hour journey with the ground breaking announcement that:

“There will be a number of stops on this trip, beginning with the first stop.”

Damn, I didn’t want to go to the First Stop; I must be on the wrong bus.

A day or so later in Denver I picked up a bottle of ‘Suave’ shampoo, the blurb on the back of the bottle confidently stated:

“Get better results from Suave shampoo for less than more expensive brands!”

A rather bold statement I thought. I hope their market researchers did their jobs correctly and confirmed that Suave did indeed cost less than the more expensive brands.

The year previously, as I had joined a seething mass of hundreds of people lining London’s Oxford Street in the chance of meeting German Rock band Rammstein, an American tourist trotted across the road and looked up and down the line of people and demanded:

“Oh my God, are you guys, like, queuing for something?”

Goodness me, no! We’re British; we just like to stand in a line for our own unadulterated entertainment.

It’s not that Americans are stupid; to generalise a nation of millions would be idiotic. It’s just that some of them, a select few, have this fantastic ability to make themselves appear so unbelievably dim, and I’m not entirely sure we can blame George Bush for that. Although I’m sure they’d have a damn good go at it.