Jon McKnight

America's dream comes true

Black people in the United States of America have been called some things in the past 400 years, none of which I will dignify by repeating in this column.

Now, at last, one of them can be called a new name: "Mister President".

Barack Obama's sensational victory is the realisation of the most famous dream of modern times - that of Dr Martin Luther King.

For, as the great man hoped, President Obama has been judged by the content of his character, not the colour of his skin, beautiful though that is.

Anyone who doubts that can reflect on the fact that the vast majority of Americans are white, so President Obama could not have triumphed in an election conducted on ethnic lines. And the size of the victory (at time of writing, 338 electoral votes to 155) confirms it.

With the charisma of Kennedy about him and the hopes of the free world behind him, President Obama has an extraordinary opportunity to change the world.

From everything we've seen during the campaign, he's about to do just that.

This is an historic day, not jut for the USA but for the world. The American Dream has finally come true.

Congratulations, President Obama.

Jon McKnight

Bye-bye, ITV F1… and thanks for nothing!

Whether Lewis Hamilton emerges as World Champion or not after today's Brazilian Grand Prix, the real winners will be those of us who have had no choice but to watch Formula One on ITV.

For when the chequered flag goes down on the winner of today's race, it will also mark the end of a frustrating era in which ITV thought it acceptable to deprive viewers of hours of live race coverage so that it could show them adverts instead.

As regular readers of this column may remember, ITV viewers lost four hours, six minutes and four seconds of live race action last season - the equivalent of more than two-and-a-half entire races!

That statistic - the first to be compiled - was produced by this column during a whole season of sitting in front of the TV with a stopwatch. Hardly fun, but someone needed to do it to expose just how much contempt ITV felt for the fans it was supposedly serving with its F1 coverage.

Miracles do occasionally happen, though, and ours occurred on 20 March this year when, out of the blue, the BBC announced that it had bought the rights to Formula One coverage for next season.

This column's report on it is here and includes a pic of Roger Mosey, the BBC's Director of Sport, who we fans can thank for it.

From next season, we'll be able to watch uninterrupted coverage of a sport in which even hundredths of a second count - something that ITV chose to ignore when it showed us five ad breaks per programme despite the live event continuing unseen by us.

I do hope, though, that the BBC's commentators include at least one former Formula One driver who can, like Martin Brundle, give us a true insight into what might be going through a driver's head as events unfold.

But for now, we should celebrate victory over the ITV spoilsports who've ruined our viewing for years.

Jon McKnight

Author of Sort The Bastards!