The Village Cycle: how political news changes when it speeds up

Danny Boyle might have shown it thus at the Olympic Opening Ceremony in one of his nostalgic tableaux of British history: A delivery boy in hobnail boots wobbles over the village green on a heavy framed bicycle, laden down with sacks of newspapers balanced precariously on his handle-bars. Citizens in tartan dressing gowns clutching mugs of tea lean down to their door mats to retrieve their copy of the The Times with headlines about the main changes in Her Majesty’s Government’s following the previous day’s reshuffle.