Zero Tolerance
I watched an interesting fly on the wall type documentary the other day entitled ‘Tolleranza Zero’ - ‘Zero Tolerance’ (Yes, at times Italian and English are extremely similar).
This program was shown on La7, one of Italy’s public TV channels, and was about, as you might expect, how the Italian police are dealing with crime in and around Milan in Italy.
What came across to me was the high level of professionalism exhibited by the sometimes maligned Italian ‘polizia’. The ‘polizia’ is not the same as the para-military ‘carabinieri’, by the way, although the polizia does have a similar function. For more information on Italy’s many police type bodies, you might like my old post called ‘They Got Guns‘.
Certainly the Milanese polizia appear to be doing their job, and doing it rather well. Indeed, the recent proposals to put soldiers on the streets in Italy appear to be something of a slap in the face for this organisation, which is something of a shame.
Still, politicians who don’t interfere wouldn’t be good politicians, now would they?!
As an aside, the few documentaries which appear on Italian TV, usually far too late in the evening, are, for the most part, very well made.
Yes, Prime Minister
For the uninitiated, which means most of my Italian readers, Yes, Prime Minister was a comedy (as in funny), which appeared on BBC tv in the UK for good few years.
Basically, this wonderful series, which became Yes, Prime Minister ran for a good few years, and can probably be regarded as being British TV as its very best.
A few snippets of these shows are to be found on YouTube, and here is one for your deliction. It’s a famous sketch in which the main British newspapers are summed up. Enjoy:
The thing is, Italy’s horribly sensitive politicians would never let such a scandalous show exist here. Well, I’ve never heard of an Italian equivalent, although I’d love to.
