Belgian break-up uproar!

A news spoof in Belgium attracted a lot of attention earlier this week. None of it outside Belgium, though.

French-language RTBF broadcast on Wednesday night a report that Flanders had declared independence from Belgium, the country split and the King had done a runner. Unfair comparisons were made with the War of The Worlds broadcast in the US by some commentators.

Apparently, French-speaking Belgium wasn't impressed, and some in Flanders weren't too happy either. Later in the week, politicians were up in arms, right-wing Flanders separatists were excited and the RTBF journalists were being hauled in for meetings.

One thing springs to mind. Someone, somewhere within RTBF must have known this was going to be broadcast and must surely thought about what kind of reaction it would attract. So all this back-tracking sees no sympathy from me.

I would hate to think what the reaction would be if a similar item was run in the UK, say the border checks were being built at the M4 Severn crossing. Well, fact is, it wouldn't happen. There's too much political twitching about the UK split at present.

It would be very funny if someone tried, though...