Numbers

When reporters asked Berlusconi yesterday whether he'd seen Roberto Benigni rip him to shreds at the Sanremo Song Festival last Tuesday, before an audience of 15 million, our Leader Minimus said, with his habitual smugness, that he was one of the 45 million Italians who hadn't watched the Oscar winner's performance. This may be the only occasion in which Berlusconi has admitted that not watching the usually ever so 'umble state television is a valid, even preferable, option. It would be comforting if he spared the odd thought for the 47 million Italians who didn't vote for Berlusconi in the last elections. Or don''t they count in quite the same way?