The first is simple denial. A more sophisticated defence is to suggest that the parallel with reporting the US is a flawed one. The US has a federal system, which means that there is a lot more real politics going on outside the capital. They all had a cathedral with a pedestrianised bit in front of it and a Boots, a WH Smith's and a McDonalds in the high street. She found that if she wanted variety she was better off staying in London.
Most Brits can recognise some truth in that.
But as it happens, Britain is actually a rather large and complicated country. Huge swathes of the population are wholly ignorant of how the other fractions live. Perhaps that is why they get caught out by events like the fuel crisis. I felt a genuine sense of excitement, not all that different from the first time I flew into Singapore or Jakarta. And like any foreign city, it was full of surprises.