I'd been living in the US for a good 15 years, when I got a chance to move to the UK, where I am living now. I experienced an extreme change of perspective, even though both nations share the same language.
Newspapers do not talk about the same things -- and when they do talk about the same things, they do not refer to them in the same way. Most of the news is local or national -- Brits don't pay much more attention to US politics than USAians do to British politics.
It's almost as if the two cultures and politico/economic systems were entirely unrelated.... which clearly they are not. It's almost as if the two cultures were not paying much attention to one another. I find this somewhat disturbing.
Then again, why should Glasgow be interested in Chicago?