I managed to get through last night’s lamentable BBC2 How Euro Are You? programme, but only just, and what a dreadful waste of time it was, except as fodder for this blog.
As usual for the BBC, the term ‘Europe’ was used throughout instead of ‘EU’, nicely conflating two quite separate concepts – one a continent, the other a political organisation. The show was presented by Andrew Marr, a serious reporter, and Dara O’Briain, apparently a comedian.
It’s a pity that Marr and No’Brain got their roles mixed up – Marr clearly ended up as a comedian for getting involved with such tosh, whereas No’Brain was seriously unfunny throughout – especially with his numerous smart-alecky slots supposedly debunking ‘tabloid myths’ about Europe. He did however serve as a useful reminder about, though it wasn’t mentioned in the show, just how well Ireland has done out of the EU – even though comparatively rich these days, the Irish got the most per capita out of the EU15 in 2004.
Near the beginning of the show Marr proudly announced:
Marr: “We’ve got a panel who hold very different views on this subject, now, quite deliberately, because you hear politicians banging out about all of this all the time it is going to be a politician free zone”
…and then went on to introduce various contributors, including one Julia Gash, introduced in the following exchange:
Marr: “Julia Gash, you’ve got a lingerie company, and you trade, er, or you used to trade a great deal inside the rest of the EU. What do you feel about the Euro? Is it something that really helps you, does Europe help you as a businesswoman?”
Gash: “Absolutely, if I’m going to be buying collections in say, from Paris, I want to know what that’s going to cost when they actually go on sale in my shop, and I want to know it’s gonna be the same price throughout seasons. With the fluctuations in the exchange rate you can’t do that, except all the countries within the European Union who have the Euro can, which is why they don’t come to Britain to buy any more. So, having run an export led business, recognising how harmful it was for us not to have the Euro, I now recognise how good it would be for business, it’s just making it easy, making trade simpler, and trade at the end of the day is what made Britain great”.
Marr then introduced Bridget Rosewell, who does know about business and economics, and asked her:
Marr: “Isn’t what Julia said, about the practical business case for the Euro almost unanswerable?”
Rosewell: “The business case for the Euro, ‘would we all like to trade in one currency?’ is fine, but it might as well be the Dollar or the Chinese currency and so on. We’re an international completely global city and a global country, so I don’t think it’s about the Euro, and I think the big issue, I used to be very pro-Euro, pro-EU, and all the rest of it, I think Europe’s great, but the EU stinks”.
Marr: “Julia?”
Gash: “No, over 50 percent of our exports goes to Europe, so it makes sense, if you are going to have an international currency, we are working in a global marketplace, so we need these big currencies to actually trade effectively, it makes sense for it to be the Euro, we’re more aligned with the economies than any other country, I mean, I live in Sheffield, and the Yorkshire economy will be very different say to that in Kent or Cornwall, but actually, as a whole, we’re more similar say to Italy or France, despite the differences that do exist”
Marr: “Okay, well a big range of opinion, we’re going to hear a lot more from all of you later on…”.
As you can see, Gash had a lot to say about Europe and the EU, and Marr gave her plenty of time say it, unlike Rosewell, who barely got started laying in to the EU before Marr was back to Julia for a nonsensical John Prescott style rebuttal from her. It’s a pity he didn’t follow up Rosewell’s point quite so assiduously – e.g. “So Bridget, why does the EU stink?”!
What we weren’t told, though the BBC are very well aware of it, having had Gash on before, is that she’s a big-time Liberal Democrat activist and wannabe-MEP! So much for Marr’s “politician free zone”! The other thing we weren’t told is that Gash’s lingerie business, that which qualifies her to speak as the voice of business, amounts to a supposedly upmarket sex shop and an accompanying website (beware dodgy pictures)! One of the times I recall seeing Gash on the BBC before was on BBC LDN (as their London regional programme pretentiously styled itself then), at a second Gash store, in a puff-piece on London’s “first permanent Eurozone” in Kingly Court, near Carnaby Street – which was also featured on BBC News Online, where Gash gushed:
Now that 10 more countries will be joining Europe on 1 May, there’ll be lots more tourists who will be coming to London with Euros in their pockets.
Strangely though, the London store is no longer listed in the phone book, nor does it appear on Gash’s website or in the Carnaby.co.uk map of the area (Kingly Court, 2.3). Perhaps London’s ‘first permanent eurozone’ wasn’t quite the success it was supposed to be for Gash.
Unlike the BBC though, Gash’s profile on her own web site is honest about her background:
Julia Gash, 41, is the founder and designer of Gash lifestyle brand. Originally from Nottingham, she studied in London and Brighton before moving to Sheffield in 1990 where she still lives. She is also involved in British and European politics and is well known for her pro European and liberal views. She represented the Liberal Democrats in the European Elections in June 2004.
Julia writes a monthly column in Exposed Magazine (see Advice from the Gash Girls) and has a weekly phone-in radio show called Sunday Night Sex on Hallam FM.
Eve Magazine has rated her as one of the world’s top sex and relationship experts and Cosmopolitan (May 2004) gave Julia a “sex salute” in recognition of “her services to womankind”
– even if the photo looks more like “Julia Gash, 27”, rather than 41!
There’s so much more that could be written here about the BBC’s EUseless How Euro are you?, but life’s too short, both for reader and writer! For more on the programme see EU Referendum’s In the gutter.
 |
 |
|
|
tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? |
||
Watch How EUseless Are You? online here: Low-res./Hi-res.
Update: The excellent EU Referendum has followed up on this again.
Okay Joerg, sorry for being a talkboard Nanny. Yes, you’re right, the BBC wouldn’t run this story although I am sure they are secretly quite glad to hear of it.
No problem, Susan. I appreciate it. I just think those who regularly contribute here are mainly proud Brits who won’t stand for having their national flag taken from them. Remember that there’s more than one cross on the Union Jack so that one’s probably to go next.
“Now that 10 more countries will be joining Europe…”
speaking of conflation, which countries are/were they, and were they none of them already in europe? (as opposed to the EU)?
ah, well, if technological advances are all that is required to be above reproach, on balance at least, then why aren’t the beeb forever singing the praises of the US?
or is that a dumb, newbie question?
Goog stuff here:
http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/bbcresistance_com/
Refreshing to have some activists; and not just many commentators.
Who was this EU program made for? The audience figures will show that hardly anyone watched it. It was yet more vanity publishishing by politically motivated BBC staff. Why can’t these people realise that the only reason the licence fee has the support it has is because of rubbish like Eastenders and Casualty, not because of the BBC’s tiresome efforts at pushing propaganda at us?
What you mean Ken is:
http://www.tvlicensing.biz
– a great site for those who wish to take the ‘conscientious objection’ route. It’s been running for a few years, and was inspired by the journalist Jonathan Miller, who, along with others, is bogged down in ongoing legal action with the BBC’s boot boys, all of which are proceeding with all the usual vigour of the law (i.e. not much at all).
Well worth a visit.
Who’d have thought it?
On the Yesterday programme this morning, St James of smug tries to attack David Davis on his support for the family.
Just think about it, a commentator seeing a politician’s support for the family as a weak spot.
What have we come to?
Do I want to live here any more?
BBC website this morning:-
“The door-to-door search for Hurricane Katrina victims has ended in the American state of Louisiana.
Officials said the final death toll was 972 – substantially smaller than the 10,000 victims some feared.”
Now who was that “some” of “some feared”, I wonder? Or should it be “some hoped” when applied to the BBC’s view?
I still haven’t had a visit from the lovely “TV detector” man/woman. At this rate, we’ll have moved into next years Licence period.
Oh well…..
Eamonn,
you beat me to it! I had just read that article and the same thought went through my mind.
A lingerie company called Gash? Eeeuww!
Grimer
Keep quiet and you’ll be waiting a long time for a visit. It’s six years for me now.
Lizzie
> A lingerie company called Gash? Eeeuww!< Yes a few commenters above raised their digital eyebrows over this screamer. I still suspect it's not her real name and she's taking the wee-wee. In fact she probably bottles it after she's taken it and sells it in her sex shops. If that's the case she should have called herself Connie Linctus.
No License for 20 years, one conviction resulting in a fine of £40.
Excellent fisking, Andrew. Is this a good moment to revisit the question of the BBC borrowing millions from the European Investment Bank ? The EIB is a bank set up by the EU with taxpayers’ money to lend money on a non-profit basis to institutions which promote further integration. As the BBC acknowledge in their accounts:
“The European Investment Bank has made a loan facility available to BBC Commercial Holdings
Limited for an amount of £25million.This loan is repayable in one single instalment by November
2007. £25million was drawn under this facility at 31 March 2005 (2004 £25million).The interest
rate applicable on the facility is determined with reference to the European Investment Bank’s own
funding cost and carries no margin above this funding rate.”
So the BBC has borrowed millions from the EIB at cost for the express purpose of promoting European integration. Why this hasn’t been a bigger scandal is beyond me.
What is it with all you folks and Julias name? Would some kind soul explain this recurring theme and its relationship to her lingerie buisness.
David H
Great comment! What a revelation. Wow! Why has the other MSM gotten on to this, I wonder. Any other media entities on the list of beneficiaries of this bank’s largesse?
sorry should have been ‘not gotten on to this’
Joerg & “British mull discarding flag to avoid offending Muslims”
BBC have story in West Yorkshire (story relates to Wakefield jail)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/4305798.stm
This EIB thing that David H mentions is worth further scrutiny by someone who knows about such matters.
According to the “About” page for the EIB, “The task of the European Investment Bank, the European Union’s financing institution, is to contribute towards the integration, balanced development and economic and social cohesion of the Member Countries.”
I think that supporters of the EIB loan to the BBC would argue that this sense of “promoting integration” means something different to propagandizing for integration.
But when a media organisation accepts a loan from an institution that lends money in order to contribute towards the integration of the member countries, it’s hard to argue that that media organisation is maintaining its neutrality on whether integration of the member countries is a good thing.
What is it with all you folks and Julias name? Would some kind soul explain this recurring theme and its relationship to her lingerie buisness.
It’s a vulgar slang term for a certain part of the feminine anatomy.
Virgina Water
Surrey if the coarse ribaldry offends. It’s really Julia’s fault.
This calls for Haiku!
Julia Gash
Will liberals ban pants?
Autumn in the EU.
http://www.edirectory.co.uk/gash/pages/moreinfog.asp?pe=BFHDGEDQ_+williams+london+england+pants&cid=993
“The door-to-door search for Hurricane Katrina victims has ended in the American state of Louisiana.
Officials said the final death toll was 972 – substantially smaller than the 10,000 victims some feared.”
Or should that be hoped? In case anybody’s interested the city is practically dry, residents are returning in droves, line men are working on restoring power and churches and schools are reopening – along with businesses. Did any of this get into the BBC’s coverage??
TomL
I noticed a banner ad for The Vagina Monologues on her site above the undies ad.
Heh.
Susan
That’s not what she was talking through on Marr’s Euroquiz – though it wasn’t too far away from it.
Old joke time:
An Essex girl asks a navvy in the pub “Oi, why’ve you got L&R on your wellies?”, “Dat’s soes I knows which way round dey goes” he replies. “Oh,”, she says, “I’ve just figured out why my knickers ‘ave C&A on ’em”! 🙂
Enough!
And I always thought C&A stood for Coats & ‘Ats.
🙂