The first cuckoo?

It would be hard for me to get by without Radio 4. Apart from real ale, it was the only good reason for not emigrating. Now that it’s easy to listen to Radio 4 almost anywhere in the world, the beer is the one thing worth staying in England for.

Obviously, it isn’t perfect. The Archers, about three-quarters of the ‘comedies’, Any Questions, Paul Gambiccini . . .

But such horrors are outnumbered by its riches; In Our Time, Document, Ed Reardon’s Week, FOOC, The Long View . . . Not to mention Charlotte Green.

It is rare that Today can be counted among the riches.

But this morning I heard a couple of items about the Eurozone crisis that had me swooning with joyful amazement. Firstly there was Steve Evans, the Berlin correspondent, commenting on German disillusionment with the Euro. Such expressions as ‘increasing disenchantment’ and ‘hardening of attitudes’ passed his lips.

That however, was only a taster, an hors d’oeuvre.

The main course, replete with the Delius moment, came when Jim Naughtie was compelled by some sadistic BBC editor to interview a French politician who was advocating the break-up of the Eurozone.

Poor Naughtie. It was a certainly a cruel and unusual punishment. He was in a dreadful fix. His normal tone for speaking to somebody who says anything the merest hint EUsceptic has a ‘this fellow belongs in a funny farm’ sort of ring to it. This morning he sounded rather like the master of ceremonies at a wake that had turned inexplicably sour.

I had never previously heard of Jacques Myard, the man he was interviewing. It seems he is a member of the National Assembly, and a senior member of the UMP, Sarkozy’s party. He was one of the chief advocates of the recent French ban on wearing the burqa in public. So he is clearly a man of some influence in France.

Throughout his interview he used the standard EU advocate’s sleight of saying ‘Europe’ whenever he referred to the EU. So much, so shameless, so EU-fanatic; obviously Naughtie let him get away with it. But that only helped to emphasise just how shocking it was to hear an unashamed champion of that miserable construct speaking truth about the Euro in public.

Myard has come to the view that the Eurozone should be broken up.  Among other things, he said that: ‘the Euro was created as a political aim, people in here (that is, France) have rather supported this Euro which has been presented as Europe itself. But we know that it doesn’t work you know . . .’ He went on: ‘people today have not realised, even in the political classes, that the Euro is going to shatter Europe, is going to put Europe into danger . . . (that is) . . . a feeling which will grow in the coming days, in the coming weeks, ahead of us . . .’

There is nothing especially perceptive about Myard’s observations. On the contrary, they are blindingly obvious to any thinking person. What is new is to hear such truths spoken by an unashamed member of the EU’s political elite.

As the poet didn’t quite put it: ‘Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, but to hear Naughtie’s tragic tones was very heaven!’