Peston pins his colours, but not where one might have expected.

[Serial_Apologist]

In tonight's documentary on BBC2 Quelle Catastrophe! France with Robert Peston, he of the eccentric drawn out phrase, drew out various representatives of French small business to argue that France's model of capitalism has failed, and is leading the country to eventual exit from the EU with disastrous economic consequences for us in the UK. Two people, a trade union official (I assumed) and Marine Le Pen, were left to put the counter-arguments.

I had previously held Peston is some respect, sympathetic to his recent complaint of having his views gagged at the BBC on the assumption that he needed to break the neoliberal journalistic consensus currently turning political news reportage from the corporation into license-paid election broadcasts for the Conservatives. For me, the latter was all that this programmed served to confirm.

[Barbirollians]

Well judging by the recent furore which was reported on Radio 4 about economics teaching in universities being censored to fit the neoclassicist orthodoxy it is not surprise . Stephanie Flanders was just as bad - since 2010 the BBC has not once in primetime in my experience put the alternative economic case . Just occasionally a critical economist was allowed to appear on Newsnight but that is it .

The reason is obvious - the BBC is petrified of what the Conservatives will do on charter renewal- they were already outrageously bullied to take over the whole cost of the world service .

10 year charter renewals will no longer do - to safeguard the BBC's independence a much longer period is required

[ardcarp]

I watched (and enjoyed) the programme with a more innocent ear than you, SA. Visiting France frequently (not just as a tourist) I find that most 'ordinary' citizens find that the bureaucracy of the state is a stranglehold on almost everything. The famed welfare system is great in many respects, but as the programme suggested it seems to favour the better-off (and of course the fonctionnaires with their comfortable salaries and unassailable job-security). One only has to wander the streets of (for instance) Narbonne to see a disaffected side. I thought Peston brought out rather well the paradox that the less well off in French society are attracted to both the extreme left and right for similar solutions to their plight.

PS Can you watch with an ear?

[Roehre]

... I thought Peston brought out rather well the paradox that the less well off in French society are attracted to both the extreme left and right for similar solutions to their plight.

bien étonnés de se trouver ensemble

[ardcarp]

oui, vraiment

[Nick Armstrong]

As far as this household is concerned, Peston is permanently resident in the same exclusion zone as Service and Burton-Hill.

[ardcarp]

His mode of speech is a little less erratic than when he first hit the screen...it used to be a bit like sudden projectile vomiting. But maybe we shouldn't confuse the message with the mode of delivery.

[Nick Armstrong]

But maybe we shouldn't confuse the message with the mode of delivery.

I avoid all danger of confusion

[teamsaint]

As far as this household is concerned, Peston is permanently resident in the same exclusion zone as Service and Burton-Hill.

For mine you can add in Nick " the rich pay more than enough tax" Robinson, nicky "what a lovely empire" campbell, jeremy "offensive" vine, and a 5 live Presenter the other day who harangued a perfectly reasonable Moslem spokeswoman off the airwaves in pretty disgraceful manner.
Oh and you can add katie Derham to the list of offenders on offensive remarks too.


In any case, the BBCs business and economics reporting is surely all about the orthodoxies that hold sway at the top?

Lets compare the number of times a day that the FTSE index gets mentioned, compared to, say, rising rents, flat wages, zero hours contracts, housing shortage, etc etc.

Oh look,an early morning rant.

[Dave2002]

I watched, but I didn't draw very strong conclusions, so now perhaps I shall feel bound to watch and view it more critically. As far as I can recollect, there were just a few examples, and these were supposed to generalise to the whole country. In the case of heavy industry, as exemplified by the factories around Hayange, it does seem that France has managed to keep such industries going for longer than the UK, but has now succumbed to global pressure.

We learned that it seems to be OK to have large families in France, and that this will be supported by the state. However, this was by the example of one woman who thought that was OK. There are people like that in the UK too, but such people here would get a lot less support. It would be interesting to know what the overall effects of the different policies in the two countries has on social welfare, and also on population growth.

There were no significant details of health care in France, except that it was claimed to be good, and also expensive, but that this was also unaffordable to the state. No discussion about whether treatements are rationed, or evaluated according to cost effectiveness, and no discussion about whether preventive measures to improve overall health in France are common.

There was mention of a large army of civil servants who arguably do very little, and can't be dismissed for contractual reasons.

It was also briefly mentioned that in the past France had a good tradition of engineering, which led to the development of a power generations and distribution system which is based to a significant extent on nuclear fission, and also that the French railway system is an advanced transport network.

Marie le Pen was portrayed as being less of a political outlier than her father.

On reflection I think we could do with more programmes about other countries like France, and not merely about French cooking or how to go on holiday there or to buy a flat or house there. Many of us know very little about what it's actually like to live in France.

I don't dislike Peston as much as some have declared they do, and I am impressed that he now appears to have overcome some of his earlier problems with speech.

I know less about economics than about other aspects of science. I guess that this was about as technical a discussion on economics with practical examples as the BBC thinks the great British public, with its appetite for Strictly and other purely entertainment programmes such as Top Gear dominating, leading to potentially interesting and serious programmes being produced rarely, and dumbed down when they are, can cope with.

[Dave2002]

Oh look,an early morning rant.

Go on, let it all out. You'll feel better.

We anjoy a good rant round here!

[teamsaint]

Go on, let it all out. You'll feel better.

We anjoy a good rant round here!

Oh,believe me, that was just warming up !!


Re your own thoughtful post Dave, what you say is an appetite for stuff like top gear and Strictly ,may be a chicken and egg job ? Or is it Bread and circuses ?

[Dave2002]

Oh,believe me, that was just warming up !!


Re your own thoughtful post Dave, what you say is an appetite for stuff like top gear and Strictly ,may be a chicken and egg job ? Or is it Bread and circuses ?

Not sure. We live in a democracy, apparently, so collectively we get what we wish for! Or maybe nobody actually gets what they want .... in the lower stratas anyway.

Now I have other things to think about, such as whether to have cereal or toast for breakfast. I look forward to the extension of your rant later in the day. One thing I do agree with you on- I'm not fond of Nick Robinson, though I am sympathetic as he is currently rather ill.

[Richard Tarleton]

drew out various representatives of French small business to argue that France's model of capitalism has failed

I thought the main theme emerging was how French capitalism (and small business, or rather enterprise, along with it, and hence France's chances of economic recovery) was being strangled by French bureaucracy, regulation and excessive welfare provision? And how France's counter-intuitive approach to its current difficulties is also either failing or doomed to failure? I thought Peston fielded a fair cross-section of witnesses, and some of their testimony was quite eye-popping - that of the mother of six (who deserves a , you'd have to watch the programme), the TU official who thought all this regulation a good thing, the magazine bloke with 48 employees (daren't employ another 2 because of the world of pain this would open him up to), the (English) wine-grower in Languedoc (whose business has to compete in a globalised wine market), the book of workplace regulations (getting too heavy, so they made the print smaller), the maternity leave provisions, the bloke who thought the dead steel industry should be/have been nationalised, the socialist peasant pig farmer, the government minister, etc. etc. - not to mention Ms le Pen, and the (English?) journalist from the Economist....

I daresay our individual reactions to this programme say as much about us as they do about the programme but I found it fascinating and informative. I'm no French expert - after a student sojourn in Paris in the mid-60s the most I've done in recent decades is belt through France on the TGV on my way to the Alps or Pyrenees, but a niece is bucking the trend by living and working in Paris.

[ardcarp]

On reflection I think we could do with more programmes about other countries like France

I absolutely agree...loads of them in fact. It's very difficult for the production values of any programme to be dispassionate. But if each programme were dedicated to one main topic (e.g. Education, Health, Culture, Taxes, Transport, Local Government, Industry, Agriculture, Inheritance) and if there were no axes to grind, maybe we would end up with a valid comparison of life Here and in France, Germany or wherever.