IN THE STEPS OF ST BONIFACE
The media: Paul Johnson
believes a new Europe is waiting to be covered
LAST weekend I spent in Bavaria, listen- ing to music and keeping a desultory eye on the European elections. The thought occurred to me that, in a decade or so, the British media will be covering such elec- tions as a European phenomenon, rather than a national one. Should this surprise us? After all, it is not so long ago that British newspaper readers were more in- terested in the local contest, held in their county or borough, than in the national results. The overall result of the 1818 election, for instance, fought in the early summer, could not be calculated until the autumn, or indeed until certain key Com- mons divisions in the following year. It aroused no strong feelings either way. Locally, however, it was a different matter. In Westmorland, where there had been no contest since 1774, Henry Brougham un- leashed tremendous passions by challen- ging the dominant interest of the Lowth- ers, Earls of Lonsdale. John Keats, travell- ing through, was amazed at the hubbub and consternated to find that his fellow- bard William Wordsworth was organising the Lowthers' media campaign. He should not have been surprised. Wordsworth had family reasons for backing the Lowthers, but in any case he, like other poets associated with the Lakes, such as Southey and Coleridge, was bound to side against Brougham as a leading spirit of the Edin- burgh Review, which they hated. Words- worth, pouring out anti-Brougham propa- ganda, found difficulty in getting it pub- lished in the local rag, the Westmorland Advertiser & Kendal Chronicle, and after exploring the possibility of buying up its shares, got the Lowthers to finance a new paper, the Westmorland Gazette. Words- worth brought in as its editor 'my particu- lar friend', Thomas de Quincey, though as he confessed to the Earl of Lonsdale, he had doubts about him 'on the score of punctuality'. De Quincey was delighted to be paid a guinea a week 'to oppose the infamous levelling doctrines diffused by Mr Brougham' and a great time was had by all. In the excitement of Brougham's defeat, no one seems to have cared a damn about the national results.
It was the Great Reform Bill which first
gave substance to the notion of general election 'victories' and 'defeats' on a national scale, and so revolutionised the way the British saw voting. I suspect we are beginning a similar period of transforma- tion, the change from national to Euro- pean politics. Neil Kinnock, I see, is across the Channel this week, beating the socialist drum, but not many British papers are covering the European elections from a continental angle. Yet there is much of interest. We were in Passau to attend a magnificent and moving performance of Brahms's German Requiem in the Jesuit church there, and took a late train on to Regensburg, or Ratisbon as I like to call it. At breakfast the following morning we found ourselves at the next table to Otto von Habsburg, the local Euro-candidate. Various ladies curtsied in his direction and some of the fellows addressed him as `Imperial Highness'. I have been interested in this elderly gentleman since he played an agile part in the exotic scrimmage pro- voked by the Revd Ian Paisley's raucous denunciation of the Pope's visit to the European parliament — a reassuring sign, to my mind, that the spirit of the Counter- Reformation was not quite dead.
After breakfast, the last of the Habs- burgs, and ourselves attended a solemn high mass in the tremendous 14th-century cathedral. This was quite an occasion. Ratisbon was in a sense the capital of the old Holy Roman Empire, which consti- tutes the historical and emotional core of the European Community, and still has a majestic taste in ceremonial. The church was packed and expectant. The choir, which prides itself on its massed trebles, with their scarlet cassocks and blond locks 'This is for all the girls — it's called "I'm marrying your baby".' — they are known as 'the Cathedral Sparrows' — is one of the best in Europe. Reinforced by trombones, horns, trumpets and tubas, it filled the high nave with a noble sound. There were young people raising the banners of the pan-European movement. His Imperial Highness sat in a special place in the canonical stalls, as I suppose his forebears did when they were Holy Roman Emperors. Mass was cele- brated by three bishops, with numerous other clerics assisting, and one of the bishops preached a vigorous and by no means attenuated sermon telling the con- gregation what to do about the elections. Afterwards there was a more specific political rally at a nearby cinema. It was all hugely enjoyable, as well as edifying, and certainly more colourful than our own grey, low-key campaign.
How long will it be before we have British television crews roaming Europe for such episodes as part of the routine coverage of European elections? It may come much sooner than we think, as the speed at which Britain becomes enmeshed in European law accelerates and the over- all composition of the European parlia- ment begins to matter to us. There is nothing new in Europeans interfering in our affairs or vice versa. The great mass I attended was to mark the feast-day of St Boniface (680-754), born Wynfrith at Cre- diton in Devon, who founded the church in Ratisbon, brought Christianity to Bavaria and is known as 'the Apostle of Germany', being more revered today in those parts than he is here, I am sorry to say. The work of St Boniface is a reminder we have nothing to fear from greater integration provided we have ideas and faith to impart, as well as receive. Mrs Thatcher might note this; so should the media.
At present British newspapers and tele- vision cover Europe in broadly the same way as they cover the rest of the world. True, the Financial Times has a continental edition, now solidly established. There is also the Guardian International, printed in Frankfurt and Marseille. In Munich, ear- lier this week, I was able to buy these two, plus the Wall Street Journal and the Inter- national Herald Tribune, first thing, so that for English-language breakfast reading I had a choice of four quality papers, all admirable. But there is no sign of a replacement for the old Continental Daily Mail, which fell by the wayside some years ago. Robert Maxwell's European has proved abortive so far. Nor have editors, proprietors or television tycoons begun seriously to think in European terms; we are still at the stage of genuflections and gestures. Yet on the Continent there is clearly a new scene, of growing importance to us, to be covered, and a new audience to be captured. The first media pioneer to discover how to do both will become as significant, in his own way, as St Boniface — and reap a fortune instead of a martyr's crown.
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