QUEL PLONQUER!

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Yesterday's Broadcasting House afforded an amusing glimpse into the Europhile mindset of a bog-standard BBC interviewer. Paddy O'Connell was in Brussels, spending some quality time with Dan Hannan.
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Paddy was asking whether there was anything he liked about the city, at which Dan launched into an impassioned paean to Flanders "which has produced for me the greatest art and portraiture in the corpus of human achievement".
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This left our Beeboid at a loss for words: "I'm a bit surprised. I...I..thought...I...maybe I thought...er...er...you wouldn't tell me that."
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Why not? Does Paddy think all Eurosceptics are knuckle-dragging xenophobes? Probably.
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Dan responded "Like I say all Eurosceptics are terribly European. I read French novels, German philosophy and listen to Italian music, which is why it's sometimes a bit irksome to be told that we're xenophobes by people who would struggle with a French menu."
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Full marks for Paddy O'Connell for keeping what followed in - and which rather proved Dan Hannan's point. Paddy began asking people if they were Belgian and, if so, what they thought of the new EU president, Mr van Rumpuy. He was getting some confused responses, including the odd 'Pardon?'. After about four goes, Dan informed him he was asking not 'Are you Belgian?' but 'Are you Belgium?' (Paddy also used the joke-phrase 'the grand fromage' when asking one of the Belgiums a question!! Jeez.)