Sarah Sands
Precious Mysteries
26 September –
8 October 2017
Closed 2 OctoberFine Jewellery and
Contemporary Silver
goldsmithsfair.co.uk
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ext month, the Today programme
marks its 60th anniversary, so I
have been mugging up on the archives.
If there is a lasting characteristic, I
reckon it is curiosity about how the
world works. After four months in this
job, my sense of wonder is undimmed
that global experts on everything from
nuclear warheads to rare plants can
be conjured on to the show. Political
debate is at the heart of Today, but it
is knowledge rather than opinion that
I prize most, and even the most avid
political interviewers have a hinterland.
They also understand the cumulative
effect of unsocial working hours. The
great Sue MacGregor, who is chairing
a reunion of Today old hands as part of
our anniversary programme, reminds
me that she once fell asleep while
interviewing Michael Heseltine.
I
recite the Reithian principles of
educating, informing and entertaining
like morning prayer. I didn’t go to one
of the grand universities that can no
longer appear on CVs at the BBC, and so
regard Today as a news version of Open
University, an educational utopia. Some
commentators have objected to the 30
seconds we devote each day to a puzzle,
set by GCHQ and other brainboxes. It
is there to celebrate mathematics and
to remind us that problem-solving and
decoding run deep in the nation’s past and
its future. A tech entrepreneur told me it
has become the perfect start to her day.
T
here has also been grumbling that
science, arts and culture feature more
in the programme than they used to. I
refer back to our origins. The late Robin
Day, who conceived it, was steeped in
politics, but one of his first ideas was for
a daily item on an arts first night. Coming
from newspapers, I find it natural to mix
subjects. A New York Times journalist
asked me just before I started whether all
its listeners were in hospitals or prisons,
because those subjects always led its
news. A daily show must be familiar
but not predictable. Real news needs to
advance and expand our knowledge.
T
he team teases me for having a
fondness for ambassadors, but the
best provide the kind of enlightened
conversation that our listeners appreciate.
Some come with large entourages, others,
such as the Norwegian ambassador to
London, Mona Juul, slip into the studio
alone. The hefty entourages tend to come
with business folk or with Jonathan Sacks
for Thought for the Day, two very different
types of security needs.S
o far as domestic politicians are
concerned, I understand that the
former chancellor George Osborne
always used to bring the biggest crowd,
a detail which plays to his recent Don
Corleone image. Incidentally, a former
cabinet member, possibly unversed in US
jail culture, takes issue with Osborne’sdescription of Theresa May as a dead
woman walking on both political and
literal grounds: ‘If she is walking, she
can’t be dead.’O
n Brexit bias, tone has become
almost as important as argument.
I notice that cheerfulness can grate on
some, who regard it as political comment.
When the Australian high commissioner
asked on the Today programme why
Brits were so gloomy, it was categorised
as an anti-Remain intervention. It is true
that whoever came up with the word
‘Remoaners’ delivered a lasting blow.
The Brexiteers own optimism just as
Remainers claim reason.I
want to try to tell the story of Brexit
through concrete examples rather
than positions. We looked at the fashion
industry the other day and the designer
Patrick Grant made a simple case. When
he is making a suit, he imports parts
from different countries. He can order
a zip from Italy overnight. If he deals
with America, he has to fill in a great
pile of forms. He dreads the additional
regulation. Boris Johnson wrote in his
4,000-word article that was meant to
have been a speech (journalists so hate
wasting material) that leaving the EU
would lessen regulation. Can he explain
to Patrick how?W
e are all trying to figure out China
and our relationship to it. A friend
in the arts world who spends much time
there, shrugs that it is ducks and drakes.
He says there is less worry in Beijing
about the military capabilities of North
Korea than of triggering a humanitarian
crisis, with refugees pouring into China.
Meanwhile, Chinese leaders are fearful
of a ravenous capitalist appetite among
the young. They believe materialism
will lead to spiritual impoverishment.
So the government is commissioning
art and music ventures on a grand scale
to restore a hinterland among their
population. Imagine it happening here.T
he Civil Service, like the BBC,
is looking for a workforce that
represents equality of opportunity.
Having examined age, race, gender and
class, they are keen to search out invisible
anomalies. I am told they have introverts
next in their sights. Presumably one of
the less vocal lobby groups.