‘Impossible n’est past francais’

We know from Twitter who BBC Director of Strategy and Digital James Purnell and soccer eminence grise is rooting for in the World Cup. His avatar, normally his own physog in shades, has changed to an emblem for the French team. Lord Hall better watch for him sneaking off early for the Nigeria game this afternoon.

Jimmy (Jacques ?) was educated somewhere in France until the age of 14, and this apparently allowed Denis MacShane to call him a clever clogs when he resigned from Gordon Brown's Cabinet in 2009. This from MacShane's Yorkshire Post column at the time....

"Jim Purnell is like the Conservatives' John Redwood. A clever clogs intellectual fizzing with new ideas and as smart as buttons on the seminar circuit. But political bottom and judgment? Hmm. Mr Purnell was educated in France and was trained in the rigorous school of French intellectualism. It does not fit the messy pragmatic rambling nature of British political life where the theatrical gesture is laughed at more than admired".

Jailbird MacShane, nee Matyjaszek, also worked for the BBC, in local radio, for eight years, after collecting a degree from Merton, Oxford, and writing for Cherwell. He was fired in 1976 after being caught ringing in to a Radio London phone-in short of callers, pretending to be an ordinary punter not best pleased with Reginald Maudling. His public use of French includes uttering "Quelle surprise" from the dock when he was convicted of expenses fraud last year.