Culture wars over Essex

Good piece by Gaby Hinsliff in the Guardian today where she argues, "Give me the cheeky Essex that I Iove over a snobby rebrand." She's referring to Essex County Council's new campaign to emphasise the county as the home of Boudicca, the Peasant's Revolt, Michelin-starred restaurants and fine wineries. Which is all very true, but as I argued in my book The Joy of Essex, there will always be two sides to the county, estuary Essex with its East End overspill, and the posher villages and towns to the north. 

Should Essex ditch the Towie image? It's all sparked a (lack of) culture war. The Sun also covered the debate and PR guru Mark Borkowski made the point: "There’s no denying the cultural — and, I’m certain, economic — impact of Towie on Essex’s fame. For me, the ideal campaign would acknowledge these positives, even use them to introduce lesser-known facets of Essex, rather than using Towie as a sacrificial lamb.”

Discerning visitors surely know that Essex isn't completely vajazzles, though that side of the county can't be disinvented. Just as Upminster boy Ian Dury could indulge in clever wordplay yet also start Plaistow Patricia with a barrage of swearwords, high and low culture can mix. The artist Michael Landy had it right in his Welcome To Essex exhibition at Firstsite in Colchester last summer, where he celebrated lowbrow Essex with high art. 

The PR campaign is well-meaning but you can't air-brush out dodgy Essex. As Gaby Hinsliff writes: "My Essex is a pancake-flat, dead ordinary hunk of East Anglia that has ingeniously vajazzled itself up into something much more interesting by leveraging the idea of Essex as a cheeky, sexy, loudly inappropriate cultural and economic phenomenon... How do you reinvent a place that has already reinvented itself in ways no other county would dare? Try it, and the joke’s on you."