Category Archives: eu constitution

Fear and loathing on a Marred Sunday morning

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I wasn’t one of those impressed by Andrew Marr’s question about Gordon and drugs last week. The tone was gentle, and when Gordon replied incoherently “neagh” to the question, and went on immediately to talk about his eyesight instead, Marr did not bring him back to the point.

Cameron, meanwhile, was continually attacked by Marr in the segments of today’s interview that I have seen. Cameron was accused of misleading people even when he began to itemize his assets and their relative worth to him. This was Marr’s “personal question”, and contra his attitude to Brown he was a rottweiller who wasn’t giving up his locked jaws around Cameron’s ankle.

Worse though was Marr’s haranguing over the potential cuts the Tories might make in Government. He utterly ignored the imperative question of the deficit. He hemmed the question in to the narrow one of which of his statist fellows Cameron was going to sack. He didn’t even admit the question of the jobs that would be lost by higher interest rates, raised taxes or the other ills that may follow from failure to rein in the deficit caused by out of control public spending. “but you can’t!”, exploded Marr, “you can’t possibly avoid job losses!!!” Marr almost combusted.

Then there was Europe, where Marr quite brazenly affected not to understand the Cameron positon. It’s quite clear if you bother to inform yourself about the unfinished business in the Czech Republic and Poland. It’s also clear that we, the UK, have ratified the treaty, thanks to the broken promise of the Labour Government. When it becomes law throughout the EU it becomes law here. That will be a different position to work from, should it happen. Marr made out that it was inevitable, to create a straw man argument with which to make Cameron look evasive. It’s far from inevitable as Vaclav Klaus basically will have the last say, and st. Vaclav is a sceptic.

But the BBC have been busy bunnies, for those who assume that the Treaty is all but passed- they are trying to imply double standards from Cameron as he is said to have written to Klaus to make clear that he favours a UK referendum. The BBC have been beavering around trying to find dissonant voices on the eve of the Conservative conference. It’s a hatchet job alright- it’s absolutely clear the BBC have been using their media muscle to winkle out as much scandal as they can with which to spoil the coming conference.

As for Marr- the browbeating he delivered against Cameron was extraordinary. Again and again, right to the end, Marr swung ironic swipes at Cameron’s latest pledge to be direct with the public. Do you recall anything like that concerning Tony Blair’s infamous (because monumentally, historically provably hollow) “pretty straight sort of guy”? Me neither. There is clearly a kind of loathing in Marr’s heart against the Conservatives. He is a shocking ideological roadblock on the Sunday morning BBC schedule.

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Ireland Referendum Update

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Further to David’s post, this from Guido Fawkes :

When the result came in yesterday Mark Mardell looked shocked and sounded exasperated. The BBC has continually been running this line in its reporting of Ireland’s historic vote on the Lisbon Treaty:

“Just over three million Irish voters are registered – in a European Union of 490 million people.”

The implication is clear. Those beastly Paddies are depriving everyone else in Europe of the benefits of the Lisbon Treaty. They want to convey the image of a minority running rough shod over every one else. The BBC fails to mention that Ireland is not depriving Europeans of their say. It is the only member state which gave its people a say on the matter. It is the other member states who are depriving their people of a say lest they give the wrong answer.

There’s more – read the whole thing.

UPDATE – from a Guido commenter :

BBC reporting yesterday was a disgrace. They continued to say that turnout was 45% even after the official result was declared (the actual turnout was 53.13%, “a significant improvement on past referendums” – LT). Either wilful distortion or BBC hack too thick to look up the official referendum website.

UPDATE2 – On Any Answers Eddie Mair read out a letter arguing that the low turnour of only 40% compromised the authority of the vote. Mair, out of bias or (more likely IMHO) ignorance, failed to point out the correct turnout. These people just aren’t up to the job.

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IRELAND SAYS NO!

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Well now – what a turn up. The Irish have refused to be led by the nose and follow the advice of all the main political parties, big business and trade unions, and said NO to the Lisbon Treaty. The BBC coverage on this should be most interesting – just listen to the tonality of it (as the late unlamented Hillhunt would have suggested). I was reading Mark Mardell’s take on it here which is lamentable in terms of asking the hard questions about the serial failure of the Eurocrats to seLl their lousy Constitution to the people of Europe. Instead Mark seems more interested in considering how a way can be found to get around this awkward business of democracy. I predict the BBC will be in mourning with grim faced news-readers breaking the news but they will try to gain encouragement from Mr Broon’s claim that he plans to go ahead and force it through Parliament.

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