I love the BBC. I cannot, nor would I wish to, imagine Britain without it.
But today, and not for the first time, the BBC is a liar, endlessly replaying half a
clip of David Cameron in order to distort the meaning of the reply
(which in any case is not his job) by Ed Miliband. This was all corrected within an hour by Douglas Alexander on The World at One. But do not try and tell the Beeb that.
Anyway, as I have already explained today, there is no need for a referendum. As much as anything else, it would only deliver a Yes vote. What is needed is legislation. But a referendum would unite the Left like nothing since, well, I am not entirely sure what, exactly. Two options: whatever David Cameron had managed to "renegotiate", or out. No contest.
Anyway, as I have already explained today, there is no need for a referendum. As much as anything else, it would only deliver a Yes vote. What is needed is legislation. But a referendum would unite the Left like nothing since, well, I am not entirely sure what, exactly. Two options: whatever David Cameron had managed to "renegotiate", or out. No contest.
There would be a contest, however, for the BBC's beloved UKIP. As a party, rather than as individual Old Right or, it turns out, Old Left members, UKIP professes to be all in favour of Thatcher's Single Market. It is to everything else that the party objects. Cameron says that he is going to get rid of everything else, but save the Single Market.
What, in that event, would UKIP say? What, in that event, would UKIP do? How, in that event, would UKIP vote? How, in that event, could UKIP, as a party, possibly hope to survive?
'[T]he BBC is a liar, endlessly replaying half a clip of David Cameron in order to distort the meaning of the reply (which in any case is not his job) by Ed Miliband.'
ReplyDeleteWhat! Is Ed Miliband now working-to-rule these days?!
Not his job indeed.....
There isn't a single Labour MP who opposes our membership of the single market.
ReplyDeleteNorway and Switzerland are, of course, also members without being run by the EU.
Anonymous 10:27, damn right if he is. If Cameron wants them to swap places, then bring on a General Election.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 16:49, oh, yes, there are. And if you do not know both that and who they are, then you ought not to pass comment.
It is UKIP that supports everything up to and including its heroine's Single European Act, so great an act of integration that it could never be equalled. UKIP may not phrase it like that. But that is what its position means.
Any Labour MP who thought any such thing would be kept a million miles away from Miliband's front bench-do you know what unemployment we'd have if we left the single market, without negotiating to join a rival trading bloc?
ReplyDeleteYour supposedly "eurosceptical" Left-wing hero Owen Jones yesterday tweeted that the Left should "campaign to stay in the EU".
That's as far as left-wing euroscpeiticism goes.
Again, you just need to get out more.
ReplyDeleteEverything in that last comment is immediately recognisable as factually incorrect to anyone who does not inhabit the permanently adolescent Thatcher fan boy world that has secured itself a monopoly on this and several other debates.
You literally do not know what you are talking about, to a point which is downright embarrassing. Well, I am not going to tell you. This site is for grown-ups.
"This site is for grown-ups"
ReplyDeleteLets not delude ourselves, old chap. Nobody read your little blog-or buys your books.
I'd be against free markets too, if I were you. They seem to have been pretty unprofitable for you.
Try asking an economist what would happen to Britain's unemployment rate, and economy, if we left the single market without joining a rival.
From The Brussels Journal to The Commentator, I take a look after months, and I now find my books advertised.
ReplyDeleteSo, as I said, you are all in favour of Thatcher's SEA. Which could never work without Maastricht. UKIP speaks.
You should take it up with the old Bennites and Scargillites who are apparently becoming your activist base in places where you have to keep or win Strasbourg seats.
Economists caused the present mess. Indirectly, perhaps. But they are as much to blame as anyone, and a lot more so than most of us.
I'm in favour of Maastricht because I'm in favour of our being in the single market? What?
ReplyDeleteLatin America has a trading bloc without having a politican union-indeed, Norway and Switzerland have single market access without being in the EU!
There's no contradiction at all. Or have I missed something?
They get the ads from Google and they change all the time, you know.
ReplyDeleteOh, I know. Of course I know.
ReplyDeleteBut what are the odds on looking at The Brussels Journal (which published em once, heaven only knows how long ago) for the first time in over a year only to find that, even if only for five minutes, it was plugging my book, and then within two days looking at The Commentator for the first time ever only to find that, even if only for five minutes, it was plugging my book?
It cheered me up in the cold and in my cripplehood.
You have been published in the Brussels Journal?
ReplyDeleteI am, to the best of my knowledge, the only person ever to have been published both there and in the London Progressive Journal.
ReplyDeleteI shall have to check whether, even if only for five minutes, that, too, is now plugging my book. And check my old haunt, the American Conservative, come to that. Probably not. But based on this week's form, who knows?
I think that we all know where my worthy tome will not be being advertised. But then, I have never been replaced with Louise Mensch. Oh, the shame, the shame!
Now, back on topic, please.