Express Called Out Over Europhobia

To read an article ranting and frothing about the EU in the Express is not a surprise. The ridiculous lengths that Dirty Des’ finest will go to, however, to pretend that the EU is doing something its legislators had not even thought about doing certainly does surprise, and more than occasionally. And today the exasperation at the constant stream of whoppers has been clear.

What is behind the latest scare story, “EU attempts to brainwash children with 'sinister Soviet-style propaganda'”, then? Well, the Express asserts that there is a sinister website out there targeting children with propaganda (as opposed to the Express, er, targeting children with propaganda). But there isn’t: once again, Des’ finest have seen a website where one does not exist.

Moreover, all that is being suggested is that the EU provides information in a similar way to the UK Parliament (their deeply subversive propaganda can be seen HERE). Children get to learn about how Parliament works: there is information, engagement and empowerment. As Ben Elton might have said, “bit controversial”. The Express does not have a problem with it.

But if the EU is to merely suggest provision of information, out comes UKIP talking head Paul Nuttall (yep, he’s all nut all right) to denounce it as “really ... a step too far ... It is a sinister development so reminiscent of the totalitarian regime of Soviet Russia ... Our children need to be ­protected from this type of ­political propaganda”. And he wasn’t finished yet.

Wait for it, folks, you’ll love this one: “Political propaganda on vulnerable kids is a form of child abuse”. Woah! That bullshit siren is working overtime! Jimmy Savile didn’t die folks, he went to work for the EU! Christ on a bike, this is so desperate. It takes last year’s screaming intolerance over pencil cases (you think I jest? See HERE and HERE) to a new level.

And, as can be seen from the second of those two links, the UKIP claim that the EU spends over £2 billion a year on ‘communications’ is also total crap. But you’d expect that from a party whose MEPs either don’t bother turning up at the European Parliament (EP), or when they do, spend the sessions asleep (new recruit Roger Helmer being the latest example) or inebriated.

Small wonder that the EP’s UK information office has shown exasperation at the Express talking such inflammatory drivel about the mere suggestion that the EP do what its UK counterpart does without any froth from the Europhobic element in the press. Statements of fact, and provision of information, are not “propaganda”. Nor is educational provision.

As for the Express, though, well, I couldn’t possibly comment.