After a dismal weekend for the Out campaign, with Penny Mordaunt reduced to lying on The Andy Marr Show (tm), and Bozza saying Turkey should never be let in to the EU, only for footage to emerge where he says it should never be kept out, the mood in the Europhobic press is turning desperate, as the realisation hits home that the voters are not inclined to follow the instructions and leap off into the unknown.
Why did Kavanagh cross the road? To secure More And Bigger Paycheques For Himself Personally Now
So it was no surprise to see the Murdoch mafiosi send for faithful retainer Trevor Kavanagh today. In doing so, they not only get a slice of mainly dishonest knocking copy, and the fulfilment of Don Rupioni’s instructions to the letter, but also an excellent illustration of why any press regulator with Kavanagh sitting on its board - like IPSO - is most unlikely to be fit for purpose.
Kav starts as he means to go on, warning “Three key reasons why we MUST all vote Out on June 23 … We only have four weeks left to avoid making a Titanic mistake for the future of the UK” before frightening readers with “ON June 23, if the polls are right, a jubilant David Cameron will lock Britain permanently aboard a European Titanic just as it steams into the iceberg”. Then he accuses the other lot of, er, frightening the readers.
So what are his three reasons? Let’s take them one at a time. First comes the old chestnut “The EU is unaccountable, unelected and undemocratic. It treats its citizens with contempt”. The final decision on laws, regulations and the rest is taken by the European Parliament. It is accountable, because it’s an elected democracy. As its MEPs are accountable to their electorates, it cannot just treat them with contempt.
Not a good start. What’s second on the Kavanagh menu? “Its dithering leaders are useless at moments of real crisis such as the Balkans conflict and mass immigration”. The EU now has to be a military force and intervene in wars? But the Murdoch press is opposed to anything like that. And what is this “mass immigration”? Does he mean refugees? If he does, why not say refugees? Or is this just dog-whistling (yes it is)?
What, then, is Kav’s third “key reason”? You’ll love this one. “The euro - its single most celebrated creation - is on the brink of catastrophic meltdown”. Hello Trevor! We’re talking about Britain’s membership of the EU, and there you are wibbling about the Euro, when we’re not part of the Eurozone. And no, it isn’t “on the brink of catastrophic meltdown”.
But do go on. “In or Out, these facts will not change”. They aren’t facts. They’re the prejudices of Rupert Murdoch as channelled by someone who has made a career out of lying to order. Or are we expected to have forgotten Kavanagh’s Hillsborough contribution?
Have a last throw of the dice. “As for immigration, we will abandon control of our borders and the right to say who stays”. No we won’t. We have control of our borders, as anyone who has had to cross one recently will know, and can refuse entry to anyone - whether they are an EU national or not. In any case, that’s not the real reason for Kav’s rant.
No, that real reason came from Murdoch himself. When asked once why he was so opposed to the EU, he replied “That’s easy. When I go into Downing Street they do what I say; when I go to Brussels they take no notice”. That’s why the Sun wants you to vote to leave - it’s about the selfishness of a foreigner who doesn’t have the vote.
12 comments:
When a Nazi shithouse like Kavanagh says, “Three key reasons why we MUST all vote Out on June 23..." you just know we should stay in.
All the Out Gang want of course is to cream off profits currently being made by the Euro bankers aided by the IMF and the World Bank. So we should stay in and try to turn them over with genuine pan-European social democracy. If that fails, then and only then should we come out - and then get rid of the loony Little Englander London spivs too.
If the referendum vote is to stay IN, that sort of leaves Boris "Herman Goering" Johnson and Nigel "Drunkard" Farrage out on their far right limb. Which, with some luck will soon snap.
Part of the 'unaccountability' of the EU parliament is down to its treatment in the media. Coverage of the House of Commons is familiar - lobby journalists on first name terms with ministers, explanations of what's going on, constant coverage.
Now compare to coverage of the Euro parliament - a bit of footage of Farage and co doing something silly, then a brief bit to camera by someone who clearly doesn't know or care what's going on and doesn't think his viewers care either.
Back around the time of the Maastricht treaty, I was on holiday in Belgium. There, in every newsagent, you could buy a plain English (or French, or Flemish), politically neutral guide to what the treaty meant. Something that even then as a naive 17 year old, you'd never find on sale in the UK, unless in dense legalese, only available through a handful of places, or washed through the prejudices of some newspaper owner. That's the thing - it appears aloof and unaccountable because that's the image of it certain people want it to project. Mainly because they can't be bothered to understand it themselves, and don't think you should either.
You obviously don't realise that the moment you cite the Third Reich you lose all credibility. Your absurd anonymous postings discredit the great work of Zelo Street, it's as though you were working for Conservative Central Office.
Dave C plays with Boris, Michael plays with Jez
Nigel plays with GeorgiO as long as he don't wear that fez
Penny gets her facts wrong as Rupert writes her song
And Lord D'Acres of Grouseland creates yet another pong
Pungent airs that swarm around in collusion
Editorial lies that are sure to result in confusion
It's a knockout
If words could kill, they probably will
In games without frontiers - it'll all end in tears
Those games with frontiers - it'll still end in tears
Jeux sans frontieres
Jeux avec frontieres
The one thing that totally convinced me to vote "stay" is The Scum's stance. If they say something, then the opposite must be true.
"unaccountable, unelected and undemocratic. It treats its citizens with contempt" - we could be talking about Cheshire East Council and the people of Crewe! Any chance The Sun will take them on?
@SimonB.
You obviously don't realise that those who forget history are condemned to relive it.
Nazi Germany didn't happen suddenly, any more than did Italian fascism or Spanish falangism. All of them grew from jingo roots similar to those set down in Britain. There is nothing in British history - quite the opposite - that says it is immune to those kinds of reactionary forces. And all of it was supported and funded by far right bankers in the USA and Europe.
Umberto Eco called it ur-fascism. And he was spot on. Current Middle East wars instigated by USA and European fascists are little different to the conflicts of the 1930s: only the details and propaganda methods differ. But it's the same ugly assault on the human spirit, the same theft of human freedom and the same theft of natural resources.
In the end your kind of acceptance leads only to the same poisonous results. You need only pay attention to the organised lies and muck pumped out by mainstream media to see their real intentions.
I suggest therefore that you grow up. And quickly.
Someone told me the Euro would definitely be finished by October.... but that was in 2009!
The Euro is on the brink of catastrophe? Well if it is the pound isn't particularly healthy either. The currency converter app on my phone currently lists £1 as worth 1.29 Euros - not the strongest against the pound the Euro has ever been, but far from the weakest.
Ever since the Greek financial crisis, which saw a sustained drop in the value of the Euro compared with the Pound, Brexiteers have love to crow about how that proves they were right all along, and how if we'd joined the Euro we'd all be in the shit blah blah blah. But to paraphrase, "The value of currencies can go up as well as down" and the Euro doesn't look to be collapsing any time soon...
Actually, Anonymous, given that I grew up missing a whole part of my family who were murdered by the Nazis I'm fully aware of history. I also know how quickly an apparently stable society can descend into savagery. That doesn't change the fact that your postings only lack referring to sheeple to qualify as truly idiotic.
So what are his three reasons? Let’s take them one at a time. First comes the old chestnut “The EU is unaccountable, unelected and undemocratic. It treats its citizens with contempt”.
Actually, Kavanagh is spot-on. The European Parliament is a figleaf that only partly covers the reality: an organisation founded on an industrial cartel, run by unaccountable bankers for the benefit of bankers. It has at no stage since 2008 got ahead of the game and set down markers to ensure that high-flow words about social cohesion were worth the paper they were written on, and if you cannot see that a collapse of the Euro would drag Britain down with it, your relationship with intelligent comment is about the same as that of Crewe Alexandra and top-flight football. You should read Yannis Varoufakis, who knows the situation from the inside.
And with all of that - I will still vote Remain, for however bad the EU is, Little Britain run by cockwombles like Boris Johnson, IDS and Gove would be far, far worse.
Actually, SimonB, that you completely missed the point ensures ANY society of which you are a member would sink into the kind of savagery you describe - if it followed your kind of "thinking."
If you continue to ignore the signs in plain sight everywhere across Europe and in the USA you will bring it on yourself. Now that's what I call truly idiotic. But the history of the last century shows we have been here before and people failed to learn the lessons - as you obviously have.
Austria has just had a narrow escape. There are, and will be, others. But doubtless that doesn't bother you, given your ignorance of what is happening on your own door step and who is causing it.
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