Criticising Peter Oborne these days is rather like pulling wings off flies – after you have given them a dose of fly-spray and waited until they have quietened down. It is so easy that there is no sport in it. But when the man calls himself a "chief political commentator" and writes such unutterable toshthat it makes your eyes water, he only has himself to blame.
This man is now suggesting that the Labour hierarchy have suddenly developed a dose of euroscepticism, but the man isn't even professional enough to call a spade a digging implement. You can neither trust nor respect anyone who awards himself the title of "political commentator" who then starts referring to a politician as "anti-European". It is so amateur as to defy description.
The piece as a whole, though, reveals an incoherence which is quite staggering in its breadth. It posits that, for the last twenty years, there has been a split in British politics over "Europe", with the Conservatives characterised as a "eurosceptic" party. But, with Labour veering towards an "anti-European" position, the "consequences for British politics are profound".
For the past 20 years, Oborne asserts, "the Conservatives have been the only major Eurosceptic party in Britain". This, he says, "meant they felt so isolated that they were afraid to speak out – the main reason why David Cameron has gone out of his way to close down Europe as a subject of debate".
Yet, as we remarked in an earlier piece, when it comes to promoting the march of European political integration, the Conservatives are in the premier league. It was Ted Heath, a Tory (theoretically), who took us in (after the ground-breaking by Macmillan), it was the darling Thatcher who led the "yes" campaign for the Tories in the 1975 referendum, and it was she that agreed the Single European Act.
Then, of course, it was little Johnny Major, Thatcher's protégé, who negotiated the Maastricht Treaty (aka Treaty of the European Union) – and wrecked the Conservative Party getting it through the Commons. Now the heir to Heath, the fabulous Mr Cameron, refuses us a referendum on the Lisbon treaty and gives us AV instead. This is the man who, on 9 March in the House of Commons, told Peter Bone, "I think that we are better off inside the EU but making changes to it, in the way that we are setting out" (pictured).
Not in a million years, not in any way, degree or fashion, could the Conservative Party in general or Mr Cameron in particular, be considered eurosceptic. Yet, in defiance of reality, ignoring evidence and experience, Mr Oborne insists to the contrary. His paradigm must prevail because that is what he wants it to be. That is the narrative with which he is familiar and with which he is comfortable.
But that is also the measure of the Daily Telegraph these days ... facile, amateur and ill-informed. More alarmingly, it is locked in a bubble of unreality which has completely departed from the truth. And I've heard tell that there are some people in very interesting positions who you would least expect to support such a line, but who would agree completely.
When the history of this period comes to be written – if there is an honest scribe to do it – one of the features will almost certainly be the collapse of the media as an intelligent or even influential political force. And Peter Oborne – another writer speaking to the bubble, lost in his own private fantasy – will be cited as a prime example.
COMMENT THREAD
Could we also suggest that he extends his concern to the way law is made in Brussels, by the EU, instead of MPs, and by the European Court of Human Rights, and the European Court of Justice. Or is this just a case of leaping on a bandwagon, in the hope that the plebs don't notice the inconsistencies in his position?
COMMENT THREAD
Thousands of people are fleeing heavy fighting in Libya's western mountains region, close to the Tunisian border, as government forces seek to crush a rebellion that has been largely overshadowed by the siege of Misrata, reports The Guardian.
According to UNHCR, about 11,000 refugees from the area have crossed into Tunisia in the past ten days, mainly from the city of Nalut. "They are fleeing because of shelling and intensified fighting between government and opposition forces," Firas Kayal of the UNHCR claimed. "The whole western mountains region has been under siege for two months now."
This we were dimly aware of. We learned some time ago that there were too few coalition aircraft to cover the terrain, so all sorts of things were happening outside their reach. I suppose if the boys and goils can tear themselves away from their swimming pools, they might pop over and have a look.
Better still, that nice Mr Scumeron might do the decent thing and pull out, and recognising that we do not have the resources or the political will to do anything, and that our (partial) presence is simply making things worse.
COMMENT: LIBYA THREAD
We do not blame the Ethiopians – it is the fool politicians who set up the system and allow it to continue. And benefits in Tower Hamlets alone have cost the taxpayer a mammoth £223 million in just one year. Please remember, there is no natural limit to how much money public bodies can waste. They will continue doing this until we stop them.
COMMENT: KLEPTURITION THREAD
There is a safe and effective way of doing what Lisa was doing, I suggested – more so when it appears that she might have been deliberately targeted. There is all sorts of different kit and different strategies that could be used, which do not put ATOs at risk. We should be using them. Anything else is not bravery. It's not clever, and it's certainly not anything to be proud about. It's suicide.
In response, to my piece, however, I got this e-mail:
Absolutely Goddamned F*****g Right. Thank you for saying it. Say it loud and say it often. These kids are seduced by gold braid and fantasy notions of what it means to be brave. It is the grooming and ultimate abuse of those too young to have figured out what is real and what is someone else's illusion. Often delusion.What really does get up my nose though is the acreage of eulogies, finishing off with Secretary of State for Defence, this time Dr Liam Fox, who has his MoD civil servants copy and paste the following:
I was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Captain Lisa Head of 11 EOD Regiment RLC. She was mortally wounded while attempting to make safe an IED to protect her military colleagues and the local civilian population. We owe a great debt of gratitude for her bravery and her commitment in her professional role, and for the sacrifice she has made to defend our national security. I send my deepest condolences to Captain Head's family and loved-ones at this sad time.This is cant, pure, unadulterated cant. And at PMQs next week, Scumeron will stand up and offer his condolences – and then move on to play his tawdry little word games. There is no need for these kids to die, especially our brightest and best. Scumeron and his chums could stop it, but they won't. Fox is too thick even to understand what is needed, and the military brass are too busy climbing up each-others' backsides even to care.
COMMENT: SUICIDE THREAD
Well, that goes back to the Nice Treaty, adopted in December 2000, but it is part of the main EU treaty -namely Article 314 - that the Conservatives have now adopted. No Parliament can bind another, we are told, so if the Tories don't like it, they can always change it. If they haven't sought to do that, there is no point in blaming Labour.
But it has got so bad now that the Tories can't even survive without telling themselves little boogy tales to boost their morale. They simply can't cope with the idea that, when it comes to promoting the march of European political integration, the Conservatives are in the premier league. It was Ted Heath, a Tory (theoretically), who took us in (after the ground-breaking by Macmillan), it was the darling Thatcher who led the "yes" campaign for the Tories in the 1975 referendum, and it was she that agreed the Single European Act.
Then, of course, it was little Johnny Major, Thatcher's protégé, who negotiated the Maastricht Treaty (aka Treaty of the European Union) – and wrecked the Conservative Party getting it through the Commons. Now the heir to Heath, the fabulous Mr Scumeron, refuses us a referendum on the Lisbon treaty and gives us AV instead. But the little Tory tribalists ignore all that. When they get things they don't like, they blame Labour.
Hilariously, as The Boiling Frog points out, the Tory Home piece is accompanied by a splat showing light bulbs (pictured) presumably to demonstrate "bright ideas" in a forthcoming Tory conference. However they look suspiciously like the traditional incandescent light bulbs, which are banned by ... the EU. The irony appears to be lost on them, says TBF.
COMMENT: EU MONEY THREAD
Posts
