Another morning and another chance to present the notion that the Conservative Party is divided. Yesterday it was on Inheritance tax, today it is on Europe. Mark Mardell was using the line that for the Conservative Party to withdraw from the (utterly useless) EPP would set up a crisis with the likes of MEP Christopher Weasley sorry, Christopher Beasely applying to join the EPP! Labour, and by definition the BBC, will open up more attacks on the Conservatives as we start the run-in to the June Euro-polls and I suspect this was just the beginning. The line being retailed is that the Conservatives are “extreme” if they seek to do anything that might de-rail the EU gravy train. Also, shouldn’t the BBC declare that it receives funding from the EU before it runs any story on this subject? Full disclosure is always a good idea when trying to pretend one in impartial.
With sincere thanks to my proof-readers!
From the excellent http://www.brugesgroup.com/, on the ‘EPP Misalliance’, a 10 page critique (in pdf format):
[Extracts]-
“Let’s summarize. Breaking with the EPP would not only provide Conservatives
with more resources, independent control of finances, a seat at the Conference of Presidents, a
truly eurosceptical Brussels whip, an extra Committee chairmanship, higher speaking priority, an
increased visibility with the media, and a freedom to take up the causes that define us. It would also
give us a mechanism to become the standard bearer for the defence of the nation state across the
continent of Europe; a status that it seems fate repeatedly reserves for us, if only we have the guts
to stand up for our beliefs.” (page 9).
“There are better alternative arrangements that could be made” [than allying with EPP group]. “The Poles are one of the great countries of Europe,
and the Law and Justice party is key to its politics today. The Czech ODS is pre-eminent on their political scene.
“There are a number of other Eurosceptic political parties across Europe, that are untainted by history or policy.
“In the long term, given the obsessive EPP position on Turkish accession and Turkey in general, allies may also be
found there. But for now, it would be enough to find decent friends; friends unlike those that have, for instance,
tainted the ugly ranks of the socialist PES in the past.
“But a clean break is needed.” (Page 10).
Click to access EPPMisalliancePaper.pdf
When the Tories make this break, then they should oppose Turkey’s entry to the European Union:
‘Brussels Journal’
How secular is Turkey really?”
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/3834
Perhaps less so than in times past but the Conservatives actually are split on Europe.
Its just its hardly news.
The BBC have a mindset against the Tories
That seems to be obviously true
And this is them pushing their agenda
But in this case it isn’t actually false now is it?
George R 11:04
The current Turkish government are dismantling the secular Turkish state by stealth.
It is a tragedy for Turkey and potentially very dangerous for the West. But, the answer is not for Turkey to join the EU.
In any case, the evidence is that most Turks do not wish to join the EU for various reasons.
Personally, I would be very surprised if it ever happens. And , in any case, I suspect that the EU will implode first. Maybe wishful thinking.
Anon:
“The Conservatives actually are split on Europe”
Well technically I suppose they are • but only in the same sense that every major political party is spilt on just about every major area of policy.
No political party has a uniformity of opinion on any of the great subjects of State; Europe is no different. Labour has its die-hard euro-sceptic MP’s. Even amongst the pro-European majority there is a split. Tony Blair and his supporters wanted (and many still do) to join the euro ASAP, whereas Brown fears the loss of economic sovereignty and has stalled. Even amongst the Lib Dems you can find members that are not happy with their federalist approach; they tabled a critical amendment of the leadership at their party conference
So while the Tories have some pro-Europeans like Clarke & Heseltine, they are not split. As Clarke himself has conceded • Europe is a settled issue for the overwhelming majority of the party and 95% plus of its MP’s. After the next election, the new intake is likely to be even more euro-sceptic. If anything the party leadership is more pro-European than its supporters. So I would argue that it is wrong of the BBC to suggest that David Cameron is somehow under pressure from euro-federalists within his party on this issue. Christopher Beasely is a total none-entity. As you can probably tell, I’m a Tory and I haven’t even heard of him.
Grant 11:46 am
Re-Turkey, I hope you’re right; but the ease with which the political push from Islamic Turkey, coupled with the political pull for Turkey to join (led by Brown and D.Miliband), has got Turkey to the brink of E.U. entry, makes me more pessimistic.
Opposition to Turkey’s entry must be a key issue in the June E.U. elections,- but, of course, not for the BBC.
But in this case it isn’t actually false now is it?
Anonymous | 24.03.09 – 11:17 am | #
Just biased,as in the title of the blogspot.
On economic policy beyond the E.U., the BBC’s Evan Davis made some typically dismissive, politically ‘leftist’ cryptic comments on Conservative economic policies, but he met his match in Niall Ferguson, who indicated the complexity of the economic policy issues. (BBC ‘Today’ programme, go to 08:35 am:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7960000/7960550.stm
For more from Niall Ferguson on this, today’s ‘Telegraph’ has:
‘This financial crisis does have a Conservative solution’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/5039712/This-financial-crisis-does-have-a-Conservative-solution.html
Although Ferguson (unjustifiably?)ditches Keynes with little economic analysis, Ferguson certainly seemed to ditch Evans, by not talking of ‘dilemmas’, but of ‘trilemmas’.
Above: Ferguson ditches Evan Davis (penultimate line).
George R & Grant:
Have no fear. Turkey will not be joining the E.U any time soon. No French, German Italian or Austrian GVN would ever agree. Given the hostility of their electorate to the idea, it would be electoral suicide for all four of them. Of course, Turkey has been given a pathway to membership, but most of the targets are subjective, not substantive.
So who decides if Turkey has passed? Why officials appointed by the EU commission, and who runs the commission? Officially, all members’ states have an equal input, but who really runs the show? Have you ever heard of France and Germany being shafted by the EU? Me neither…. Case closed, so relax.
Thread hijack – can we have a post on this outrageous piece of propaganda please?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7959564.stm
-Everywhere- else reports the true story – inflation up due to increased priced of imported goods caused by weakness of Sterling. Everywhere. Just one place is pro-government, and this is achieved using a measure that the government itself tried to abandon in order to exclude mortgages from the inflation figures. Now it’s convenient, it’s been reintroduced courtesy of the Beeb.
This one really is bias at it’s most obvious.
the BBC receieves government funding and it hardly gives them an easy ride, so the funding issue is irrelevant. look at euronews (sky channel 508) part funded by the EU, but presents a good non biased approach to EU issues.
your wider point about the tories and the EU doesnt contain ANY proof of bias, it’s just your interpretation of events. we know your opinion, but your opinion of bias is not the same as proof of bias.
Jonathan – 12:36 pm
Yes; but ‘popular’ political opposition to the EU Commission seems to count for little: most E.U. people wanted a referendum on the Lisbon treaty. And the British people should be wary of putting faith in opportunists like Sarkozy.
And, Obama is intruding in European politics and expressing dhimmitude for Turkey’s Islamic politics:
“Spencer: Obama in Turkey: Another Missed Opportunity?”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025199.php
And on the entry of 75 million Turks into the E.U., no British mainstream political party opposes it on principle. On the contrary, Labour and Lib Dems are enthusiastic; and the Tories?
Gus;
you say;
the BBC receieves government funding and it hardly gives them an easy ride
Yes it does as documented many times by this site.
What you don’t seem to see and most of the rest of do is that the BBC is institutionally biased and have a Left wing agenda which they follow relentlessly.
I have observed the BBC decline into this lefty goo without any idea of self awareness–it is quite pitiful to hear the brainwashed nonsense the BBC comes out with!!
What planet are you on Gus? The BBC gives the Government such an easy ride on so many issues, the Andrew Marr show and 5-Live are cases in point!
As for the EU,I agree with DV that the BBC should disclose its EIB loans each time it pronounces on that subject! The same goes for the House of Lords in respect of the EU pensions – they got very twitchy when challenged about this revenue source during the Referendum debate charade.
DV
“Also, shouldn’t the BBC declare that it receives funding from the EU before it runs any story on this subject?”
As I’m sure you’re aware, unprecedentedly, the House of Lords changed its standing orders such that those “noble” lords in receipt of EU pensions need not declare their interest when speaking on EU matters in the House. So why should that corporate useful idiot of the EU – the BBC – be any different?
Thanks for the info Umbongo – that just says it all really.
Tories got a bucketful dumped on them on Radio 5 this morning as well. Supposed to be a phone in about are MPs worth the money, but turned into a hate campaign against Tories for having second jobs and how heroic Labour MPs like Dennis Skinner are for not taking a full salary (I don’t know if that is true but the BBC promoted it as so)
Of course Liebour MPs don’t have second jobs do they? Diane Abbott does This Week for free and doesn’t use the money to send her son to a private school does she?
We had the ‘MPs are poorly paid’ crap but the BBC failed to point out that Labour Ministers are VERY well paid and they are all the ones with their snouts in the trough.
As I mentioned before, the BBC never wanted to report this story, but when they had to run with it, they just spin it as an anti Tory (bring up John Major and Tory sleaze – with the BBC still be doing that in 20 years I wonder – if the scum still exists of course) story and make out Liebour MPs are victims of the system.
It’s cross hairs David. Or reticle. Martin would probably call it a graticule.
Yours Sincerely
A N Anorak
This sounded an awful lot like the BBC was taking the position that EU Love was a good thing, and that it would be really bad if Cameron turned all Euro-skeptic on them.
As the anon poster above with the thread hijack call – can I point out that the headline at the time I wrote this was “Key Measure of Inflation reduces to zero”, not what they’ve now had to change it to with “Surprise hike in consumer prices”.
Interesting that they had to change after they saw that no other organisation had had the wool pulled over its eyes.
Here we go:
http://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/207715/diff/1/2
Very instructive reading.
For a thorough description of the way BBC bias operates this item from John Redwood’s blog is essential reading:
When Mr Clarke yesterday called a manifesto promise and a firm policy pledge an “aspiration” the BBC and Labour went into overdrive. Here they hoped was manna from heaven. Here they drooled was a major Tory tax war, here they salivated was proof that Clarke was taking over as Shadow Chancellor, here was an opportunity to portray the Tory party badly. My phone kept ringing as programmes promised me cameras wherever I was if only I would denounce either Clarke or George Osborne, or would say something to turn a wrongly chosen word into a major row.
I explained to them with growing irritation that nothing had changed in Conservative policy. Mr Osborne is Shadow Chancellor and he had made the position quite clear in 2007. Mr Clarke should have said it was a promise, not just an aspiration, and would say so shortly.
The fact that the BBC thought this single misplaced word to describe a well established policy was a leading news item tells us a great deal about how the BBC runs its news services. In the meantime they cancelled the offer of an outing on the Today programnme for me to explain a better way of tackling broken banks this morning, despite the Sunday Express article setting it all out again and other media interest. I was offered a slot and probably a radio car to make it easy if I would build their non story about Tory tax wars. That was an easy one to call!
Dennis Skinner,(the Beast of Bolsover), is one of the possibly few who don’t indulge in the wholesale snouts in the trough policy of Labour.
I think, though I am not certain on this point, that he takes the average wage of workers in his constituency.
“Surprise hike in consumer prices”
Might be a surprise for the thickoes at the BBC but when the value of your currency goes down, all those things you buy from abroad will cost more.
It really isn’t that difficult a concept to grasp.
OT Commpare the inflation headlines from the private media and the state owned broadcaster:
Sky News: Shock rise in UK inflation
CityWire: Consumer inflation shows surprise increase
Telegraph: The return of inflation
Independent: What fall? Inflation shows a surprise increase
Financial Times: Inflation surprises and jumps to 3.2%
BBC ‘News’: Key inflation measure falls to zero
not heard the leftist beeboid scum refer to the vast majority of people in country as “little englanders” for a long time
and isnt that because at the time, the beeboid scum got the public attitude towards europe wrong when it bombarded us with pro europe propaganda
Gus Haynes – Yawn.
Labour’s propaganda broadcasting outlet at full steam today.
Europe ‘must lead downturn fight’
Gordon Brown has said Europe is “uniquely placed” to provide world leadership in the economic downturn because of its history of co-operation.
He told the European Parliament that the UK was not “in Europe’s slipstream but firmly in its mainstream”.
The EU had to promote a “principled economy”, involving the implementation of “tough regulatory standards”.
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7960507.stm
Surprise hike in consumer prices
The rising price of imported goods – particularly fruit, vegetables and toys – has caused an [un]expected (sic) rise in one measure of UK inflation.
The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) was pushed up to an annual rate of 3.2% in February, from 3% a month earlier.
But a sharp fall in mortgage repayments caused the Retail Prices Index (RPI), which includes housing costs, to fall to zero for the first time in 49 years.
Economists had predicted that both measures of inflation would fall.
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7959564.stm
Wouldn`t it be great if the BBC did a show where all the people and businesses who are existing because of the EU were there and all the people and businesses who are now non existent because of the EU were to tell the viewing public of their experinces ?
Mind you, imagine the type of people who have a living because of the EU .
Oscar | 24.03.09 – 3:15 pm |
Exactly. This has been going on for years with the BBC.
On the inflation reporting, that newssniffer link is interesting:
link
Seems that a version of the story published at 10.30 DID mention the currency, but this had been excised in the 10.51 redraft.
At whose behest, one wonders?
The fact that David Cameron has just made a major speech on the economy and bank regulation gets no coverage on the BBCs web front page. Of course it isn’t a concocted story about Tory “splits” and “tax turmoil” so clearly they aren’t interested. Brown’s contentless speech about Europe of course takes pride of place.
The BBC are missing the point attacking the conservatives on European issues, though it is unrealistic to expect them to break the habits of the last 15 years or so.
The real gains in this year’s European elections will not go to the Conservative Party, but to that party which the BBC cannot bring itself to mention, except when prefaced by the terms “extremist” and “hard right”, and usually accompanied by veiled comparisons with the National Socialist movement of 1930s Germany.
It will be interesting to see if the BBC propagandists then try to draw a connection between “those that may not be mentioned” and the Conservative party in preparation for Gordon the moron’s defence agains his inevitable nemesis the following year.
As I have said before, we can only hope that Cameron WILL give the BBC a serious shafting if and when he gets in, but I somehow doubt that the former will happen. The answer may be a country-wide licence fee payers strike but again, the chances of this materialising are slight – who amongst us would join, I wonder, when the chips were down?
In the meantime, all we can do is keep complaining to the BBC with zero practical result!
Frustrating, isn’t it?
Idiotboy,
You can mention the BNP if you use the words Vile, Odious or Loathsome which is compulsory, I think.
Dan Hannan demolishing Gordon in the European parliament is essential viewing. The BBC won’t be posting it. View it on Guido.
http://www.order-order.com/
Oscar | 24.03.09 – 8:04 pm |
Had a Conservative Prime Minister, addressing the EU, been on the receiving end of such a withering and forensic put-down that Dan Hannan delivered to that filth Brown then Britain would have been swamped by coverage of it from the sewer BBC.
Suffice to say that you are right. Highly unlikely that the BBC will even mention it, let alone give Hannan’s devastating broadside an airing.
Well worth watching, especially the bit where Brown squirms and grins like the ape he is.
Lots of tributess flowing into Hannan’s blog.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel_hannan/blog/2009/03/24/so_i_said_to_gordon_brown_i_said?com_num=20&com_pg=1
Personally I’d hang Andrew Marr from a meat hook and employ Dan Hannan on the Beeb’s Sunday morning slot for an injection of some realism.
Dan is the Man!!!
Dan Hannan knocks down Brown and destroys him. Nigel Farage puts the boot in:
Brown just sits there with that grotesque apelike smirk. Where’s the BBC?
Yes, Daniel Hannan was brilliant, spectacular even, and so eloquently put across that it was clear that every word was genuine. This ought to be recorded for posterity.
BTW, Mark Mardell stated (a couple of years ago) that the people of Austria “are generally in favour of the Union” while anyone who knows the Austrians will confirm that they are more Eurosceptic than the British. MM talls only to the political “elite” and assumes that their view is the same as the man in the strasse.
Quel surprise. BBC News 24 were unable to get hold of Daniel Hannan and were reduced to getting some Danish lesbian green MP to comment on Brown’s waffle.
The very week that Labour gets one thing right for the first time in four years, and this has to happen.
http://raedwald.blogspot.com/2009/03/brown-spit-roasted-in-europe.html
Life’s just so unfair isn’t it?
Well , I’m off to the BBC to watch their in-depth coverage of this with their uniquely funded expertise.
Oops. In all the excitement, I didn’t check out TPO’s youTube thingy.
Raedwald’s got them both though..
Idiotboy.
I’ve just seen it, yes it’s awesome. This guy has got some spine/balls/testosterone/ or whatever’s missing from Tories these days….
Wonder if any of it will get aired on the BBC, especially the bit of Brown pretending to scribble on a bit of A4.
Surely it is Dan the Man not Call Me Dave from now on?
Oddly, it’s not on the BBC website yet.
http://search.bbc.co.uk/search?tab=all&q=Daniel+Hannan%2B2009
http://search.bbc.co.uk/search?tab=all&q=Nigel+Farage%2B2009
Must be that unique funding slowing them down.
good bit about guantanamo
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090319/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_guantanamo_wrongly_held
There was a discussion on the BBC radio that the CPI index (that went up) was the wrong one to use because the RPI (that hit 0%) contains mortgages should be the one to look at! Guess which idiot initially changed the GVN use of RPI to CPI? Why one Gordon Brown probably at a time when it looked better to do it that way!
Not quite pmjk, before the CPI the targeted index was RPIX (ie RPI excluding mortgage interest). RPIX today stands at 2.5% which is precisely on the old target.
Oscar | 24.03.09 – 8:04 pm |
A very calm put down indeed – you could never get this in the commons.
Hannan for PM? He wrote a book with Douglas Carswell, entitled ‘The Plan’. It’s an excellent read, but not the thing that would ever be allowed go on a Radio 4 political show, which is a damn shame