Was interested to listen to Mark Mardell’s latest love letter to Obama on BBC Today this morning. This time the issue is Europe and Mark’s on the case. The situation is clear, he advises, Obama is very worried about what is happening in Europe and the looming prospect of another banking crisis has made him spell it out – go ahead and have a federalised Europe. The answer to Europe is more Europe. Time to fast-track the process. As further evidence of the urgent need for Europe to dismantle any residual of the Nation State and “sort out” the economic woes that so afflict, I also see that Tim Geithner is trotting along to the EU Financial Minister’s informal meeting tomorow. Maybe he’ll be offering some tax advice? It’s remarkable watching the BBC do everything possible to turn the meltdown on the Eurozone into an argument for more centralised planning. I mean, what could go wrong with that idea?
MORE EUROPE, PLEASE
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The post 8:00 item on Today seemed to be Justin Webb saying that the EU was set up to stop wars in Europe and therefore the Euro must be saved at all costs. I heard no-one countering this idea.
Was the BBC told to do this by its masters for daring to let Nigel Lawson rip the Euro a new one yesterday morning? Difference is, he was up against an opposing voice.
Talking of Europe, this caught my eye yesterday, “Europe approves remote island fuel duty discount”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-14907283
And this line in particular, “UK ministers are not allowed to cut fuel duty without getting permission from Brussels first”.
So an admission that the UK government doesn’t have the power to set taxation. When did this happen?
And for some impartial comment? Martin Wolf of the FT (the Guardianista columnist for City types).
Slightly off beam…
Both Vine and You n Yours are squauking on about food wasted!
It`s as if all their earlier campaigns to have food labelled as “best by” etc…from Esther etc never happened now!
All that blathering to Europe to make sure our food was extra-safe with punitive sanctions for those pasteurised types…wasn`t that what Vine and the chattering classes wanted a while back…as does Europe!
Oh heck…I`m confused now.
Thankfully the BBC do all my worrying for me now. Here on planet earth we curry our dodgy stuff and make soups out of leftovers.
I`m guessing tha Polly and all the BBC luvvies have been sending back the Umbrian extra virgin when Hughs recipe called for Tuscan.
Certainly hope now that someone will see who at the BBC is wasting all this food and then berating those of us in their ample shadows for not eating all we`re buying.
Funnily enough too- not a word about Europes colossal waste policies that the last labour crew enforced-not a word about the supermarket waste-nothing about all the food fights on Prank Patrol and all those poor eggs going to waste…and (but of course) not a peep about all those obscene cookery shows and contests where the food gets binned there at the BBC.
Hope we can begin to check Fatty Pattens lunch box from now on. May take more than one of us to do so!
It all started in Europe. How convenient: something else for the President to blame for His economic woes. Still, I like how the President is echoing Mrs. Thatcher’s warning about how a single European currency would be doomed before it started due to a lack of coordination. Not that Mardell would ever see it like that.
Had to laugh at Mardell explaining with a straight face that the President is concerned about how European leaders are “bouncing from one crisis to the next”, and not taking strong enough policy action to fix things. How are the President’s strong policies working on that score, Mark?
*sound of crickets chirping*
But hold on: about half way through, the actual point comes out that the US financial mavens don’t like the euro anyway, and don’t care if it dies. They’re actually more concerned about European leaders screwing up their own banks with all the bailouts and certain countries’ bad debts. So the headline – and Mardell’s intro – that the US is worried about the euro crisis is only partially accurate.
What’s ridiculous is that nobody is actually prescribing a Federal Europe to save the euro. They’re saying it’s not working right now, and needs to go away, but if Europe wants to get it right, they need to get with the program and unify a lot more. That doesn’t mean that’s what the President wants, and nobody is saying that. Except Mardell, because that’s what he wants. So he’s basically manufactured a story to fit the Narrative he wants to tell.\
It must have taken him all day to get all those quotes and cobble together all these opinions about how the euro doesn’t and cant work, and then mold that into the Narrative that it must work and that’s what the President wants. I noticed he didn’t find anyone to recommend that the euro dies a quick death, even though he casually admits that the US financial world doesn’t really care if it does. Funny, that.
Amusing bottom line: Thatcher was right all along. Not that Mardell would ever admit it.
It`s vital we do whatever the Obamessiah wants us to do if it means he gets re-elected in 2012.
We , the little people can only dream of his visiting us all to sink a Guinness and play a spot of hurling…so if he wants us all to sink our life savings into the Gulf of Mexico…we only hope that the BBC tell us in good time!