Guilty Men's lessons from the past

In this week's Spectator, Peter Oborne and Frances Weaver trail their forthcoming book, "Guilty Men", which, judging by today's article, does a comprehensive job of lampooning the UK's pro-euro lobby. It will certainly make uncomfortable reading for those, including Mr Clegg, who still claim that "no one could see this coming".

The opening paragraph is the premise on which they make their argument:

"Very rarely in political history has any faction or movement enjoyed such a complete and crushing victory as the Conservative Eurosceptics. The field is theirs. They were not merely right about the single currency, the greatest economic issue of our age — they were right for the right reasons. They foresaw with lucid, prophetic accuracy exactly how and why the euro would bring with it financial devastation and social collapse."

There were of course those on the Labour side who made similar arguments but Oborne and Weaver hold no punches, especially when it comes to institutions of the establishment such as the FT and the BBC (We made our own attempt to highlight the folly of the pro-euro arguments in "They said it" last year):

"Even as late as May 2008, when the fatal booms in Ireland and elsewhere were very obviously beginning to falter, the paper retained its faith: ‘European monetary union is a bumble bee that has taken flight,’ asserted the newspaper’s leader column. ‘However improbable the celestial design, it has succeeded in real life.’ For a paper with the FT’s pretensions to authority in financial matters, its coverage of the single currency can be regarded as nothing short of a disaster."

Oborne and Weaver's research illustrates just how far the 'EU ideal' had permeated much of the political and media establishment - to the extent that those who disagreed where dismissed as "cranks".

"As Rod Liddle, then editor of the Radio 4’s Today programme, said: ‘The whole ethos of the BBC and all the staff was that Eurosceptics were xenophobes and there was an end to it. The euro would come up at a meeting and everybody would just burst out laughing about the Eurosceptics.’ Liddle recalls one meeting with a very senior figure at the BBC to deal with Eurosceptic complaints of bias. ‘Rod, the thing you have to understand is that these people are mad. They are mad.’"

And, in this respect, there is also an important warning for the future:

"One urgent lesson concerns the BBC. The corporation’s twisted coverage of the European Union is a serious problem, because the economic collapse of the eurozone means that a new treaty may be needed very soon — plunging the EU right back into the heart of our national politics."

We would perhaps add that the EU is already at the heart of national politics, something of which we're now reminded daily. Regardless, with the flaws of the eurozone now plain for all to see, more open-mindedness than in the past is a necessity when it comes to future debates about the best model for European cooperation, as well as UK's relationship with Europe - which faces a defining period in the coming years.

Blind faith is no longer an option.

BBC: Utterly unacceptable

Sophie Raworth, reading from the autocue live on the BBC One O'Clock news, has just made this quite unbelievable introduction to a piece on events in Ireland today:

"The people of Ireland return to the polls today in a referendum on whether to accept the Lisbon Treaty on enlarging the European Union."

Hat-tip to friends in Northern Ireland who alerted us to this.

This is a quite unacceptable distortion of the facts - the Treaty has nothing to do with enlargement, otherwise we might be campaigning for a 'yes' vote. This Treaty is about giving the EU more powers. What is the BBC on?

We've made a complaint - and we urge everyone else out there to do so too, and as soon as possible. The same piece reported that most people in Ireland are still to vote, many of whom may not yet have made up their minds. This kind of ridiculous and false statement might just tip the balance.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/homepage/

they don't get it

Hmmmm... someone at BBC Online doesn't like the trade unions campaigning for a referendum.

The GMB and RMT had joined the Tories and UKIP in demanding a vote by tabling motions for the TUC annual conference.

We didn't realise that the Tories and UKIP could table motions at the TUC. Maybe they changed the rules.

More seriously, some people at the BBC seem to find it difficult to accept that unions might want to reflect the views of their membership (the polls say 88% of their members want a referendum). No no - it can't be that they are taking a principled stand, or that they have legitimate concerns about the impact of the constituiton on the economy, or public services. Instead, let's just dismiss it by saying that they are "getting into bed" with the right wing.

Memo to BBC - must try harder.

Biased BBC online

BBC Online's coverage of the EU's 50th anniversary has been absolutely extraordinary. They have missed a great opportunity to deal with EU issues seriously and instead have presented the punters with pathetic, whimsical, biased nonsense.

A quick look at BBC online's list of EU stories gives a sense of what they have served up this week:

Guide to the best euromyths

This could have come, and probably did come, straight from a European Commission or FCO press release. What about all the negative stories that were rubbished but turned out to be true (like Campbell saying Andrew Gilligan's story that there was going to be a "European Constitution" was "bollocks").

Celebrating the Environmental Union

At least this overtly written by the Commission. Its complete bull - but will there be a critical piece allowed on in response? Zero chance of that.

Ten things the EU has done for you.

This is just getting silly. It's 10 good things of course. Where are the ten bad things? Dumping on the devoping world, damaging our economy, undermining democracy? No chance of that on the BBC.

How Brussels has changed

For the better, it would seem. Half a dozen people quoted puffing the EU, but no critics, obviously.

The EU at 50: Your reflections

A spurious voxpop of the kind that the BBC's own Wilson review warned against. Three people saying the EU is absolutely great and then one person who says it is good for the countries that are in it but bad for Kosovo.

"For me, the positives definitely outweigh the negatives."
"Generally I think the EU has really helped our lives."
"I think many countries outside Europe envy the success of the Union."
"The EU may be good for those countries inside the club, but for us - on the outside - it's as if they have built a great wall all around the union."

This is balance?

Is EU good for economic health?

It would seem so:

"Looking back, it is tempting to declare euro a resounding success."

Nggggghhhh.... no chance of balance here either.

It seems to me that the higher-up journalists at the beeb have partially learned to at least present both sides of the argument. But they are atop an iceberg of dross - and too many BBC journalists still think that their job is to "balance against the press" (by which they mean the Sun and Mail, casually forgetting the FT, Indie, Guardian and Mirror).

This is pathetic journalism. What is it going to take for BBC online to present the issues fairly?