25 January (Part 2) - The fence is too uncomfortable to be sat upon
I suppose you have all had one of these by now, mine’s been hanging around for a week.
I read the front page, saw it was the same old discredited scare stories and threw it down.
Now
that I have read most of it I am even more sure that it a mixture of lies,
carefully selected misinformation and not a single mention of any of the major
problems. The sun shines out of Brussels apparently; the European Arrest Warrant
is good and British football fans in Portugal and plane spotters in Greece have nothing
to fear. There are no negatives to be found anywhere in the unwanted propaganda sheet.
Where’s the debate? Is this the best we are going to get from those in favour of
subjugating Westminster, taking over our armed forces and making us pay
billions in additional membership fees because our economy has proved to be more successful
than the European Union’s?
The attack on UKIP is perhaps to be expected. Don’t old
school politicians understand that if they keep making unjustified accusations
some of us are likely to rise up against it and support the underdog?
These six myths appear to have been made up by the Out campaign. Perhaps one or
two are quotations from kippers no one has ever heard of but more likely they
are simple lies. Note the lack of attributions.
With people like John Mayor, David Cameron, Kenneth Clark, Michael Heseltine,
the Kinnocks and Tony Blair all pushing for an EU Yes, can there be any doubt
that the right answer must be No?
Veteran actor Michael Caine put up a much better argument for leaving on Radio 4
last week than the boss of a failing knicker seller did this morning. Apart from
trotting out the usual scare stories he failed to mount any sensible argument at all.
I am intrigued by the claim that exporters will have all the trouble of meeting
the safety and other requirements of the EU if we leave and that might be
difficult. Exporters already meet the individual requirements of the other 180
countries world wide so it is not exactly a killer point. It doesn’t trouble
James Dyson and I’d back an entrepreneurial engineer against a string of
has-been politicians who steered us towards the present mess any day.
The most important question is “Do we wish to control our own destiny and live
or die by our own efforts?” If a country is not controlled by its own citizens it is not a country.
I have asked nearly everyone I know which way they are likely to vote and the
answer - apart from politicians - has been a 100% Out so far. I know birds of a
feather are likely to flock together but they all say that their own friends are 100% for Out too.
So where are the 50:50 opinion polls coming from?
And surely the following silly question demonstrates precisely the dubious tactics of the In campaign perfectly?
Do the Inners really believe that an Out vote will change geography?
Well that's blown the political fence sitting wide open. Roll on delivery of the
Mayoral election leaflets.