Circus Master Cracks His Whip
The Sun is running this morning, over seven pages, an all out campaign for a referendum on the EU constitutional treaty. Guido senses that Murdoch is reminding the performing political monkeys who the real circus master is, and that he can really crack the whip if need be.
Click to enlarge.
It is The Sun at its finest, politics with humour, accessible and witty. Kelvin Mackenzie would be proud...
Click to enlarge.Incidentally, Guido will be getting his chance to vote "No" - in Ireland.
63 comments:
If Brown goes for an Autumn election (or even May '08 if he bottles out of Autumn), the Sun cannot credibly support Brown and NuLab unless Brown calls an EU referendum.
Dare Brown call an election without Murdoch and the Sun squared away??
Will all those immigrant Poles get to vote on whether the UK signs up to the EU constitution?
As someone who is deeply proEU perhaps I can just say what everyone like me (and Gordo) actually believes: I don't want a referendum because I know it won't be passed. At the end of the day most people don't understand how it works, believe all the (mostly) untrue scare stories and are generally a bit irrational over the whole thing. Therefore I would far rather they were not asked.
But why would Brown be frightened of a No vote anyway? He probably hates the constitution as much as we do. No doubt he'll magnanimously grant us a refrendum at some stage and expect us to be grateful.
@ Eurolover:
So, you 'understand how it works' but others don't? Remarkable. How long have you had this tremendous gift?
And you'd rather they were not asked? The classic Stalinist approach, then. Simply don't ask those who may hold different views, and shoot any who manage to express them.
Splendid. I'm getting increasingly impressed by Brown's towering intellect...
Eurolover: Why not just do away with democracy? After all everything is fabulous in Brown's Britain and anyone who would vote against NuLab believe all the (mostly) untrue scare stories put about by the evil Tories.
Er, No.
NuLab were elected in 2005 on a mandate which included a referendum on the EU Treaty (or Constitution).
This "treaty" is a significant move towards the formation of a European State, with all the legal personality and institutions of a state.
Whether you want the UK to be subsumed into such a EU superstate is entirely your choice (and it looks like you do), personally I do not.
However for such a fundamental change to the governance and constitutional arrangements that govern the UK to take place, a clear and unambiguous referendum would be required to gain the consent of the British people to such a change.
For such a referendum to be denied is a perversion of our democracy and is a bonfire on which Mr.Brown and his fellow travelers burn what little is left of their integrity.
Voting with Sinn Fein Guido? Tut Tut.
Guido,
I look forward to cancelling out your vote!
The Sun thing is actually quite funny. What frightens me are the amount of Brits for whom this is the only info on the EU they ever get.
Screw the treaty. Go for the real issue. Have a vote on EU membership.
The EU is a lying, corrupt, artificial, and un-democratic institution. This country would be infinitely better off out of it. Everyone knows that.
I think The Sun is mixing metaphors. Brown is not Churchillian in defiance, but a Chamberlain in appeasement. A more fitting rendition of Gordon is here.
Wow. Dad's Army jokes.
er mitch, apart from the beeboids, who choose to present anyone who isn't a fully signed up europhile, as on a par with the flat earth society - it's something to do with loosing touch with reality ,when someone backs the truck up and offloads £3 billion of taxpayers money on your doorstep every year - bit like the eu really !
The British press at its worst. Tendentious bollocks.
He's now taken to dressing as Churchill to round up more Tory voters? Christ, the man's audacity is breathtaking.
oi ! the sun's copied my UKIP leaflet design from 2001 ( the one I copied from Dad's Army.....)
clever to add a Churchillian figure.
nice one.
I'm heartened to see that the Bank of England's attempt to prop up Northern Rock's share price today, by covert buying through intermediaries, has failed.
You can't buck the market.
Please explain....
Never mind Churchill.
Murdoch's let Brown know that no referendum and the next picture of him on the front page of The Sun will show him riding a rocking horse, dressed in a nappy, and sucking a purple lolly.
As well as pushing for a referendum, the Tories should be making a commitment to reverse the treaty if signed should no referendum occur.
Is this all that it seems or does The Sun know that Gordon is about to announce a referendum and want to claim the credit?
anon.11.51.
I'm sure that Brown will be on the phone immediately to tell Murdoch it's all tendentious bollocks - not.
That's a very fetching pic of Gordo pouting away in the Sun. He's loving all this attention isn't he?
Will he, won't he? What a little tease he is, all those young male reporters with their tight kecks are hanging on his every word.
No wonder Gordo can't stop pouting, simpering, and mincing. With all this attention from the boys the repulsive, deranged, creature is like a pig in shit.
All our pan-national STATE FASCIST governments have to do is construct a never ending conflict with Islamic pan-national STATE FASCIST governments and we can kiss good-by to individual liberty for generations at least and very possibly forever.
Sorry I forgot they already have.
Still lets not panic they will let us keep and spend some of our own money in the future. If only for spending on things they can lock-up or fine us for having, if those things are not already state taxed at over 95%.
Oh the irony of it all, one the most autocratic businessman of our times, not adverse to ignoring impartiality and using his many publications to influence opinion to suit his own money making agenda.....and now he is complaining about lack of democracy in the UK!
You just couldn't make it up!
And yes, there should be a referendum as we were promised one, and no I don't believe a single word of the crap that it's just a "tidy-up"
praguetory - how on earth will the Tories "reverse the Treaty if signed" and ratified without precipitating withdrawal from the EU?
We will say that the British people were promised a referendum to validate the treaty and so that is what we should promise to deliver.
prague tory, cameron should stick to demanding a ref on the con. only if brown ratifiies the con without a ref, should he then alter his position, and that should be the one recommended by keith vaz, and ming..a ref on eu membership total.
Has Brown lost a lot of weight?? Seeing him talk face on today I'd say he's lost 20 pounds at least?Takes a lot of effort to lose that much.Wonder why?
Once again the press takes up its mantle as Her Majesty's real Opposition...
"Once again the press takes up its mantle as Her Majesty's real Opposition..."
The problem is that the press don't report politicians properly. Did anyone see a single report of the speeches just before the summer recess on immigration, made by Frank Field and Nicholas Soames? Nope. So people go uninformed and feel that no-one is speaking for them. Because the papers only report (selectively) what the party leadership's PR men give them on a plate.
The modern press would all but destroy the career of a modern Churchill very quickly indeed. Bastards.
If Brown calls an autumn election he will also have a referendom on the treaty on the same day.
He wont give a toss about loosing the referendom if he has an increased majority in the election, which he probably will if what the Sun says is right.
It would be a smart move getting the Sun back onside and removing the most effective attack on him
I am getting more and more depressed
Hmmm thats strange, Guido did all that, without mentioning Labour's 8% lead or 17% if Brown promises a referendum.
Still up Dave's arse then Guido?
eurolover
I look forward to the day when a patriot such as myself passes a guilty verdict on you for treason.
Yes, we "don't get it" - so does that give you the right to steal our country, our heritage & culture & flush it away on your socialist superstate?.
You are obviously anti democratic & obviously anti British.
Why don't you just go & live in Eurolalaland if you are soooo enamoured with it?
Why steal our country & democracy when patently the vast majority want nothing to do with the EU?
anon 2.08
...or a lead of just 1% if Gordo doesn't promise a referendum, funny you forgot to mention that.
Gordon Straining Forward:'Just Another Inch'- Mouth Gape said...
Has Brown lost a lot of weight?? Seeing him talk face on today I'd say he's lost 20 pounds at least?Takes a lot of effort to lose that much.Wonder why?
Aids?
It takes a village - The East Stoke Parish Poll.
One can hope umma gumma!
Anyone else being bored into a coma by Browns speech? He's either having problems reading his autocue or he's drugged up to the eyeballs - really weird intonations and emphasis.
Tractor output to be double over the next five years...
This treaty is less centralising than the one that lead to the Sinle Europe Act under Margaret Thatcher's government, or even the Maastricht Treaty, under John Major. No referenda then.
If it does not become law, then we are stuck with the current arrangements, which are not suited to an EU of 27 Member States.
The Sun is a comic book. A sales vehicle for dating websites, gay chat lines and Carling - not to mention soft porn on page three and the completely made up sports section. It has no moral or intellectual credibility and I don't know why anyone with half a wit at all would be interested in its cartoon ramblings on something as far above it as EU politics. I really don't.
Tony
.... nice to stir up some controversy isn't it :o)
Why is it anti-democratic not to have a referendum? We live in a parliamentry democracy where we elect people to make decisions on our behalf? Otherwise we would have a referendum on everything like the irish do.
It is people like you "Love Europe HATE THE EU" that we won't have a referendum, who believe everything you read in the Sun and think that anyone who is pro eu is anti british.
Put it this way, if there was a referendum on removing large numbers of civil liberties and you *knew* it would be passed, would you really want the referendum?
Has Gay Gordo called an election yet or is he still playing the tease?
Eurolover,
I have never read the Sun.
I have a couple of Masters though -one in Political Science.
Are you sure I am too stupid to understand the issues & vote on them?
The EU & its ardent fans - anti nation state & arrogance personified.
By the Sun at their finest you mean writing bollocks and calling it fact? Three quarters of the things on that pretty little map aren't even in the treaty or are so grossly distorted as to be unrecognisable.
If they actually had a correspondent in Brussels they might know what they were talking about.
"Hmmm thats strange, Guido did all that, without mentioning Labour's 8% lead or 17% if Brown promises a referendum. "
If you really believe that Gorgon will get an extra 9% of the vote if he promises a referendum on the EU you are as crazy as he is. Polls tend to reflect the desire of those that have paid for the poll.
Guido, glad to see that the 'Free State will be having a referendum on the EU as part of its democratic constitutional process.
I genuinely do not understand why the Irish, have spent centuries getting rid of the British, have willingly given it all up again with the EU. You can argue for economic reasons - but really, was Parnell driven by economics - I think not.
Eurolover
Why do you forget that this government got elected on a Manifesto commitment to have a referendum?
You don't work for the BBC do you?
We had one over the constitution of Scotland because the government was sure it would win. We will not have a referendum over the constitution of Europe because they know they will lose. We will never get a referendum on a written British constitution because it would be democratic and very popular, and because it is absolutely the last thing our ruling elites want us to have.
If thats democracy in action, then god save democracy, because the whole point of the process has been completely lost.
I repeat however.
"A man who uses his freedom to make himself a slave. Is no less of a slave."
Ludwig von Mises
So my advice to the British people is dont vote for it unless you want to live in a European Fascist Dictatorship instead of a British one. But if you do, do not expect a large amount of the British people to LOVE BIG BROTHER as much as you confess to do.
Unless a clear 65% of the people indicate that they positively wish to live in a prison cell of there own making. I in common with over half of the rest of Europe's people will just ignore, if at all possible, any European rules we do not like.
This WILL result in a break down in law and order, and then we will see what REAL honest 'eternal boot in the face' Fascism is all about.
"Why is it anti-democratic not to have a referendum?"
Because the whole structure of the EU concerns democracy. It allows politicians from other countries, elected or unelected, to make laws over this country. At least we can chuck out our own bunch of political cretins and get a different bunch to change the law.
I cannot believe that the one person I would vote for is Murdoch.
As long as he keeps this up.
In 1066 the Normans justified their invasion with a lie.It took us hundreds of years to bring the bastards to heel,if we ever did.The new Normans of the EU will lie in the same way.The difference this time is that we will not even be able to defend ourselves.To any Englishman the EU is meaningless drivel,dangerous drivel but still drivel.
And eurolover sums up in a nutshell why we must have a referendum. Even in a parliamentary democracy there are some things which need the assent of the people. Anything which affects the constitutional arrangements pretty much. That's why they had to have one for devolution in Scotland, Wales and NI.
And they promised to bring devolution in their 1997 Manifesto.
Brown doesn't want one because he knows fine well he'd lose. Well boo bloody hoo, that's what democracy is about.
This issue will become his Poll Tax.
Why do those who are pro-EU seem to think that they are more intelligent than anybody else? Does it not occur to them that there are plenty of extremely clever people who just happen to disagree with them? Or would that shatter their own little myth that the anti-EU movement is full of ignorant and stupid people? Still, at least the likes of Eurolover are prepared to admit that they're in a minority unlike some nutters who can't bring themselves to accept that Euroscepticism is popular.
Ah - so Guido is both an Irish citizen and was legally ordinarily resident in the Republic of Ireland on September 1st 2007. Who knew? One could almost have sworn from his postings that he resides in the UK.
Unless these two criteria are fulfilled it would be electoral fraud for Guido to vote in the referendum, and I am certain that Guido wouldn't want to commit electoral fraud in order to voice his opposition to the 'undemocratic EU', surely?
Anonymong,
Those two criteria are fulfilled. Am not UK resident and was in also in Ireland on that date, before going to France...
What's the use of voting No in Ireland? it is already the westernmost province of Greater Germany.
Hereward
Very perceptive of you to note that this does indeed go back to the Norman invasion.
However the words Roman, Saxon, Roman Catholic, Napoleonic, Nazi or Masonic would do just as well.
OH NO not another New World Order!!!!
Those that forget their history are destined to repeat it. The really nasty fascist bits especially.
Therefore not ordinarily resident in the legal sense and as such not entitled to be on the electoral register in Ireland, nevermind vote in the referendum. Tut, tut, Guido: abusing democracy to make a political point. One would almost think you were in New Labour.
On the contrary you mong. Am ordinarily resident in Wexford and on the electoral register. As regular readers well know...
After Miliband today it seems now impossible to go for a referendum. Or an autumn election unless he wants to do so in the face of News Int'l disapproval.
I'll be voting NO in Ireland too, and encouraging as many others as I can to do the same. JD.
Guido...
At least in Ireland they deport the riff raff.
I voted NEE in the Netherlands along with the vaste majority of my adopted countrymen-Having been occupied once they didn't want another police state again.
A Wexer??
As the old saying goes - there are only two thing that come from Wexford. Tinkers and Strawberries.
Guido - you're no strawberry...
why anyone would want to vote lib-dim-lab-con is beyond me,the three main parties already pinch 10million pounds of taxpayers money
by commons 'short money'.
the eu is what napoleon-stalin-hitler dreamed off.like teddy boys it is so 1950's.
the bilderberg group grew out of wartime nazi abswehr,they made sure there was a 'yes' vote in 1975.
it amuses me that so many hardline lefties join forces with a capitalistic organisation,which has led to denationalising our post offices,nhs public-private partnership,sold off our water and power supplies.
the reason our 'political class' love the eu is the more inept you are,the more cash you receive,aka
leon brittan,neil kinnock,peter mandelson, next president of eu tony blair or ken clarke?
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