10/03/2008
We notice that the head of our government is given his own column in
The Daily Telegraph business section today â none other than José Manuel Barroso.
"Empowering consumers for a fairer Europe" is the title of his piece and is something of a
coup for the commission. It is a central part of its strategy to present the European Union in a more favourable light, which we flagged up in
June 2006 and followed through with
this piece and
this.
Of course, the best kind of propaganda â as we have occasionally observed â is the type that is not immediately recognisable as such. The Barroso piece fails on that score, but I wonder how many people â not least in
The Telegraph - realise that it is part of a deliberate, long-planned strategy.
The particular evil of this is that the downside is never mentioned â the overall cost of EU regulation, estimated
12 percent of GDP - a cool £600,000,000,000 year. Stress the upside and ignore the greater downside and you have all the elements of propaganda.
COMMENT THREAD
We notice that the head of our government is given his own column in The Daily Telegraph business section today â none other than José Manuel Barroso.