24/04/2015
Tesco has reported a £6.4bn pre-tax loss, the biggest loss in high street history and the sixth worst loss for any UK company. And now the true scale of years of mismanagement has been laid bare, says the
Independent.
Yet John Allan, the new chairman of the self-same company
now sees fit to criticise David Cameron's pledge to hold an EU referendum as "the cart very firmly before the horse". He claims that the prospect is causing uncertainty for investors, and this represents a "heavy pebble" placed in the scales of the British economy.
Perhaps though Mr Allan should, quite literally, mind his own business. And when, perhaps, he has got his own house in order, he might still reflect that politics are the business of politicians and grocers should concentrate on, er ⦠selling groceries.
Yet Mr Allan is only one in a long line of businessmen who believe themselves equipped to comment on our relationship with the EU. Another is
George Gillespie, chief executive of automotive firm MIRA.
This man is nothing if not predictable, being given a platform by the BBC
Today programme to "warn" that in leaving Europe, Britain risks "cutting itself off from Europe and struggling to attract foreign investment".
He added the discussions about the possibility of a referendum had caused "ripple effects around the world" and required him to offer assurances the UK has not left the EU during a visit to China.
All of this, of course, is classic Europhile disinformation, but it has been all too common in the run-up to this election. But what we are not getting from our "side" is any determined effort to neutralise this tactic â and there is no sign that the media are in the market for any correctives.
That seems to me to be the real problem. On the one hand, the media have their narrative and are incapable of stepping outside it while, on the other, there is no alternative narrative being offered as a counter.
Meanwhile, support for Ukip, continues to
drain away, dropping to ten points on the latest
ComRes poll (down two).
At least, since the party isn't making the running on the EU, it isn't reaping any rewards either. And that might be taken as a signal: a weak campaign does not
garner support. This is a lesson the anti-EU movement as a whole is going to have to learn.
