EU Referendum


EU Referendum: Christmas comes early?


18/05/2015



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Gullible eurosceptics could hardly believe their "luck" this morning as the Guardian paraded its front-page story telling us: "JCB boss says EU exit could lift burden of bureaucracy on UK businesses".

With such a glowing headline, they could even be forgiven for thinking that Christmas has come early. But, of course, it hasn't. Any warm feeling left by the headline is quickly dissipated by the text, which tells us that: "The top executives of JCB … have said Britain should vote to leave the European Union if David Cameron fails to negotiate reductions to bureaucracy that weighs down UK businesses".

There we have, writ large, the "wait and see" strategy which, if adopted, would almost certainly lose the referendum for us.

Additionally, in a ploy so typical of the opposition, we see the elision of EU membership and the single market, as Graeme MacDonald – the CEO for JCB – is cited as dismissing concerns about the impact on business "if Britain voted to leave the single market".

Here on this blog, we know that Britain could leave the EU but stay in the Single Market, by dint of rejoining the EEA. But the Guardian doesn't want you to think in these terms. Its tactic, alongside the entire Europhile corpus, is to keep people confused enough to believe that the EU and the Single Market are one and the same thing.

However, we then get an apparent contradiction when MacDonald is asked if it would be better for the UK to quit an unreformed EU. To this, he says: "I think it would be, because I really don't think it would make a blind bit of difference to trade with Europe". MacDonald then is allowed to say: "There has been far too much scaremongering about things like jobs. I don't think it's in anyone's interest to stop trade. I don't think we or Brussels will put up trade barriers".

This, on the face of it looks quite encouraging, and especially as it is the Guardian conveying the story. But, as always, nothing is quite what it seems.

In the first instance, the newspaper is doing precisely what we don't want – it is framing the story as an economic issue, a ploy which the BBC is happily adopting, telling us that, "what business actually 'thinks' about Europe ... will be one of the defining issues ahead of the in/out referendum".

With that legend in place, they can perpetuate a tit-for-tat narrative, with a series of "he says, she says" exchanges. There is no better way of keeping people away from the substantive issues and driving the general public into a state of catatonic boredom.

However, there is an even darker side to this apparent concession to the eurosceptic cause. What the Guardian is also doing is providing a timely foil to the Europhile Open Europe for it to pedal the reform agenda, helping extend its baleful grip.

In this context, Norman Tebbit has noted that even the "hardcore" eurosceptics such as Bill Cash, are holding their tongues, having no wish to be labelled as disloyal "bastards" like those who troubled Mr Major a couple of decades ago.  If they can be prevailed upon to keep silent until Mr Cameron comes back from Brussels with his "deal", the fight will be almost over and they will find it impossible to regain the lost ground.

Meanwhile, rather suspiciously, the New Statesman is talking up the effectiveness of the "out" campaign, having previously told us:
The Out campaign has all-but-decided on its best line-up for the battle to come, and already exists in utero in the shape of Business for Britain, a sharp-elbowed and media-savvy think tank headed by Matthew Elliott that has quietly put together a team of able advocates for a European exit. To make matters worse for pro-Europeans, it is likely that when the campaign moves out of cover it will be bolstered by veterans from the Taxpayers' Alliance and the No to AV campaign - a sort of right-wing, anti-European version of the Avengers.
Give that the Elliott faction favours the "wait and see" strategy, one can see a "play" beginning to take shape. If the media can be prevailed upon to support the group most likely to fail, this will have the effect of marginalising a fully-fledged "out" campaign before it even gets under way.

It seems to me, perhaps,  that someone has been reading Sun Tzu and putting his principles into practice. "To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence" Sun Tzu counsels. "Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting".

As far as the Tory right, goes, Mr Tebbit's observations are also a warning of things to come. Nothing would please the Europhiles more than for us to lose the battle without even putting up credible a fight.