Who Is to Blame for Brexit’s Appeal? British Newspapers

[steve2470]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/22/opinion/who-is-to-blame-for-brexits-appeal-british-newspapers.html?_r=0

LONDON — No one should be surprised that Britain could vote to leave the European Union on Thursday. For decades, British newspapers have offered their readers an endless stream of biased, misleading and downright fallacious stories about Brussels. And the journalist who helped set the tone — long before he became the mayor of London or the face of the pro-Brexit campaign — was Boris Johnson.

I know this because I was appointed Brussels correspondent for The Times of London in 1999, a few years after Mr. Johnson reported from there for another London newspaper, The Telegraph. I had to live with the consequences.

Mr. Johnson, fired from The Times in 1988 for fabricating a quotation, made his name in Brussels not with honest reporting but with extreme euroskepticism, tirelessly attacking, mocking and denigrating the European Union. He wrote about European Union plans to take over Europe, ban Britain’s favorite potato chips, standardize condom sizes and blow up its own asbestos-filled headquarters. These articles were undoubtedly colorful but they bore scant relation to the truth.

Mr. Johnson’s dispatches galvanized the rest of Britain’s highly competitive and partisan newspaper industry. They were far more fun than the usual dry, policy-driven Brussels fare. Editors at other newspapers, particularly but not exclusively the tabloids, started pressing their own correspondents to match Mr. Johnson’s imaginative reports.

[eppur_se_muova]

1. The Times, a Murdoch rag since 1981. Who to blame? Murdoch, a fortiori. nt

[mr blur]

12. The Times, in fact, supports 'Remain'.

[Spider Jerusalem]

14. But the Sunday Times and the Sun are for "Leave"

although the most poisonous ignorance and lies have been not from the likes of the Times and the Torygraph or even the Sun but from the Daily Mail and the Express.

[Denzil_DC]

2. Yup.

It's impossible to have a sensible debate because of all the nonsense and lies that have become accepted as true.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

3. On both sides, really.

Part of me supports Brexit if only because supporters of the EU remind me of a wife batterer. "If you dare seek your independence, I'll punish you forever!"

Many of the so-called repercussions don't actually have to happen. It's not like we're talking about natural consequences. No, the EU will purposely punish Britain severely for "breaking up."

And that leaves a really bad taste in my mouth, and I understand better why some want to leave.

[Seeking Serenity]

4. What I've found interesting is that many who support

Scottish independence from the UK are dead-set against the UK leaving the EU. I don't understand that.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

5. Exactly.

nt

[Denzil_DC]

6. Well, I'm one of them.

I've lived in Scotland for over thirty years.

During the Scottish referendum, the Yes (to Scottish independence) campaign was clear that it saw Scotland's future as within the EU (and there were serious wrangles over whether that would be possible or allowed), so I don't see much of a contradiction. It ties in with a long Scottish tradition of internationalism, especially in terms of relations with the Continent and nordic nations. Any democratic deficit anyone can point to in the EU is true in spades of the current UK system, where 760 unelected lords outnumber the 650 elected MPs.

I'm not looking for a fight with anyone (TBH, like many of us I'm so fucking sick of this current referendum and can't wait till it's done), but in response to the other DUer who responded above, I think comparing the lies from the Leave side with those from the Remain side is pretty weak. From the harder-line and more vocal Leave proponents, we're talking serious demagoguery and a warping of reality to the extent where it's hard to even start arguing against some of the myths because those who believe them are part of a different reality.

The contradictions are actually more apparent on the Leave side - many of the arguments they vociferously used against Scottish independence they now reject when they're applied at a UK level.

If you want a flavour of how UK Duers view the whole thing, check out the UK Group: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1088

Quite a number of us see the EU's flaws quite clearly and think we should continue to engage in order to try to improve it, but I don't think any of us who actually live in the UK have piped up as wanting to leave.

[pampango]

8. Well said. If conservatives in the UK are successful with Brexit, it will be interesting to see the

reaction in Scotland in terms of a possible effort of liberals to renew efforts at independence and membership in the EU.

[Denzil_DC]

10. Yeah.

Anyone who talks about how horribly neoliberal the EU is - a legitimate leftwing criticism - obviously hasn't taken a look at the UK's mainstream parties over the past few decades. The idea that the country that spawned Thatcher and Blair would be more radical and less in the pockets of big business and the money markets if it stood alone, especially given the politics of the main Leave spokes, boggles my mind.

Add to that the validation of the disgusting scapegoating racist rhetoric coming out of Farage and other politicians who should know a damn sight better that a Leave vote would lead to, and it's a no-brainer.

If the polls are to believed, Scotland's likely to vote over 60% Remain.

Meanwhile, we have our own democratic deficit to deal with. To take an example, in terms of fisheries, Scotland has a vast coastline and lands 60% of the UK's catch (with around 8% of its population), but we're denied direct representation by the UK government in the EU (instead they send favoured timeservers and placemen) because they see fisheries policy as a bargaining chip to be used in negotiations on other issues they consider more important.

[mr blur]

11. "Punish Britain severely"?

So, much like President Obama's "warning", then.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

13. If you quit your athletic club you can't just keep using the swimming pool

The Brexit proponents believe they can walk away from the European Union and then bully the EU into extending all the privileges of membership.

Brexit is a one man game of Russian Roulette with a semi-automatic pistol. It's a temper-tantrum that shouldn't be indulged by Europe.

[tblue37]

7. Just as our media are largely to blame for Trump's success in the primaries. nt

[steve2470]

9. agreed nt