I’m glad to see that the Miliblog is now back online, only this time as a group blog together with Minister for Europe Jim Murphy, and 4 FCO civil servants too. I hope he manages to surpass his posts about burping cows on the old Defra blog… More generally it’s good that government departments are making efforts to use the internet in interesting ways, although my main fear is this: who is actually going to believe what’s on the FCO blogs any more than they believe anything on any other government website? If we are to manage to start to dispel the myths about the EU pumped out online by EU Referendum and others then some more viral communications methods are going to have to be found.
Jon – as a “for instanceâ€, EUreferendum regularly flags up government and opposition politicians making proposals and promises that they cannot possibly keep, as their hands are tied by EU laws, directives etc. Literally, in the last few weeks the MSM has occasionally called them out on this, but generally there has been a “conspiracy of silence†covering their impotence.
Couple this with the Heath government knowingly lying to us that we were joining the “common market “ when they knew that the project was about political union.
Couple this with Labour and the LDs reneging on their promise of a referendum on the constitution/reform treaty.
I’m sorry, but if it looks like a conspiracy, sounds like a conspiracy and smells like a conspiracy, please excuse some of us for not automatically dismissing the possibility that it is a conspiracy – if only one that is “hidden in plain viewâ€.
Some of the facts from EU Referendum are indeed correct. However they use those facts to paint a picture of the EU as some strange conspiracy, with the aim of the EU taking over the UK. As you can see from this blog I do my best to write as much as I can on EU affairs from completely the opposite perspective to EU Referendum, facing down sceptics as and when I can. I’m doing my bit – Miliband and others should do so too.
You mention ‘myths pumped out by EUreferendum’.
I would like to know what myths you are referring to. Could it be that EUreferendum touches upon some truths that EU-philes like you find uncomfortable to realize? Though I do not agree with all that is written on EUreferendum I have found that its writers are reasonably well informed.
But if you want to dispel any of the ‘myths’ they are writing about, I’d love to hear. And I’m sure EUreferendum would like to hear as well.
The simplest way for you to counter “the myths pumped out by EU referendum“ would be to point out any factual inaccuracies in their material. But you may find that such errors are few and far between.