More on rightwing blogs.....
..... and why they're good for Labour. Reasons to be cheerful part 2. Further to the insightful character analysis that I posted yesterday, here's some more good news.
Right-wingers love to 'discuss' politics but only with people who share pretty much completely their own views. My insiders inside their party confirm that their meetings are quite unlike Labour party ones where almost no one agrees with anyone else about anything very much ever. But Tory activists generally always agree with one another and so come to believe that their eccentric views are mainstream. Tory blogs will add fuel to this phenomenon as the people who usually only get together in big groups at their party conference will find that 'thousands of people' agree with them about everything and will therefore be convinced that It Must Be Right.
Europe provides an example. There are probably only two or three million British people who are vehemently anti-EU. Unfortunately lots of them live in the South West which is why we have two UKIP MEPs and why the south Devon coastal strip was covered with their little purple signs in the spring of 2004. Most of the other forty million or so voters are indifferent about the EU (unhappily to judge by the present parlous state of the European Movement, there are only a few thousand EU enthusiasts in the UK).
But, to Tory activists, Europe is the proverbial red rag to the bull. Just look at any rightwing blog. See how the comments count rockets whenever a post mentions Europe. There's lots at the moment because of the pickle David Cameron is in over his promise to pull his MEPs out of the EPP.
So the poor souls will reinforce their prejudices and end up trying to drag their party back again to the 'one more heave' position genuinely believing that their curious views will appeal to the majority.
posted by Hughes Views @ 9:23 am
5 comments
5 Comments:
Just to prove your early point... I must disagree (well, a bit anyway). Whilst it may be true that only 2-3 million are vehemently opposed to the EU, I would hazard a guess that the majority of the population, particularly the more politically aware part of that population, have strong reservations about the EU. Many of them concerned about over regulation, or the EU intefering in domestic law etc. My opposition is not to the EU but to the lack of democractic institutions. Its central bank (so influential) meets in private, doesn't publish its minutes and doesn't appear to have any sense, like much of the EU, of democratic accountablity. If I elect my MEP, I want them to be able to contribute to policy formulation, not rubber stamp some eurocrats legislation. There, see, put any two Labour members in a room and we'll start a row!
"put any two Labour members in a room and we'll start a row" - absolutely right Bob but they'll both go home happy.
Put any two Tories in a room and they'll agree about everything but both go home furious!
I would have thought that a UKIP MEP would be a contradiction in terms. Shows how much I know! I am vaguely pro-Europe without actually knowing much about it. Don't suppose you could point me in the direction of a guide to the pros and cons of the EU for the slow of study could you?
Jenni - there's something about the EU's history at
http://europa.eu/abc/history/index_en.htm . The European Movement is going
through difficult times its main (and it now seems) only sponsor having
pulled the plug but there's stuff on their site at
http://www.euromove.org.uk/ .
I'm not as gloomy as Bob is about the democratic deficit, the council of
ministers holds quite a lot of power and they're all elected but it would be
good in the parliament had more teeth. There's a web site somewhere where
you can sign a petition to end the nonsense of it having to decamp to
Strasbourg every now and then but I can't remember where it is.....
Giving the EU parliament "more teeth" would not necessarily alleviate the democratic deficit. So few people vote to elect their MEPs that any notion of legitimacy is laughable.
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