EUROPIA THE BEAUTIFUL

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Arch-Europhile James Naughtie discussed "what lies ahead for the EU" this morning with arch-Europhile and former VP of the European Commission Lord Brittan and arch-Europhile historian (and consequent Lib Dem supporter) Timothy Garton-Ash. The discussion was thoughtful, not without interest and, inevitably, given the current 'existential threats' to the Euro, not entirely free from angst either, but nonetheless it was a meeting of Europhile minds of the kind an unbiased broadcaster might not have considered entirely acceptable.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8698000/8698581.stm
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Incidentally, our old friend James Naughtie gave us a fine Freudian slip this morning (highlighted, aptly, in red), asking Leon Brittan: "Sort of intrigued about the arrival of Nick Clegg as deputy prime minister. Not as intrigued as you will be since he used to work in your office in Brussels. (Why doesn't that surprise me?) Were you surprised when you saw the deal unravel and have you offered him any advice?" You can hope, Labour Jim, you can hope!
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Lord Brittan, no less incidentally, was delighted, clearly preferring the ConLib coalition to a Conservatives-only government (Why doesn't that surprise me either?)
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Coda: The Today website's headline for this piece is classic BBC:
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********Eurozone 'must keep the show on the road'
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As a summary of the BBC narrative, this can hardly be bettered!!
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WAXING LYRICAL

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The BBC's defence of Baroness Ashton is ongoing, but the Features, Views, Analysis section of the home page of the BBC News website is led today by a piece on her boss, EU president Herman Van Rompuy. 'The love of haiku' by Stephen Mulvey is wholly sympathetic to its subject.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8577506.stm
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UPDATE: The ever-eagle-eyed DB spotted the same puff-piece and his post about it on the Biased BBC blogsite (with a generous nod in my direction) has started what I hope is going to be a long chain of satirical haiku there! http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/2010/03/bbc-eu-public-relations.html#comments

FRIENDS OF BARONESS ASHTON

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Only on The Record Europe!
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Shirin Wheeler reviewed Baroness Ashton's performance at the European parliament last week before conducting a gentle interview with the lady herself.
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That's OK.
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Not so good, however, was the studio discussion that followed between a Polish MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski from the EPP-aligned Civic Platform and German Liberal Alexander Graf Lambsdorff. BOTH are members of a new group called 'Friends of the External Action Service', which aims to support Baroness Ashton and her new office. They want more help for her, for instance (4-6 deputy EU foreign ministers - doubtless on full pay!).
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Who could have thought it sensible - or fair - to discuss such a controversial position with only its keenest supporters? Why no sceptic (Paul Nuttall, for example)? Why not even a cautious supporter?
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ROBIN LUSTIG GETS IT WRONG

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Baroness Ashton was one of the topics on last night's The World Tonight.
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Robin Lustig said that "she has already suffered sustained sniping from some EU capitals." (Yes, there's that word 'sniping' again!) He continued, "There were complaints that she didn't visit Haiti immediately after the earthquake and that she failed to make it to the inauguration of the new Ukranian president." This is another bit of sloppy BBC journalism. Lady Ashton did make it to the inauguration of the new Ukranian president. The complaint was that in doing so she failed to make it to a joint EU-Nato defence meeting. That's two mistakes on just one detail of a single story from two top BBC reporters in just two days! It doesn't fill you with confidence, does it?
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Reporter Dominic Hughes then went on to dismiss the complaint about Haiti as 'relatively trivial' . His report ended with these words: "As MEPs filed out of the parliament's beehive-shaped chamber after Cathy Ashton's speech some were saying she's turned a corner, others that the time for sniping (yes, that word again - again!) has past and that they'll just have to get on and work with her." So, a win-win result for Baroness Ashton - if Dominic Hughes is to be believed.

HEWITT ON A WHITE HORSE

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Baroness Ashton had her big day at the European parliament today. Gavin Hewitt was there and has penned an article that's now available on the front page of the BBC News website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/gavinhewitt/2010/03/the_trials_of_catherine_ashton.html *
Guess what? It's pretty sympathetic to her.
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Hewitt defends her over her no-show in Haiti: "She didn't travel to Haiti immediately after its destructive earthquake. She waited and only visited there last week. I have covered disasters; the tsunami, the Pakistan earthquake, Katrina to name a few. In my experience visiting officials are tolerated more than welcomed."
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He then defends her over what he calls her "no-show at the European defence minister's meeting": "She was actually in Ukraine, a strategically important country for the EU." This misstates the issue. It wasn't just any old meeting of European defence ministers, as Hewitt suggests. Lady Ashton actually failed to attend a joint meeting of European defence ministers and Nato officials - their first joint meeting since she became head of European security policy.
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He portrays her as being the victim of a turf war, afflicted by a 'little lash of cruelty'.
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And as to her being out-of-her-depth, well, Gavin has an anonymous official on hand to come to the lady's help: "One senior official said to me "she can't match up to some of the foreign policy heavyweights" but she is skilful (sic) at finding consensus and has already developed good relations with Hillary Clinton and Russia's Sergei Lavrov."
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CON-TEXT

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I know that I'm far from alone in having noticed that the BBC has a bit of a soft spot for poor never-elected-to-anything, completely-out-of-her-depth Cathy 'Go Home' Ashton.
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The BBC's Europe editor Gavin Hewitt presented a short report on the continued 'sniping' (yes, he used that word again) against Baroness Ashton, the EUseless foreign minister, on this morning's Today programme.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8559000/8559141.stm
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The only direct critic was "Tory MEP Charles Tannock" - not that we heard any actual criticisms from him in the very short extract featured. Indeed, in the sporting spirit I expect from Mr Tannock (a fine Eurosceptic Tory), he said he still wished her the best of British luck, and added "she may surprise us all, and I hope she does", clearly said more in hope than expectation.
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That, however, was all the pretext someone at the Today website needed to yank Mr Tannock's words out of context and headline the piece
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**** ***Ashton 'may surprise us all'
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Have they no shame?

SNIPING AT BARONESS ASHTON

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The BBC News website's Politics Page contains an article called 'Under fire', and the sub-heading 'Brussels sniping tests Lady Ashton's EU diplomatic skill'. The word sniping implies malice and underhand behaviour. (To snipe is 'to attack a person's work with petulant or snide criticism, esp. anonymously or from a safe distance.'). The BBC sub-heading thus casts an aspersion on Lady Ashton's many critics - an aspersion which, if you read the article proper, is completely unwarranted. Her critics are very open and very serious:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8546108.stm
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The baroness was interviewed on this morning's Today by man of the moment James Naughtie. I can do no better here than quote DB's spot-on headline on the Biased BBC blogsite: 'Naughtie: Can I Plump Your Pillows, Lady Ashton?' http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/2010/03/naughtie-can-i-plump-your-pillows-lady.html No interruptions and no challenges, and this obsequious question: "You're a hundred days into the new job now. I mean, this is the kind of long term work that you have to do. Do you feel at all drained by some of the arguments that have been erupting in Europe about the settlement after the Lisbon Treaty was ratified and the way the appointments were made and so on?" DB dryly comments, "What touching concern for her "long term work" and the wearisome distractions she has had to endure, the poor never-elected thing." Indeed!

THE EU'S TENTACLES SPREAD AGAIN

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Back very briefly to this week's The Record Europe. The EU's latest intrusion into national policy concerns maternity and paternity pay, legislation long warned of by UKIP (see Derek's blog http://derekbennetteu-sceptic.blogspot.com/). The issue was briefly reported on by the programme, with just one 'talking head', Edita Estrela. She's a Portuguese socialist and she approves of the new legislation. The issue was mentioned only a few weeks ago, and there the only 'talking head' was a another socialist who supports the new legislation, Mary Honeyball of our own dear Labour Party.
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THE TEA-BAG WHO CONQUERED EUROPE

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In its deeply europhile desire to hear no evil and speak no evil of the European Commission the BBC is neglecting to report the never-ending 'mission creep' of that institution.
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The Daily Telegraph reports that Herman Van Rompuy is, exactly as Nigel Farage was saying, making serious moves to increase his powers at the expense of national sovereignty:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/7326640/War-in-the-EU-as-Herman-Van-Rompuy-makes-power-grab.html
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The Telegraph report shows that this unelected man, who (in the spirit of Nigel!) has all the charisma of a used tea-bag, is (as the self-same Nigel says) a 'dangerous' man.
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The negative coverage that the BBC has been giving Nigel Farage over his non-wishy-washy remarks about President Van Rampuy is a reflex action. The man is right but they don't want to hear it.

You will hear nothing of this on the BBC News website (from which the BBC could prune a few hard-line Europhiles for starters).

RESPECT MY AUTHORITY!

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BBC Europe editor Gavin Hewitt provides a neat example of bias by labeling in one of his recent blog articles http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/gavinhewitt. Though mostly quoting Charles Grant of the Beeb's favouite European think tank, the Centre for European Reform, Gavin ends by giving us a pearl of wisdom from a man he calls "the respected economist Paul Krugman". I wonder if this is part of the reason why Gavin uses the word 'respected' about Mr Krugman: "Krugman describes himself as liberal. He has explained that he views the term "liberal" in the American context to mean "more or less what social democratic means in Europe. Krugman has praised Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, asserting that he "defined the character of the worldwide [financial] rescue effort" and has since urged British voters not to support the opposition Conservative Party, arguing their Party Leader David Cameron "has had little to offer other than to raise the red flag of fiscal panic." (Wikipedia)

WHO DOES LABOUR VOTE WITH IN EUROLAND?

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The Record Europe introduced what sounds like a very detailed piece of statistical research into voting patterns at the European Parliament. Professor Simon Hix of the L.S.E. explained that political parties from across Europe are voting with their European groups far more than they are voting on national grounds. So a British Liberal will vote with Spanish and German liberals far more than they will vote with their national colleagues from other political parties. (I think I could have guessed that, if asked!)
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Professor Hix of the L.S.E. (who recently worked in the UK cabinet office) is one of the founders of a non-partisan website called VoteWatchEU, along with fellow L.S.E. prof and former policy advisor at the pro-European think tank the European Policy Centre Dr Sara Hagemann (pictured), Doru Frantescu of the pro-European Young European Federalists and Brussel-based prof Abdul G. Noury.
Their website is at http://www.votewatch.eu.

THINK TANKS AGAIN

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Last night's The World Tonight discussed the reasons why the Eurozone is deep in the mire at the moment.
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Reporting on the subject was the programme's economics correspondent Jonty Bloom. His report featured three talking heads:
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- Olaf Cramme, "director of the international think tank 'Policy Network'"
- Otmar Issing, a former board member of the European Central Bank and founding father of the Euro
- Charles Grant, "director of the Centre for European Reform"
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What sort of international think tank is Policy Network? It's a centre-left one, "dedicated to promoting progressive policies and the renewal of social democracy" - i.e. the BBC's sort of think tank. Its president is one Peter Mandelson.
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The Centre for European Reform is a pro-European think tank.
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No Eurosceptics were invited to Jonty's report.
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GIFTING THE GREEKS

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Combine the usual left-liberal bias of The World Tonight with its habitual Europhilia and put Jonty Bloom in charge and you'll get the sort of biased discussion of the EU summit on Greece that we heard on Thursday's edition of the programme. There were three interviewees, all of them firm Europhiles.

First up was Quentin Peel of the Financial Times. Mr Peel seems to share Jonty's preference for the French integrationalist model of Europe, "a coordinated economic policy", over the somewhat more cautious German approach. "But the consequence of what's been happening today in Brussels", said Bloom, "would seem to be that the people who said you couldn't have a Eurozone without that political co-operation, with the financial ministers getting together and having a common policy were right." Prudent Germany's understandable reluctance to make its hard-pressed taxpayers pay for Greece's disgraceful and reckless behaviour was discounted. Germany must help Greece and save the sacred Euro was the clear assumption here: "But Germany will, when push comes to shove, stand behind the Eurozone and that means standing behind Greece eventually?"
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Next up was French finance minister Christine Lagarde. Jonty's Mason-like opposition to sort of remedies needed to tackle an insane level of deficit were apparent here: "But doesn't this also mean that there is a very real danger of Greece going into an even worse recession because it is having to slash spending so much?" You can imagine our Labour politicians blessing Bloom for asking that such a question. All elephants in every room were ignored here.
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The final guest was, perhaps, the most inevitable of all. There just had to be someone from a Europhile think tank. This was arch-Europhile Simon Tilford chief economist of the Centre for European Reform. (For a sample of his thinking see http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/05/european-union-eurosceptic-britain-membership). Jonty and Simon got on like a house on fire.
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Have you heard anyone from a Eurosceptic think tank on the BBC recently? There's certainly been no-one on any of the programmes I review. This is hardly democratic.
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EUROPHILES RE-UNITED

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Screaming Europhile (and fellow university chancellor and opponent of university funding cuts) Lord Chris Patten is one of the very few Conservatives you might guess that Jim Naughtie would interview without displaying total contempt. I guessed before listening that things would go well between them - and they did. They supported each other's Europhile statements and laughed at each other's jokes. Even so, Naughtie just couldn't resist a dig at the Tories, even here:
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Patten: "...and Britain plods along this lonely furrow, still terrified that Europe is creating this superstate which is, of course, not happening at all..."
Naughtie: "And that terror, of course, would be identified (sic) if your party, which you will be out supporting in the election, becomes the government on May 7th".
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MORE ABOUT THINK TANKS

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The FEATURES, VIEWS, ANALYSIS section of the BBC News website's Politics page (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/default.stm) features an article called 'UK humbled?' by BBC business reporter Kabir Chibber (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8459301.stm).
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This reports at some length from a conference on London held to discuss the UK's role in the EU "as the financial crisis recedes from memory". The conference was organised by two pro-European think tanks, the Centre for European Reform and Business for New Europe. That the BBC would base a long article on the proceedings of two pro-European think tanks is unsurprising, isn't it, given the Beeb's long-standing Europhilia? Are there any balancing articles on the website reporting (at such length) from conferences organised by Eurosceptic think tanks? (I've had a good hunt and can't find any.)

A lot of the article is given over to the views of Lord Mandelson, but the overall message is that the 'European model' (i.e. Germany and France) has been seen to have triumphed over the 'Anglo-Saxon model'. Also that "the much stricter regulatory regime and greater role of the state in the economy of both eurozone countries (France and Germany) was attributed for this quick recovery." (The UK's failure to come out of recession not having anything to do with Brown and Co. having spend all our money before the financial crisis hit then?). One of the report's other concern is to soothe our fears over Michel Barnier, the EU's new (French) internal market's commissioner - no friend of the 'Anglo-Saxon' model. Kabir Chibber (and Lord Mandelson) assure us there's nothing to worry about this arch-interventionist. We'll see.
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Chibber's article is also notable for its marginalisation (what a horrible word!) of counterbalancing voices. Godfrey Bloom of UKIP is alluded to in passing, as is Conservative MEP Syed Kamall. They are not given a voice though, unlike Lord Mandelson, Roland Rudd of Business for New Europe (and a close confident of Lord Mandelson) and Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform. If there were to be an article based on a conference organised by Eurosceptic think tanks, would opposing voices be banished then? I doubt it.
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The only other European policy think tank encountered on my rounds this week was the European Policy Centre, whose director Jacki Davis appeared in a report from Adam Fleming on Wednesday's The Daily Politics. This is also staunchly pro-European.

MORE CHINESE WHISPERS

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Something strange is happening whenever the BBC refers to the execution of British drug-smuggler Akmal Shaikh by the Chinese (as first noted by David on the Biased BBC website).
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From the BBC News website ("He is set to become the first EU national to be executed in China in 50 years, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8432351.stm) to Carolyn Quinn on PM (29/12) ("Akmal Shaikh is the first EU national to be executed in China") to Paddy O'Connell on this morning's Broadcasting House ("The execution of Akmal Shaikh in China has left fresh questions over bilateral relations. His death by lethal injection left him the first EU national to be executed there in 50 years."), his EU citizenship is being given priority. The form of words used is almost identical each time, suggesting that it has been agreed by senior BBC editors. Curious, isn't it?
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Is this just a symptom of unconscious Europhilia, or deliberate BBC policy to stress EU citizenship above British citizenship? Or neither of the above?

HOW TO BURY BAD NEWS FOR LABOUR

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Newsnight spent lots of time last night on Copenhagen, featuring its 'Self-Regarding Man' and Ed Miliband too (I.C. of 0 for Gavin Esler) -what a treat!
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The economic basket-case that is Greece was also discussed, with Gavin agreeing with Greece's socialist finance minister George Papaconstantinou that being in the Eurozone is no bad thing for a country.
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Then at 37.22 came the news of the latest rise in unemployment - up by 21,000 between August and October. This important news was imparted in just 10 seconds then the programme moved on to the question of 'What is a Jew?' In the days of Conservative government, all rises in unemployment were the focus of frenzied reporting at the BBC. Not so in these days of Labour government. Bad news for Labour is buried.

DISPUTING ACTUALLY

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Here's a telling excerpt from Justin Webb's interview with Lord Pearson (the newly-elected leader of UKIP) on this morning's Today programme.
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Lord Pearson: "Don't forget, most of our national law is now made in Brussels in a secret process..."
Justin Webb (interrupting): "Well, that's disputed, isn't it actually?"
Lord Pearson: "No, it's not disputed actually..."
Justin Webb (interrupting again): "Well, they have an input into our national law, they don't make national laws."
Lord Pearson: "The German government says 84% of our national law..."
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QUEL PLONQUER!

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Yesterday's Broadcasting House afforded an amusing glimpse into the Europhile mindset of a bog-standard BBC interviewer. Paddy O'Connell was in Brussels, spending some quality time with Dan Hannan.
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Paddy was asking whether there was anything he liked about the city, at which Dan launched into an impassioned paean to Flanders "which has produced for me the greatest art and portraiture in the corpus of human achievement".
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This left our Beeboid at a loss for words: "I'm a bit surprised. I...I..thought...I...maybe I thought...er...er...you wouldn't tell me that."
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Why not? Does Paddy think all Eurosceptics are knuckle-dragging xenophobes? Probably.
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Dan responded "Like I say all Eurosceptics are terribly European. I read French novels, German philosophy and listen to Italian music, which is why it's sometimes a bit irksome to be told that we're xenophobes by people who would struggle with a French menu."
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Full marks for Paddy O'Connell for keeping what followed in - and which rather proved Dan Hannan's point. Paddy began asking people if they were Belgian and, if so, what they thought of the new EU president, Mr van Rumpuy. He was getting some confused responses, including the odd 'Pardon?'. After about four goes, Dan informed him he was asking not 'Are you Belgian?' but 'Are you Belgium?' (Paddy also used the joke-phrase 'the grand fromage' when asking one of the Belgiums a question!! Jeez.)

ESLER SOUNDS OFF. AGAIN.

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Gavin Esler, the supposedly impartial BBC presenter, has just been sharing his opinions with us yet again on Dateline London.
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On those absurd EU appointments, he told us (in keeping with what seems to be the Beeb's new standard line on the issue) "One way of looking at it is that Sarkozy and Merkel, and maybe Brown and Berlusconi and the others, want it to be - what did the French used to call it? - a 'union des patries', a union of sovereign states, which is what it is . So it's shot the idea that there's some federal superstate in the offing".
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Having taken sides against the Eurosceptics, he returned to the fray later, saying this: "I rarely hear the federalist superstate argument except for people who say they're opposed to it. You never hear anyone saying they want it."
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What will, say, UKIP make of such criticisms from a supposedly neutral BBC presenter?