While it is accepted that the writers of opinion editorials (op-eds) do not choose the headline under which their piece is published, there is a certain, there is nevertheless a sense that they and the media are all in it together. The this for instance:
What we have here is Mats Persson spouting more rubbish into the EU debate and his Tory-front organisation doing the exact opposite of what the headline tells Telegraph readers.
One can forgive the Telegraph its confusion, after all, Persson refers to Europhiles in the third person despite the Open Europe position being in favour of UK membership of the EU. Open Europe is continuing along its fantasy path of EU reform, where the reform required necessitates the EU to tear up its founding principles and its raison d’etre. It is not so much a call for reform as a call for re-creating the EU as something wholly new – a free trade area instead of a single political entity.
The problem and what has held things back, according to Persson, is that the conversation about the EU is confined to the Westminster bubble. The Telegraph sub editor has widened this to include the Brussels bubble too in the headline. But one can only draw such a conclusion if they are part of that bubble, because there is a debate taking place across the country – only the pro-EU media ignores what is happening outside the all important Political bubble.
Open Europe’s solution to the Westminster echo chamber is taking the conversation beyond Westminster. So what are they doing? Going out to the real world to talk to ordinary people and small businesses whose views and opinions are discounted? Of course not. That might result in reality making an appearance.
No, they are creating a new carefully selected subset of the Political bubble in which likeminded souls who believe in fantasies such as the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and EU Reform, can all reinforce each other’s ignorance and come up with unworkable and impossible proposals and solutions that ignore the basic reality of EU structures, processes and its manner of governance. A group of the supposedly great and good who will ignore what Jose Manuel Barosso’s likely successor, Martin Schultz, has made crystal clear, that the tenets of the EU are non- negotiable and will not be changed.
So ‘eurosceptic’ Open Europe sallies forth alongside the ludicrous ‘Fresh Start’ group, assembling a group of 300 prestigious politicians and ‘opinion formers’ that does not include a single eurosceptic – let alone anyone with an understanding of the EU structures or processes that render any meaningful reform a complete non-starter – and rushes off to the Telegraph to be handed free of charge a substantial platform to publicise their stupidity.
Meanwhile, in the real world, the rest of us are stuck watching disbelieving as the fictional story line develops like a pisspoor soap opera around us; and the EU metaphorically shakes its head at the laughable and deluded challenge to its transparent and decades-old plan for governance of Europe, embodying the pillars of statehood comprising the inviolable four freedoms.
(hyperlinks to relevant material to follow shortly)
Autonomous Mind 
It’s the Muppet show … tp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnT7pT6zCcA
What will happen when the “bubble” bursts? By bubble I mean not only the Westminster Muppets, but the actual illusion fostered by the Cameron/Osborne duo, and also the starry eyed Fresh Starters, and the 95 faux eurosceptics. They are on a hiding to nothing.
Unlike most bubbles this will most certainly burst slowly over the next year of the election campaign as the fantasy of the political elite is revealed for what it is – a complete delusion. It will only take a few more leading EU politicians, Schulz, Barosso et al to tell them where to stuff their “negotiations”.
The campaign itself, will box Cameron even further into the corner in which he now hides, and it will be seen by all that he will be left empty handed even before any such process begins – assuming the unlikely event of his resuming office after the 2015 GE.
Given enough rope all of these will inevitably hang themselves.
As you rightly point out – they are asking the EU to tear up its founding principles – no chance of that.
@graham wood
“assuming the unlikely event of his resuming office after the 2015 GE.”
I’m firmly of the belief that this is being offered in the confident expectation that they won’t be in office after 2015.
Cosmic. An interesting thought, and I would like to think this was the case, but I cannot. True the Tories are in desperate disarray right now, of their own making, with the usual suspect – “Europe” as the primary cause.
But, if a week is a long time in politics then 18 months or so is an eternity.
We know how fickle the electorate is. If the economy continues to recover or even beyond expectations, then the EU may well recede into the background yet again, as the “feel good factor” reappears.
The EU itself may yet give Mr Slippery the opportunity to change tack over the “renegotiations” ploy, and once again “events” in the EU and Eurozone may give him the chance to plead the development of a new situation.
But, rest assured, “I will resolutely stand up for Britain and fight our corner”