Page two of today’s Sun – Britain’s biggest-selling newspaper, owned by the eurosceptic Australian tax-dodger Rupert Murdoch – is dominated by a huge banner headline about the proposed EU constitution stating “EU DEAL END FOR POUND”. Considering page two of pretty much every tabloid is used for burying “boring” political news, the headlines are all that most Sun readers will have noticed – distracted as they are by the pert bosoms of some Essex slapper on the opposite sheet. (and yes, I know this makes me sound like an intellectual snob – but I was the one reading The Sun in a pub at lunchtime…)
In other words, this Sun headline – the size, the positioning, the alarmist language, everything – is deliberately designed to be taken on face value, and make the paper’s three and a half million readers start fretting that their beloved coinage is in imminent danger of abolition.
This is, of course, total nonsense. Not only has Blair already stated that there are no plans to switch to the euro before the next general election – a significant step back from the last decade of “wait and see” uncertainty – but the constitution doesn’t actually have anything much to say about the EU currency of choice.
In fact, should any of the Sun’s readers be able to tear themselves away from the “charms” of the buxom lovely on page three, they’d see in the very first paragraph that the headline is entirely unrepresentative of the actual “story”. A story which is, perhaps unsurprisingly, based on some propaganda from the newly rebranded “No” campaign (which made the utterly implausible claim on Newsnight last night that “none” of its members advocated withdrawal from the EU) – propaganda based on a “No” campaign-commissioned ICM poll of just 1000 people.
The story is the somewhat depressing but altogether unsurprising one that the British public are sorely uninformed about the EU, and specifically about the constitution:
“SEVEN out of ten people believe the Pound will be axed if Britain signs the EU constitution… They are convinced backing the EU�s new diktats will automatically kill off Sterling. They say Britain will be dragged into the euro whether we like it or not.”
This is, of course, palpable nonsense – but then, it is the “Great British Public (TM)” who are allegedly saying it. Even if the constitution did have anything concrete to say about takeup of the euro, all three major parties are committed to holding a referendum over joining – another prime example of the buck-passing insanity of the damn things, but that’s beside the point.
The Sun’s article quotes the constitution’s Article III-69 – which they say states “The activities of the member states shall include . . . a single currency, the euro”.
This is a slight misquote, due to a misplaced ellipsis. It actually says (with The Sun’s quote in italics) “the activities of the Member States and the Union shall include, as provided in the Constitution, the adoption of an economic policy which is based on the close coordination of Member States’ economic policies, on the internal market and on the definition of common objectives, and conducted in accordance with the principle of an open market economy with free competition. 2. Concurrently with the foregoing, and as provided in the Constitution and in accordance with the procedures set out therein, these activities shall include a single currency, the euro”
The implication they are trying to make is that the constitution says that all member states must adopt the euro, and specifically adopt it as the national currency rather than merely for the purpose of trade within the bloc – lest we forget, inclusion and adoption are very different things. Of course, the vagueness of this particular article (as with the whole damn constitution) is such that that could be one interpretation, but – and vitally importantly, considering this is a legal document we are dealing with – there is no explicit statement that EU member states must adopt the euro as their sole or even primary currency – merely that the euro will play a part in the EU’s economic activities.
Now I’m not going to try and deny that it is in the interests of the EU for every member state to adopt the Euro at some stage. Nor shall I deny that this is what the clause is hinting at. But there is – vitally – no timescale on the takeup of the euro mentioned anywhere in the constitutional text.
All the constitution says is that the euro will play a part in EU-wide economic activities (as will, surely, every currency of every member state – but the euro is the most logical one to use for intra-EU trade). There is nothing about member states having to adopt it as the currency of the high street, and the fact that Britain has partially been trading with euros ever since it came into being as the shoddily-named Ecu is, the way The Sun and the “No” campaign have presented their scare story, not important.
To those who are against the whole thing, what is apparently more important than what the constitution actually says – and allowing the British public to form their own opinions based on fact – is scaremongering headlines, selective quotation and partisan poll results designed to make the thing out to be forcing the country to adopt measures about which the constitution actually doesn’t have an awful lot to say.
It’s actually a very cunning approach. There isn’t – apart from the headline – a single actual lie in the entire article. But it is, nonetheless, an opinion piece dressed up as a news story with a large and misleading headline which deliberately shepherds any unwary readers to accept that opinion as fact. We’re going to be seeing a lot more of this sort of thing – from both sides – over the coming months. My advice – when it comes to debates over the EU, don’t accept anything at face value.
