Thursday 3 January 2013

"It Serves Us Well"

From Norwegian Prime Minster Jens Stoltenberg in 2011:
“We have no plans to study alternatives to the EØS agreement [the EEA], the agreement serves us well.”
Someone might want to let Open Europe know...

7 comments:

  1. Why bother trying to change a closed mind?
    Especially one which has this level of 'reach'...

    Estimated percentage of global internet users who visit openeuropeblog.blogspot.co.uk:
    Reach % Change
    3 month 0.00012%

    http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/openeuropeblog.blogspot.co.uk#

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  2. @Tony Because Open Europe has a disproportionate influence on the established media - it is often used as the token 'eurosceptic' view despite being anything but. For example

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/28/what-uk-options-outside-eu

    It is our enemy and will do what it can to sway the next referendum in order to stay in. Challenging its lies is thus extremely important even via the limited readership of its blog.

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  3. Aah the MSM angle. Sorry I don't follow the MSM so missed the connection.

    I'd never heard of open europe until I read your post. Won't be visiting their place again either. Seems to be a Quisling outfit aka an 'arms length' NGO much like the MSM and the Guardian in particular.

    IMHO challenging lies is a waste of time in this case as there is no way on gods earth that the challenge will make it into the public's collective mind.

    When you say it is 'our' enemy who is the 'our' you are referring to?

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  4. @Tony, by our enemy I mean it purports to be Euroscpetic and is taken as such by the media, but its position is actually completely the opposite.

    Its website is this

    http://www.openeurope.org.uk/

    ...and sadly it writes for most of the main papers. Its influence cannot be underestimated.

    Our comments may not make it into the "public's collective mind." but certainly they will be read by the upper echelons of government. And not only that by those that will relay those comments on via the comments field in various publications.

    We can only give it our best...

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  5. Thanks.
    I went to their website which is how I figured they were an NGO.

    I fail to see though how a political establishment which is 100% in favour of Britain's membership of the EU will be influenced by some negative comments on their NGO blog or their MSM.

    But each to their own.

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  6. The "reduced to the fax democracy of Norway" line is a serious plank of the argument against exit, pattered out by Cameron and others. OE is infuential and considered a go to source.

    That comment thread is a useful condensed reference to combat an argument that is being churned out and will be churned out in the coming months.

    Note that OE's response was lame.

    The empty and deceitful "status of Norway" claptrap has to be countered as best it can be, wherever it can be.

    The alternative is to let it stand.

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