The campaign to leave the EU takes British politics to a new low

[T_i_B]

http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2016/01/22/campaign-to-leave-eu-takes-british-politics-to-new-low

Nigel Farage today once again sought to use the dreadful recent sexual assaults in Cologne to further his own campaign to leave the EU. "I think a lot of women are saying 'Goodness gracious me, if we vote to stay in, is this what's coming to this country?'," the Ukip leader told LBC. "Those 1,000 young men that were outside the train station in Cologne will, within three to four years, have German passports, which means effectively they can come here.

It is easy to dismiss these comments as the sort of fear-mongering rhetoric which Farage has made an entire career out of, but it appears to be part of a deliberate strategy from the campaign to leave the EU.

Farage's comments follow those from the former aide to Michael Gove, Dominic Cummings, who is the current campaign director of Vote Leave. Cummings wrote on Twitter last week that: "EU law = once Cologne sex abusers get citizenship they can fly to UK & there's nothing we can do. #VoteLeave = safer choice".

Disingenous as it may be, this stuff cuts through. It conflates post-Cologne fear of refugees with post-Paris fear of terrorism and general disquiet over European freedom of movement and melts them all into one shrill dog whistle. Handily, it doesn't even need outright racism to hit home. After all, who doesn't want to keep rapists out?

[Denzil_DC]

1. Predictable.

The uptick in coverage of Cologne etc. in the already rabid Mail and Express (some of it eagerly seized up on by some DU members) is part of the same agenda. And it gets clicks and (presumably) sells newspapers.

[Bad Dog]

2. The no campaign is full of bigots, little Englanders and pompous arseholes.

They will sink to any depth. We need to make the young aware that it's their future that's being stolen.

Denzil is spot on.

[T_i_B]

3. Indeed

What worries me just as much though, is that the "Stronger In" campaign appears to be dominated by out of favour Blairites.

The "Stronger In" campaign needs to reach out beyond establishment centrists to beat the 'Kippers, because the consequences of Britain leaving the EU would be utterly disastrous.

[Bad Dog]

4. Agreed on all counts.

We really need someone who will appeal to the young generation, maybe Eddie Izzard, or even someone young.

[T_i_B]

5. The trouble here is this....

A lot of the benefits of being in the EU are very much taken for granted in my opinion. Be it cheap convenient imports or the ability to cheaply and conveniently export goods we make in this country.

The problem is going to be making people aware of the trade implications of leaving the EU. Something which the Leave campaign tends to be either naive or just plain dishonest about.

[Bad Dog]

6. One glimmer of hope

Is that before the last referendum was held the population was similarly anti EU (Common market.) When the campaigning started people changed their opinion. For many the EU means money going to Brussels and unfettered immigration.

Cameron's renegotiation only helps the No campaign, because the Eurosceptic Tories are No regardless, while the others are having to keep quiet until after Cameron brings back his piece of paper like Chamberlain.

[Denzil_DC]

7. It's going to get ugly.

I don't trash or hide threads or use ignore on DU (well, I have two "satirical" site clickbait posters on ignore, as I got fed up that they never tagged their post titles as satire, and they were always lame attempts anyway), but if the current trend to grab Mail and Express etc. trashy scaremongering and use it to launch rants about the situation in Europe from afar as if it was gospel, I may have to start doing so to safeguard my blood pressure and sanity.

On the one hand, the referendum's going to highlight schisms in the Tory Party like no other issue has in recent times. I seriously doubt Cameron's going to manage to secure more than minor face-saving concessions from the EU. If he's successful in some of his demands, we'll just end up an even more semi-detached member, which has been at the root of our problems since we belatedly joined.

On the other hand, in Scotland at least (I can't speak for elsewhere, and even my insights from up here are sketchy and largely secondhand), it looks like some who would have otherwise voted to remain in the EU are seriously reconsidering that, having observed the disgusting machinations around the crisis in Greece.

I wonder how it's playing among the three-quarters of a million or so Brits currently resident in Spain? I imagine they'll be applying for postal votes ...