08/08/2014
Last night I picked up a report in the
Evening Standard which had our moronic London mayor declaring that EU renegotiation could "easily" be delivered in time for a referendum in 2017.
"There is no reason why an IGC (intergovernmental conference) to settle all those points shouldn't be done in that space of time", he told us, adding: "I think it could be done".
Little did I think that there was a national newspaper with an editorial staff dense enough to print the story on its front page, but then I reckoned without the
Express.
Any which way you look at what Mr Johnson is saying, it is idiotic. We've
been here before. Even if the prime minister could get a majority on the European Council to force a renegotiation (which is unlikely), it could not be until Spring (at the very earliest) that the procedure could be invoked.
Then, the sort of things Mr Johnson has in mind would require a treaty convention, before there could be an IGC, with at least 30 months elapsing before a new treaty could be agreed. There simply isn't time for that. His claim is absurd.
But to give a measure of quite what an imbecile he is, Johnson tells us that there is a need to be tough in talks. "If you don't go in hard to the tackle you are never going to come out well. You've got to go in hard and low", he declares.
This is going in to negotiate with 27 other member states â all of which have a veto - with a fundamental reform of the CAP on the table,
amongst other things.
If Johnson thinks that going in "hard and low" is going to convince the French to abandon the CAP, and waive their veto, then he is barking mad. More likely, we have a stupid man who believes his own propaganda. For once, Max Hastings has got it
partially right. The man is
totally unfit for high office. He's not even fit to be an MP - and that's setting the bar pretty low.
Yet such is the nature of our media that such stupidity is not treated with the disdain it deserves by rewarded with front-page splashes and even, in this case,
an editorial.
"There is a bustling air of can-do about Boris Johnson", says the paper. "This is why the public likes him for he seems a man who will cut to the chase, has no use for time-wasting bureaucracy and regards all problems as challenges to be overcome rather than insurmountable obstacles".
On it drones to tell us that he might just as well borrow Barack Obama's stirring slogan "Yes we can". After all, the paper says, the American president will not be needing it again. If anyone can chivy (sic) the Government into pressing for reforms in Brussels it is Boris Johnson.
This, of course, is from a newspaper that has championed UKIP and has campaigned for leaving the EU. Just as easily though, it switches tack and pushes the "reform" button, perpetrating a wicked myth that it is not only possible but "simple".
Standing back from this, one also has to consider the effects of such facile, venal sentiment on the political process. There are still a few serious politician left, who have ambitions of presenting the public with carefully thought-out arguments on the EU.
But then there is the torrent of publicity given to posturing fools such as Mr Johnson, against which serious politicians with serious messages cannot compete. If, in order to get your message heard in the media, it must be trivialised and distorted, that in turn sends a message that no ambitious politician can afford to ignore.
And in that lies the death of politics.
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