Hey Catwoman! Wherebouts in our fine and sunny land do you call home? I's sittin' here in a li'l village in WestYorkshire.
Quote:
|
Euroscepticism has arisen out of ignorance and misplaced patriotism
|
I agree....and I still think that is fuelled by a the press ( tabloid and broadsheet) who have been more interested in perpetuating that ignorance by muddying everybody's waters with stories based on fear of change thna they have in dispelling any of the myths they have created (especially the ones they created during the latter years of the conservative government)
Many of us get our information from the news media for this kind of issue. I havent read the proposed European constitution I relied upon the media outlet I hold in most trust to pick out the details and give it to me in a digested form. If the major media outlets that people have access to become skewed in an anti european direction that surely has an effect on many people?
The idea that people arent really swayed by what the papers say and that really the papers just reflect the views is fair enough, until you have someone quote a newstory back at you which you know to have been made up and then fed to the populace. I recall in particular the story of asylum seekers who had apparently killed and eaten a swan. ....I know that the story was made up because the paper that made it up admitted it had done so ...I also know that it and several other stories (about asylum seekers) were discussed at length in the House of Lords during a discussion about lies in the tabloid press.
That same story of Swan-butchering asylum seekers was then quoted back at me by a relative in a discussion in which my relative dismayed me with his overt anti asylumseeker attitude.
I have seen him go from having a fairly civilised view of asylum seekers to believing we have far too many. In fact I would say the whole country has taken something of a leap to the right on that issue. The press however was already there.