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by tormeh 4395 days ago
Yeah, the EU as a concept is phenomenal. Its execution is more questionable and its PR is flat out disastrous, with national politicians blaming it for all kinds of ills.

Also, banana curvature. Really, how was the EU not able to squash that myth? I get that the EU fundamentally answers to national governments and not voters directly, but the tiniest bit of PR effort towards voters might help in the long run, don't you think?
2 comments
rodgerd 4395 days ago
> Really, how was the EU not able to squash that myth?

When people like Rupert Murdoch are heavily invested in having people adopt a particular view it's rather hard to make headway with anything so unimportant as the truth.

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pjc50 4395 days ago
- It wasn't entirely false, just misleading (there is a standard defining what a banana is for the purposes of trade categorisation, tax and subsidy)

- the EU does not believe it's dependent on the goodwill of voters; the elected part of the EU itself is the weakest

- the UK media is very anti-EU and the EU has no real UK media operation

- it's "tone accurate": the EU does produce an awful lot of fiddly little rules. The proposal to ban unsealed olive oil from restaurant tables got quite far recently before the public heard about it and it was laughed out of feasibility.

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tormeh 4394 days ago
If the EU does not believe it's dependent on the goodwill of voters, then why did it care about the unsealed olive oil ban being laughed at? The Brussels bureaucracy is a mess, but it's not ridiculous. The proposal would never have passed, regardless of public attention.

Okay, that's just my belief, but it would be fairly depressing if I'm wrong.

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