I don't know whether to laugh at this or not. In what is clearly a spoof column in The Staggers (HERE) purporting to be by an anonymous civil servant in the Brexit department, we are told, among other incredible but clearly intended to be humorous snippets, that the EU denied our plucky negotiators water during the last round of talks in Brussels.
It wasn't made clear if the allegedly withheld water was for drinking or washing after a particularly sweaty meeting thrashing out details of our withdrawal, but putting that aside, The Telegraph is now reporting the story as fact (HERE). I am convinced it is a spoof but perhaps I'm wrong.
The Telegraph is outraged and no doubt so are their readers, those whose connection with the real world is usually only tenuous at best.
Either The Telegraph reporter genuinely misunderstood the New Statesman article or they know it is a joke but decided to run it as a serious story anyway in order (a) to embarrass the pro EU magazine and (b) to bolster the anti EU case by creating or increasing a sort of seething resentment among their own readers. That or it was lifted by a robot.
On the topic of The Telegraph, a once respected newspaper, I see they are reporting (HERE) that the president of the Commission, Jean Claude Juncker, "spent £24,000 on a private flight to Rome". But on Newsnight, on BBC last night, we heard that it was for nine people and was the whole travel cost including the flight. Also, it was not a private flight at all in the sense he was visiting his mother or doing some shopping. It was an official visit that used a a private jet. But see what a difference that would make to the headline. The Spanish organisation Access Info that dug out the figures said it was not unreasonable and actually small in relation to other examples of waste.
The cost of travel was a fraction of that of David Cameron and Theresa May. But The Telegraph is trying to put the worst possible spin on it and in the process feeding the prejudice of their readers. This is what the EU has to put up with. Until this changes unifying Europe will be an uphill struggle. And of course Nigel Farage weighed in calling it the tip of the waste iceberg. He should know.
