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August 22, 2003
Friday
 
 
Just for show
David Carr (London)  European Union • UK affairs

How frightfully decent of those splendid chaps at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to set up an online-forum to enable the riff-raff to contribute their thoughts and ideas on the proposed EU Constitution.

Registration is a pre-requisite to participation but at least it appears to be cost-free (which is a lot more than anyone can say about participation in the EU itself).

So, is this a genuine effort to solicit and publicise pro-Independence opinion or a potemkin facade calculated to provide a veneer of legitimacy to a decision that has already been made behind doors welded shut?

Another website established by the Foreign Office may hold just a few clues.

[My thanks to Emmanuel Goldstein for both links.]

Comments

Just for show or not, they're getting an earful.

I signed up and have read my way through a fair chunk of it, and it seems pretty relentlessly anti-EU. There are some articulate posters there, and so far only the briefest of yea-sayers.

It also has a fun rate-the-post feature, from 1 (the highest) to 10. I've been merrily bumping up the eloquent cranks. (I wish I could've caught the one that was pulled for profanity).

All they require is a username and email. Might be worth watching for a while.


Posted by S. Weasel at August 22, 2003 01:28 PM