Guy Aitchison (London, OK): This week the Sun launched a blistering campaign ahead of Blair's meeting with EU leaders on Thursday 21 June. Faced with the prospect of a "draconian new superstate" the paper is rallying Britons to their country's defence. The picture it paints is of the plucky, embattled isle of the opening credits to "Dad's Army". "Who" do Merkel and her "sweaty" band of Brussels bureaucrats "think they are kidding?" asks the Sun (why "sweaty"?). Pictures of military heroes Churchill and Nelson appear alongside the Queen, fish and chips and beer in a parade of Britishness in which the Sun is modest enough to include itself. Each of these symbols is given official patriotic approval by the Sun, stamped with the words "Made in Britain" plus a Union Jack. There follows a list of claims about what the proposed treaty will do (the Sun particularly objects to the charter of human rights being part of any new treaty). Some claims are factual and accurate, but others are wild and unsubstantiated, what a-brave-Blair might criticise as mixing "views" with "news". The message is clear: the EU treaty is the latest in a long line of French and German attempts to conquer Britain. But the Sun has seen through it and "caught out" Merkel. That is why it will mobilise its "army of readers" to stop this "surrender" to Brussels. Since Blair has "RULED OUT" giving the people a say on the treaty in a referendum the Sun will do so instead! It offers readers their democratic right to decide by phoning in and answering "No" to "Should Tony Blair support the new EU treaty?". As it appears under the screaming headline "7 DAYS TO SAVE BRITAIN" the vote's outcome could be described as a 'fait accompli' if it wasn't treason to use a French expression.
Today's News of the World picks up on the theme of Blair's "surrender" with an editorial entitled "New Battle for Britain". It also runs a piece by Fraser Nelson who sees Blair's "deepest betrayal of this country" as a fantastic opportunity for Brown to prove himself as PM by offering the people a vote on the EU treaty in a referendum. He takes great delight in anecdotal tales of Brown's rudeness to fellow EU finance ministers. "Gordo" he says, can keep us "safe from the crazy, wealth-destroying ideas in Brussels". Thus, the battle lines for the coming week have been drawn: it is Brown, the heroic defender of Britishness, against the "sneaky" and traitorous europhile Blair... Either that or Brown is neither as British nor as democratic as he claims.
In other words the message is: Rupert to Gordon: Gotcha!
