{"id":12573,"date":"2011-12-14T09:06:19","date_gmt":"2011-12-14T14:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=12573"},"modified":"2011-12-14T10:11:01","modified_gmt":"2011-12-14T15:11:01","slug":"eurosceptics-described-as-bunch-of-insular-snobs-who-seem-to-have-a-hard-time-restraining-their-inner-fascist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2011\/12\/14\/eurosceptics-described-as-bunch-of-insular-snobs-who-seem-to-have-a-hard-time-restraining-their-inner-fascist\/","title":{"rendered":"Eurosceptics described as “bunch of insular snobs who seem to have a hard time restraining their inner fascist”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Frank Furedi<\/a> exposes the real reasons behind the chattering classes’ abuse of David Cameron:<\/p>\n

\n

It is one thing to accuse Cameron of committing a diplomatic faux pas<\/em> or the Foreign Office of ineptitude. But the criticisms currently being made of Cameron verge on the hysterical. When I listen to the hyperbole about what will apparently be the consequences of his destructive behaviour, it almost sounds as if he has committed an act of political betrayal in order to appease a handful of incorrigible reactionary Eurosceptics.<\/p>\n

Why this over-the-top reaction to what could turn out to be a relatively minor case of diplomatic miscommunication?<\/p>\n

Outwardly, the anger of the cosmopolitan clerisy is directed at Cameron\u2019s alleged appeasement of Tory Eurosceptics. The term Eurosceptic has a special meaning for the adherents to cosmopolitan policymaking. In their view, Euroscepticism is associated with values they abhor: upholding national sovereignty, Britishness and a traditional way of life. The moralistic devaluation of these values was vividly communicated by the New York Times<\/em> columnist Roger Cohen, who this week characterised Tory Eurosceptics as the \u2018pinstriped effluence of an ex-imperial nation\u2019. He seeks to dehumanise these people by arguing that this \u2018specimen\u2019s ascendancy\u2019 was reflected in Cameron\u2019s behaviour during the treaty negotiations. Cohen\u2019s moral devaluation of Eurosceptics, his dismissal of them from the ranks of humanity, is captured in his description of them as a \u2018bunch of insular snobs who seem to have a hard time restraining their inner fascist\u2019.<\/p>\n

The intemperate language suggests that the venomous anger directed at Eurosceptics cannot simply be driven by the clerisy\u2019s love affair with the European ideal. Rather, what is at issue here is the clerisy\u2019s preference for the technocracy-dominated and cosmopolitan-influenced institutions of Brussels. From their standpoint, the main virtue of the EU is that its leaders and administrators speak the same language as the UK clerisy. They read from the same emotional and cultural script, which they believe to be superior to the script and values associated with national sovereignty. That is why it isn\u2019t surprising that a BBC journalist can casually ask the Estonian prime minister to have a go at her own national leader. The UK-based communications clerisy has a greater affinity with the outlook of EU technocrats and political administrators than it does with the outlook of its own people.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frank Furedi exposes the real reasons behind the chattering classes’ abuse of David Cameron: It is one thing to accuse Cameron of committing a diplomatic faux pas or the Foreign Office of ineptitude. But the criticisms currently being made of Cameron verge on the hysterical. When I listen to the hyperbole about what will apparently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,62,28,53],"tags":[389,432,337,213,101],"class_list":["post-12573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britain","category-europe","category-media","category-politics","tag-davidcameron","tag-diplomacy","tag-eu","tag-newspapers","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-3gN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12573"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12575,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12573\/revisions\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}