The Columbo Method: Norway

"Oh Sir/Madame/Dr., just one more thing... ."

I'm sure most people are familiar with Lieutenant Columbo detective series on television and his famous/infamous method of uncovering the criminals or to be more accurate, his method in provoking them into uncovering themselves? Apart from his combination of initially appearing to be unassuming and bumbling to gain their mutual rapport and underestimation, he then uses that base to keep plugging a few questions before getting into their heads with suggestions and seeing if they change their story and then again repeating more questions from unexpected places. What's relied on in general is the lack of consistency of the villain's story when the Motive is clear. Columbo usually has to work out the Opportunity and Means from the villain themselves alongside his own detective work and evidence gathering.

Unassuming: Weakness or Strength?

Coming back to The Norway Option which has recently been highlighted in both Brexit For Beginners and  considered under the constructive filter of A Science Of Simplicity as per fulfilling those conditions for example reducing the "Brexit Choices Pie Piece" which then like dominoes knocks on removing and reduces other Pie Pieces which is exactly what we want for The Referendum Day Present Simple People's Choice. After all, blame the politicians for pushing >40yrs of membership into x1 day with poor explanation and development of the subject to the people all this time. And this is what Columbo is dealing with in the villains the audience is presented with: How to disentangle their deception.

Honesty and pragmatism will win the referendum

We almost certainly will not "win" 2017, but if we hold to the above we cannot "lose", either

 In Dr. RAE North's Strategy ten: communication: at EUReferendum.com (see sidebar):-

"But there was something more to it – a lot more. What we were also seeing were the effects of "prestige". On the one side there were the three main party leaders, Wilson, Margaret Thatcher and Jeremy Thorpe, most of the business community and almost every newspaper – plus the BBC. On the other, as Kellner points out, there was "half the Labour party, most trade unions, Enoch Powell and the Scottish National party".

In truth, the issues hardly mattered. Not one in a thousand had any real idea of the political ambitions of the EEC. The majority were prepared to have their opinions handed down to them by people who were endowed with that magical property, "prestige". They were not going to argue with the prevailing wisdom.

Forty-plus years later, if anyone thinks things are going to be any different, they are being delusional. In the information game, one just has to put a big name newspaper report against a blog post (which may be better written, more accurate and with more detail) and the newspaper will win every time.  Simply compare the reach the idiot Boris Johnson with that of lesser mortals." 

 Putting the key evidence together: Opportunity & Means

LeaveHQ also ran another blog post on The Norway Option in reflection of the latest Pro-EU Membership argument to accuse this option as "beneath Britain" in We'd rather have the Norway Option than Stockholm Syndrome which is a top quality play on words (wish I'd said that) as per Stronger In Europe's leader Lord Stuart Rose:-

"no credible alternative has been articulated. Following the path of Norway and Switzerland — who pay for access to the single market but have no influence over the regulations they must accept — would weaken our control over our economic affairs." ~ British Business must not stay silent in the Brexit debate - FT.com, Lord Stuart Rose

"For all practical purposes, Norway is part of the union, but has no influence. Norwegians must wait in the corridor when decisions are being made that affect them. This violates the entire idea of the enlightenment project and the European integration project. Here, everybody should be equal participants in the exercise of popular sovereignty...  No alternative project is in sight in the age of globalisation. With all its flaws and shortcomings, the EU is here to stay. It is ‘the only game in town’...Norwegian citizens have become second-class European citizens... democratic self-harm since our form of affiliation is based on choices that could have been different, and that would have been less harmful in a democratic perspective."  ~ Norway’s rejection of EU membership has given the country less self-determination, not more - LSE Blog, Erik O. Eriksen

"A Britain choosing this track would, in other words, keep paying, it would be “run by Brussels”...Without full European Union membership, however, it would have given up on having a say over EU policies: like Norway, it would have no vote and no presence when crucial decisions that affect the daily lives of its citizens are made... Norway and Switzerland, heavily integrated as we both are in the EU, have simply chosen between the two currently existing options for staying in the outer circle." ~ We pay, but have no say: that’s the reality of Norway’s relationship with the EU - The Guardian Espen Barth Eide

"Some people arguing for Britain to leave the European Union ... have particularly pointed to the position of Norway saying that is a good outcome, Cameron said.

"Norway actually pays as much per head to the EU as we do, they actually take twice as many per head migrants as we do in this country but of course they have no seat at the table, no ability to negotiate."  Cameron admits Norway no model for Britain in Europe ~ Euractiv, David Cameron

 “We [Norway] are fully integrated into the EU single market as members of the EEA, but what we don’t have is the right to vote on those regulations that are incorporated into our law when they are made by the council of ministers.”

“We now have the Norwegian Europe minister himself telling us to get a grip, get real and get involved in shaping Europe. Little England cannot be an option,” Wilding said. ~ Britain will lose influence in the world if it quits the EU, says Norway - The Guardian, Vidar Helgesen

Mr Brende today insisted ‘Britain can have more influence inside the EU than outside’. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘On the directives from the EU, we implement those in Norway. ‘We are one of the countries in Europe that are the fastest ones in doing so because the single market is so important for us. ‘Our arrangement being part of the European Economic Area is that we have to implement all the EU directives. ‘We are not around the table when these are discussed in Brussels.’ He said Britain could be a ‘no nonsense’ voice in Brussels on cutting red tape and regulation. ~ We implement Brussels rules faster than anyone, Norway warns UK Eurosceptics who want to copy Scandinavians outside EU The Daily Mail, Børge Brende

"Of course, we must tell the truth about the 3 million jobs, 25,000 companies, £200bn of annual exports and £​450bn of inward investment linked to Europe; and how the “Britzerland” or Norwegian alternatives (even Norwegians oppose the Norwegian option) leave us subject to EU rules, but denied a vote in shaping them." ~ The truly patriotic British view on Europe? We must lead from within - The Guardian, Gordon Brown

"Excellent... excellent..."

"This works for Norway’s economy, built on plentiful natural resources and with a far smaller population than Britain, but would be no good for an economy as complex as ours.
 
In return, Norway, under prime minister Erna Solberg, is the 10th-highest contributor to the EU budget, but it lacks any clout over EU decision-making because it has no seat at the table: no commissioner, no MEPs and no ministers attending European Council meetings." ~ Five reasons for staying within a reformed EU - John Cridland is CBI director-general The Daily Telegraph, John Cridland

"Norway has seen "extensive Europeanisation" in the past 20 years despite being outside the EU, a government-commissioned report says.
While it sees the economic benefits as largely positive, the report expresses concern at the political consequences as Norway is bound, in practice, to adopt EU policies "without voting rights".
 
Mr Sejersted calls this a "great democratic deficit... but this is a kind of national compromise since Norway decided it did not want to join the EU"
Some British eurosceptics, including Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan, have argued that the UK should be like Norway, outside the EU, but according to this report Norway is both "outside and inside" the EU and just "one or two steps behind".

 "Fax-Democracy", 2001: The source of origin itself

"The EEA gives it access to the EU's internal market and its “four freedoms”: freedom of movement for goods, services, people and capital. But this comes at a price. The Norwegians are obliged to accept every single piece of internal-market legislation, and they have no vote on these laws...
 
All this has led many to conclude that Norway would actually be better off joining the EU. At least it would have some say over all the legislation it is forced to adopt. Jens Stoltenberg, leader of Norway's opposition Labour Party, bemoans his country's “fax democracy”, in which officials sit by the fax machine waiting for the latest directive from Brussels to arrive." ~ The Norwegian option: Those strange European countries that have kept out of the European Union The Economist, 2004 - Jens Stoltenberg

  
Nick Clegg: 'Groomed' for the EU

"And heading to the exit would be the surest way to diminish the UK. Because what then? Become the next Norway or Switzerland? Advocates of repatriation point to these nations and say they have the best of both worlds: success to Europe’s markets without an assault on their sovereignty.

But these countries sit and wait for bills and directives from Brussels, duly paying their bit, changing their laws, but with absolutely no say over Europe’s rules. No political representation, no national voting rights, no voice at all.

They work by fax democracy: you find your instructions on the machine in the morning, and you follow them. They have no meaningful sovereignty in the EU. Norway has had to implement three quarters of all EU legislation, including the Working Time Directive.

To go down that route would be a catastrophic loss of sovereignty for this nation. I want better for the UK, and our other allies want better for us too. They pay into the EU Budget: for the specific programmes they participate in and for development grants to new member states." ~ Nick Clegg EU budget speech in full - recorded in Politics.co.uk, Nick Clegg

I tried to read a lot of books, for enjoyment and for education. I've not read a lot of detective fiction genre, but I have got to say, writing up this particular blog post has been exceedingly enjoyable! The thrill of the detective clues and linking up all the bits of evidence, I can see why/how people get hooked on this genre! What's noticeable:-

• Prestige of all the contributors hammering home how aweful Norway is
• Visibility of a free pass in the press and no fact checking done since <2001!
• Motive: This is the key: They're all Pro-EU big-shots who buy into the EU; particularly the last 2: The big cheese in NATO and Nick Clegg the model EU student in British Politics.

In my quick research online I only found x1 article that mentioned The Bruges Group paper The Norway Option above in contention to the prestige of all the above speakers who get a free pass in the legacy news-media; despite google results bringinig it up on the front page along with Jonathan Lindsell's Civitas work on The Norway Option:-

The Norwegian Way: A case study for Britain’s future relationship with the EU

New study – the Norwegian model is a viable Brexit option: 13 February 2015 by Jonathan Lindsell

Norway itself actually provides plenty of information:- Norway Government: 6 The EEA and Norway’s room for manoeuvre and EFTA itself via Decision-Making and Decision-Shaping.

The Boiling Frog covers this some more: EU Referendum: EEA Ruled by Fax? Iceland Said No as well as White Wednesday's useful bookmark resources for The Norway Option: Some Bookmarks and of course it comprises merely one part of FLEXCIT:

"And  one point, he  adds, "which  is  almost  always overlooked",  is  that  the  founding  charter  of  the  EEA,  the  Lisbon  Treaty, enshrines  the  EU's  jurisdiction  as  it  stood  on  2  May  1992.  It  provides  no mechanism  to  impose  on  Norway,  Iceland  or  Liechtenstein  the  extensions  of EU power  that  have  happened  in  subsequent  treaties,  notably  in  the  fields  of
employment  law,  social  policy  and  justice  and  home  affairs.  It  is  up  to  these countries to  decide whether  they wish  to alter  their  own law  to keep pace with the EU in these areas."

 FLEXCIT p.94: Two-Pillar System: Multiple EFTA-EU contacts at early stage of legislative process

"In  fact,  this  phenomenon  is  more  commonly  called "fax  democracy" a label coined by Norwegian Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, in February 2001. He  was  seeking  to  promote  full  EU  membership  to  his  reluctant  countrymen, who  had  already  twice  rejected  membership." p.

We've finally completed our detective work: We've seen how prestige of these hugely important individuals gives them free access to the legacy news-media and then we see a huge component of the Norwegian Pro-EU Political Class and the British Pro-EU Political Class dominating the debate because of their shared motives to prevent both Norwegian people and British people in seeing how disruptive to further EU Integration The Norway Option for Britain would be.

From the various additional areas of research we see this:-

The Authority of the prestigious individuals allows their Pro-EU motive to manipulate public understanding of the Brexit options. What's interesting is this is backed up by polls of Norwegians themselves to add to our previous poll on British people in A Political Mirror: People:-

Despite all the prestige and pomp and power: The people hold the power in Norway over EU representation and they don't see either the dangers of non-membership nor the riches of representation in the EU Political Union promised and threatened by the politicians, equally.

The politicians have exerted vast powers of influence and political persuasion and propaganda to convince people to not vote for The Norway Option, apart from infrequent and perhaps calculated concessions such as Dear Britain, there is life outside the EU. Brexiteers and so-called "eurosceptics" may like to take note of the Pro-EU's efforts and equally anyone else might like to question their received arguments from authority, too.

Combining all the quotes by the Pro-EU on The Norway Option and the people who make them provides an impressive pattern from which to include in our arguments as demonstration of "changing the story" and inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the "story" growing the more the fabricated story is retold and retold to us. Just like Columbo, we can rely on the liar to trip themselves up over their own lies, when we persist in asking:-

"Just One More Thing..."

The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.

A scene from The Big Lebowski (swearing)

"All the world's a stage,"

"And all the men and women merely players;"
"They have their exits and their entrances,"
"And one man in his time plays many parts,"

The quote above is from William Shakespeare's As You Like It, spoken by 'Jacques' in Act II Scene VII. The speech compares "the world to a stage and life to a play." The above video clip is from The Coen Brother's comedy The Big Lebowski and the title quote from Oscar Wilde who suggests the poor quality of the play (life) is not the script (As You Like It) or the stage (world) but often lies with the cast (people/players).

The film scene above is in my opinion very high comedy value despite the colourful language: Please watch it and enjoy. And if I'm honest it's the benchmark of the the vast majority of the "eurosceptic" and "Pro-EU" arguments and their (lack of) quality, their personality-driven behaviour, which drives miscommunication (arguing at cross-purposes) and general incoherence of meaning and purpose. In Pattern Recognition we looked at the "short-circuiting" effect "prestige" has on the progression of arguments after having looked at this very effect first brought up highlighting the emerging "Tory Strategy" (as part of a larger general pattern in politics itself) concerning the Referendum in The Goldfinch and the Gilded Cage and then exemplied or indeed personified in David Cameron in Big Ben: The Four-Faced Liar. Recently other "playes" in this political cast were considered and how their roles were shaped by the preceding along with the Media's input (see previously "I've Been Expecting You...") such as the role that UKIP has assumed in this political comedy over the EU, in OMG !!!! Parakeet invasion once again you could say personified in Nigel Farage.

  

Heath: EEC membership for "The Greater Good"

We know that the origins of the EU when Edward Heath signed the UK via The European Communities Act (1972) was by acting with full knowledge whatever his ideology or intentions, to paraphrase Winston Churchill's famous quote:-

"It is a lie wrapped in a falsehood inside a Great Deception"

Christopher Booker sets the record straight concerning Boris Johnson's account of Winston Churchill in "The Churchill Factor": Where Boris gets Winston Churchill wrong :-

Why does Johnson try to pretend, against all the evidence, that Churchill might have wanted Britain to join in with Monnet’s supranational project? Why, in quoting Churchill’s Albert Hall speech in 1947, does he omit the crucial passage in which Churchill made clear that, while supporting Europe’s political integration, he saw no direct part in it for Britain, with its “Empire and Commonwealth”? This was a position he had eloquently stated as far back as 1930, when there was first serious talk about creating a “United States of Europe”. Johnson even betrays his ignorance by suggesting that Churchill was first to coin this already familiar phrase. 

Accordingly, Dr. RAE North picks this up further: Booker: Boris tells it wrong

Johnson, for instance, quotes from the Parliamentary debate of 27 June 1950, on the Schuman Plan, but he omits any the key part of it which demonstrates, without the slightest hint of ambiguity, that Churchill was opposed to the plan. 

It is simply darkening counsel to pretend … that by participating in the discussion, under the safeguards and reservations I have read, we could have been committed against our will to anything of this nature. I would add, to make my answer quite clear to the right hon. and learned Gentleman, that if he asked me, "Would you agree to a supranational authority which has the power to tell Great Britain not to cut any more coal or make any more steel, but to grow tomatoes instead?" I should say, without hesitation, the answer is "no". But why not be there to give the answer?

And from The Churchill Society:

"We have our own dream and our own task."
"We are with Europe, but not of it."
"We are linked but not combined."
"We are interested and associated but not absorbed."

 Here's an example of a man who played his part in the play to great general acclaim, and yet there are people who would due to this pervert his "performance" as something they would prefer it to be - not what it actually was.

 But the actual question is how many "players" are "well-cast" in this EU play?

Nick Clegg: When "image" is more attractive than "substance"

I can't help but think the very primitive role of "Captain EURO" was played by Nick Clegg in our actual national discussion of our membership to the Supranational European Union. Dr. RAE North That debate: a victory against a weak opponent mentions his weak performance where it was mostly agreed he lost to Farage in terms of the "argument" and indeed this seems to have been backed up in part by the poor General Election under Nick Clegg as well as EU Elections the Liberal Democrat Party suffered. His quality of contribution is further discussed in EU politics: he really is that ignorant.

There is very little value in Nick Clegg's contribution, for several reasons: The argument is no longer dominated by the "orthodoxy of Pro-EU" membership and a side-show to British Politics since "New Labour". As above Cameron's new orthdoxy of "EUrosceptic Reform" has now become "the latest fashion". His arguments built on lies and deception could only assert the negative of the opposite of EU Membership not the positive of EU membership via FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt). This behaviour in our arguments was what started my own scepticism as per How do you become a "eurosceptic"? 

When masquerading arguments replaces the real thing

There it was pointed out, that without honesty, transparency and trust in our arguments we are effectively unable to argue coherently on either side of the argument. Again Christopher Booker writes, Our political scene is weirder than I can ever remember . Even on the "Pro-Brexit" side of the debate, the clear professionals on this topic such as Daniel Hannan sounds very convincing but when their actual arguments are looked at in closer detail, Dr. RAE North writes: EU exit: stretching the debate

"Danny Champion of the Anglosphere"

Wearily, that is where Mr Hannan is stuck, in a decade-long groove that has not advanced an iota - even down to his arrogance in claiming to represent "most British Eurosceptics".

Of all the issues, though, the one that has progressed least is the question of regulation. Mr Hannan believes that having to deal with less regulation (the nine percent that he asserts) is better than the situation we encounter within the EU. But what he and others don't seem to realise is that there can be no difference in the amount of regulation we apply, in or out of the EU - in the short term, at least. 

Invariably the above arguments end up becoming each proponents' own personal fiefdom: The arguments become identified with the personality of the proponent or "player" too much. So it is a honestly welcome contribution to the arguments when one of the cast knows what their role is and plays it honestly in this "play": Enter Right Of Stage: Andrew Duff :-

 Andrew Duff: One Last Hurrah For Chivalry!!

Andrew Duff, former Liberal Democrat MEP and "Pro-Federalist" for the EU, who also contributed to "Fundamental Law of the European Union, published jointly by the Spinelli Group and the Bertelsmann Stiftung" and has written in the capacity as per: On Governing Europe and written before on The case for an Associate Membership of the European Union (2013) and then more recently Coping with the British: here’s how (September 2015) and again Cameron’s bid for irreversible guarantee means constitutional chaos (October 2015). A summary of which is provided my Mr. Brexit (so there's no need to review the content here and our purpose concerning the quality of arguments besides (see blogroll: Vote To Leave The EU) Andrew Duff... the best ally Brexiteers have in the fight against Cameron 

Looking at the title you could be forgiven if you are a "eurosceptic" for reacting in a petty manner and crowing triumphantly that here at last the "EU has dropped the ball" and now we can tell the world and win. I don't see it this way. As a "Brexiteer" (or even "Flexiteer"!) I read the title in this way:-

"Here is a player who knows their lines, knows their role, is experienced on stage and hence plays their part with some talent and dignity."

There are big problems in the world (the stage) in Europe and the UK, with our Money Supply, with debt/deficit, with democracy, our system of governance, with the EUROZONE and with the democratic deficit of the EU itself. Brexit is our focus, but it bears remembering that the entire cast all contribute one way or another in the quality of our arguments on all sides of the debate. Failing to accept this is effectively failing to learn from the mistakes of the good intentions of the people who decided to create the EU in the first place and circumvent effective arguments in the open, honestly put forwards for people to freely choose from.

In the case of Andrew Duff, I disagree with his vision of Europe, but when it comes to: "The world is a stage", at least he's doing his bit to ensure it's well cast.

Thank you.