The Heavens Opened: A Thunderous Voice Spoke!

David Miliband descends from the heavens in the wake of fire and wind and all the people cow and huddle down in terror and awe!

The above picture could have been Lord Mandelson, David Cameron, Boris Johnson or Nigel Lawson or any other of dozens of such individuals.

What they have to say may be low quality, it may be proven to be inferior arguments, it may further be shown to be exposed as numerous fallacious argument techniques and finally just like Tony Blair, and now today David Cameron, it might be shown to be a Big Lie.

But repeatedly these individuals invade the political life of millions of people and hold disproportionate influence built through the media news with their privileged positions and access to these channels. This is based on their positions of prestige and not on the merit or quality of the arguments they are promoting.

"Leaving the EU would be an act of political arson that risks the destruction of international order, the former foreign secretary David Miliband has said.

In one of the starkest warnings of the referendum debate so far, Miliband argued that the impact of Brexit could extend far beyond the UK and that it could have a disastrous effect on the rest of the world.
Writing for the Guardian before delivering a key speech in Westminster on Tuesday, he said it would amount to “giving up on our alliances” with the rest of the world.
“It means forsaking our position at the negotiating table and abandoning our international responsibilities – unilateral political disarmament. No nation in human peacetime history has voluntarily given up as much political power as we are being invited to throw away on 23 June.”

Remember this is off the back of Nigel Lawson's own grand speech:-

The Brexit Door: Why Lord Lawson is wrong

Here Lawson has trashed the work done on building up arguments concerning the Irish Border and The Single Market. He's reported as the head of the Vote Leave group of Tory Politicians and thus symbolically the source and quality of their arguments or it's figurehead. He's only the latest in that rotation from Boris Johnson and David Cameron and Peter Mandelson:-

As The Brexit Door point out again Cameron’s “Bazaar” deal:-

"The most striking piece of the interview is when he is asked whether if the European Union was to change the deal, whether Britain should interpret that as a failure to honour what was promised.

"Who counts as the “the European Union” here? Member state leaders have met within the framework of the European Council, but their agreement is in no way a document of the European Union, but a text of hybrid character, which is unspecified and not legally binding.

At the moment, the whole thing is nothing more than a deal that has been hammered out down the local bazaar. The European Union, however, is a community of law, in which there are regulated responsibilities. If the British are going to put all their eggs in one basket, in a promise made like this, which has not yet complied with our clean process of law, then, for me, this process of law is more important and preferable."

This finally puts to bed any doubt that the deal struck by David Cameron is not binding. Here the Vice President of the EU Parliament spells it out in totally transparent language – the EU hasn’t agreed to anything, it cannot be held to a promise it never made.

I'm sure David Milliband has learnt from the likes of Peter Mandelson, the ideology of these people that they rightfully are in power and must dictate how people behave, as if they are gods amongst mere mortals:-

Their important weapons:-

• Fear
• Prestige
• Idolatry of the People themselves
• Control over The Speaker's Position (They speak, people listen obediently and silently)

The Goldfinch and the Gilded Cage

 The Goldfinch and the Gilded Cage

The sweet song of the beautiful Goldfinch pleases us when we hear it, but at the same time seeing these birds trapped in a cage concerns us, because we know the essential nature of these creatures is to fly freely in the air, not be trapped in a cage, even if that cage was made of gold, it has no other function but to trap the beautiful Goldfinch from spreading it's wings.

 Westminster: The Houses of Parliament

The imagery and allegory may be tendentious, but we come back to the "qualitative inferences" made so far and summarized You know, we're just not reaching that guy. From the idea of the Russian Doll concept as expressed by the Pigs in Animal Farm of the politicians less and less representing the arguments of the people and more and more representing the "political arithmetic" of power itself. And given this week-end it is the Tory Conference, no more explicit an example could be provided to demonstrate this:-

First of all Michael Heseltine writes the cautious "Party Loyalty" angle and covers that base, that without "David Cameron" the Tories "eurosceptics" would not be in power. For him the "political arithmetic" justifies the ends. Frazer Nelson writes that George Osbourne was going to campaign after a successful renegotiation to stay in a reformed EU but that is "on the line" and he could easily "vote the other way" if he is to be "the man who would be king." Again the political arithmetic is what dictates Osborne's actions, it is the rational "thing to do". Philip Hammond argues the state of the (1) renegotiations that (2) could trigger Osborne that (3) could trigger the eurosceptics that (4) Heseltine is gravely cautioning against. Unfortunately Mr. Brexit (see blogroll) uncovers the deception and sleight of hand in Hammond's role in this theatre: Philip Hammond's slippery little con trick . Finally balancing the equation, on the opposite side of the "=" sign is (5) Ian Duncan-Smith who argues from a "realistic" perspective of the "calamitous" events in Europe which must change the EU and other European leaders minds to sit down and reform the EU as per Mr. Cameron's wise council.

And a (1) and a (2) and a (3) and a (4)... And a (5) and a (1)...

Ian Duncan-Smith's piece is the most revealing: EU has been hit by 'out of control bulldozer', says Iain Duncan Smith:-

Conventional Wisdom = Duncan Smith, a member of the EU negotiations cabinet committee, claimed the Germans were “petrified” of a British exit, adding that Cameron was receiving a warm welcome for his proposals behind closed doors.

Covering All Arithmetic Bases = While some Eurosceptics, such as Nigel Lawson, claim Cameron will win no significant concessions, Duncan Smith said the UK would not be tabling its specific demands until closer to the EU council meeting in December. (polar opposite to Heseltine and divided/extreme eurosceptic base)

Amendments Sweeteners on Immigration IS Reform Fudge = Britain has abandoned demands to block free movement within the EU and instead wants a right to withhold in-work benefits for EU citizens for at least four years.

The EU Associate Membership cat is well out of the bag = “It is becoming clear and obvious that this cannot sustain itself any longer between what the ins [euro users] want and the outs want and, all of a sudden, we are in the middle of a very serious debate about how you run a system when we do not need to be involved in half the things they do and want. They want deeper and closer. We don’t over here.”

If we cast the net further afield from the Politicians across the News-Media:-

Google shows the multiplication of the above "matrix". Dr. RAE North finds a quintessential example of the "flourishing of ignorance" perpetuated by the recursive nature democratic argument narrowed and narrowed and narrowed in the halls of power... and hence inevitably the deterioration towards low quality arguments of our "so-called democracy" being sung so sweetly only from Westminster to the people: EU Referendum: flawed understanding

Described as a member of Business for Britain, one of Matthew Elliott's business ventures, this woman would have it that the EU was turning out to be a "flawed concept" because it had monetary union without fiscal or political union.

Seemingly a small detail, the EU cannot be regarded as a flawed concept for this reason. The very essence of the single currency was to launch an incomplete construct in the knowledge that the stresses would create political pressures which would drive further integration.

This is the mechanism of engrenage, at the core of the so-called Monnet Method, relying on the doctrine of the beneficial crisis. It is not, as they say, a bug, but a feature. The European Union was designed to act in this way.

Here is the perfect vehicle (and the most refined summation from Dr. North) for amplification of the EU Reform deal by the seemingly "business-headed, rational-thinking, economically-orientated "no political horses in this race, guv!": Business For Britain, of who's links to the Tories has been elaborated in great and extensive detail via The Boiling Frog (see blogroll): Business For Elliott's Friends.

Interestingly and completely independently (unlike some outfits) Lost Leonardo (see blogroll) blogs on the subject of A Two-Track Debate :-

The public and the politicians both agree that Britain needs a new relationship with the EU. The question that needs to be answered in the referendum is ‘What form should that new relationship take?’ Should we choose to “remain” in the EU, accepting that Britain should play a subordinate role within the supranational (“above the nation”) EU institutions, or should we choose to “leave” leave the EU, embracing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to correct an historic mistake and recast our relationship with the EU as one that is based on independent self-government and intergovernmental co-operation?
Until the legacy media turns its attention to serious matters, I see no reason involve them in our debate.

 There really is a 2-Track debate. As before, You know, we're just not reaching that guy. The Politicians and Media are entertaining one argument. And the assertion is that because Democracy, like a beautiful Goldfinch is trapped in a gilded cage, we the people hear it's sweet song and are satisfied with this. But atst if we look as well as listen, we can't help but notice that something is very very wrong with where the Goldfinch is kept. It's nature is to be able to spread it's wings and fly freely. What draws us to Westminster, and what draws the media is the "sweet song", but the politicians "own" our Goldfinch and in order to do that they must trap it. from George Orwell or F.A. Hayek we see that once this process starts then like the "Russian Dolls" or the "Mirrors within Mirrors" the effect this has on the quality of our arguments and hence our communication as a democracy is warped.

As we progress further along The Road To The European Union we may well do well to think about a simple question: As per Lost Leonardo's 2-Tracks above, it does not matter how fast we think we are going or where we say we want to go: If we're actually travelling on the wrong tracks as laid out by the politicians and amplified by the News-Media. When we don't know the way, we must rely on the quality of their arguments; not ours. We must rely on about 300 Conservative Politicians (Pigs) compared to 30 million people (The rest of the animals). Is this democracy?