
Euromyths 1992 to 2017 - DyslexicAtheist
https://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/euromyths-a-z-index/
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dijit
The kinds of people who believe these headlines (some of them require a
hilarious misunderstanding of what the EU even is) will not find this page,
nor will they engage with the content on the page. And if they did; they would
claim bias because it’s the European Union website.

I know this because my mother is a firm brexiteer (and, honestly, so was I
until I actually started looking at things- most of England outside of London
have a dim opinion of the EU and groupthink is stronger than you’d expect.)

Regardless, this highlights one of the pain points of the EU, it has bad PR
and is misunderstood by many.

However, the cost of solving this issue would be shouldered on taxpayer- which
would be more ammunition to the anti-EU movement.

“They’re forcing us to pay for propaganda”.

I don’t really have a solution. It’s just a bad situation. I wish the UK
written press wasn’t operating entirely at the will of Rupert Murdoch though.

~~~
NeedMoreTea
> most of England outside of London have a dim opinion of the EU

Nah. Can't simply blame it on stupid Northerners. It was far more nuanced than
that. There were multiple reasons for no votes, not all of which had anything
to do with the EU at all. Plenty of remainers in the Northern colonies like
Scotland and Manchester. Plenty who recognise their deprived town or region
has significant EU funding. Deprivation of course brings other issues, like
some blaming minorities for their woes. Brexit delivered a campaign blaming
minorities and free movement. :p

The saddest one to my mind is those who apparently wanted to give the govt a
bloody nose for years of austerity and under-investment in the regions. That's
quite some disconnect!

~~~
dijit
>Can't simply blame it on stupid Northerners.

As one myself, that was not my intention at all.

30+ years of anti-EU propaganda, lots of lies leading up to the referendum.
Catchy soundbites like "project fear" to dispel any attempts at reasoning
potential downsides.

It all adds up, and even then it was a very slim vote to leave.

But my original post still stands; EU has pretty poor PR in the UK (and likely
elsewhere) but an attempt to improve it would likely give ammunition to the
very tabloids who despise the EU today.

~~~
NeedMoreTea
> As one myself, that was not my intention at all.

My bad. :) There's certainly been some attempts to land blame on the
provinces.

> 30+ years of anti-EU propaganda ... EU has pretty poor PR

Quite. One of the most telling things is there has been almost no EU PR over
the decades. Just the odd logo on a development or in a region receiving aid.
Most governments put out ads, or leaflets from time to time. The EU should
perhaps have done a little too - maybe a "your region has got £xxm in
development funding" message could have registered the thought they're not all
bad in a few minds. Barely anything positive to be heard from pro-EU MPs and
parties.

------
NeedMoreTea
A lovely demonstration of the quality of UK media. These haven't just been
from rags like the Sun and Mail, but Telegraph and Times too.

Is it any wonder the referendum campaign was based on impossible dreams and
lies?

I also wonder if the EU have had to produce a similar page for any other EU
state.

