The initial media responses to David Cameron’s ‘victory’ on EU spending cuts suggest that by this evening he may have been declared a Deity by national acclaim. The reality is that this is Dave’s Neville Chamberlain moment.
Even the normally anti-Camerlot Telegraph uses the verb ‘slashed’ to describe the €30bn cut in European Union spending.
But this is a cut spread over six years. It equals almost exactly the risible level of cuts achieved by George Osborne in the UK.
The deal is being trumpeted as ‘the first cut in the history of the EU’.
But compared to total spending, it represents a 3% cut. And MEPs might still block it.
Britain’s budget-cost cuts could amount to £500m a year, allegedly.
That’s less than one sixth of our monthly trade deficit. Overall, Britain’s overheads as a Member State are described as ‘maintained’. France’s CAP subsidy, however, has been increased by €1billion per annum.
Our economic and fiscal position remains unchanged as ‘dire’. But while all this mass distraction was occurring, the following important news items appeared:
Mario Draghi gave a very downbeat outlook on eurozone economic progress.
In an interview with Der Spiegel, David Miliband pledged that Britain will remain at the heart of the EU.
A hearing is scheduled today in the High Court. It relates to no fewer than 165 civil phone hacking cases against Newscorp. Rupert Murdoch’s legal vipers have been “scrambling to settle the cases out of court” writes the Telegraph’s Louise Armitstead. But they clearly haven’t been entirely successful.
Tim Vine wrote a very funny tweet advising that Findus fishfingers are 100% sea-horse.
More later.
The Slog 