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Brussels and babies' bottoms

• Mark Mardell
• 6 Jul 07, 02:19 PM

It鈥檚 fascinating to see how some stories are translated in the oddest places. Take this headline: 鈥淏russels wants to tax our nappies鈥�. It is perfectly true. Under , children鈥檚 clothing would lose its exemption.

But Britain has a veto and the government has promised to use it. In fact, it was one of the Conservatives鈥� complaints that 鈥渘ot losing the veto over taxation鈥� was a spurious red line for Tony Blair at the latest EU summit, because there was no such proposal on the table. The government had the good grace to privately admit it was a bit of a con and 鈥減urely presentational鈥�. If Britain did lose the veto on VAT changes, or did not exercise it, it would indeed be a huge story and would cost parents a lot of money. The Sun .

But the above headline comes not from a tabloid with a political agenda but , which as far as I can discover is about advice to parents, and doesn鈥檛 declare any political agenda.

The article goes on: 鈥淭he UK government has always resisted attempts by Brussels to call the shots over UK taxation, but thanks to Tony Blair's European ambitions, we could be left without a choice.鈥� Which suggests he gave up the veto, which he didn鈥檛.

It continues, 鈥淕ordon Brown, just like Tony Blair before him, has not mentioned the EU Treaty to the British public because the Govt has always steered clear of an open debate with the British people.鈥� I don鈥檛 know what constitutes 鈥渕entioned鈥� but Blair鈥檚 Commons statement and Brown鈥檚 interviews would seem to count to me.
I would never quibble if this was written by a pressure group or party, or indeed a campaigning newspaper. But it seems a little opinionated coming out of the blue.

Anyway, I鈥檓 keeping my judgements to myself while I am on holiday for a week. Although I hope to catch up with for a pint to discuss the finer points of blogging under canvas. But there will be a regular post on Thursday.

I鈥檝e also responded, rather late, to a couple of points in your thoughts about... the Treaty of Lisbon. You can read my reply here.

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