Should we be worried?

[TheOstrich]

The European Parliament is to spend almost £2 million on press monitoring and trawling Eurosceptic debates on the internet for "trolls" with whom to debate in the run-up and during euro-elections next year amid fears that hostility to the EU is growing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... surge.html

Putting aside the long-term implications over potential restrictions to the right to free speech, I think one good thing that will come out of this report is that anyone making a pro-EU posting on a website will immediately be dismissed as a Euro-troll .....

[cromwell]

Will there be a club? Do I get a badge?

[KateLMead]

Count me in.. Raise the Union Flag and let us keep it flying..

[cruiser2]

We will have to have a referendum about flying the flag. I will vote YES.
What is a "troll"?
Why have elections when all they seem to do is spend money they haven't got, increase their allowances and make more non-jobs.

[Oojamaflip]

What is a "troll"?

Cruiser, click the link:

Internet Troll

If you've never encountered one, then you've had a very sheltered internet life.

[Kaz]

Indeed!

[Suff]

could I be an EU troll. Please, please, pretty, pretty please??????



Maybe they should be MUCH more worried if I decide to stand for the English Democrats in the next EU elections....

I mean by all accounts it's money for old rope and I could use a rest...

[Workingman]

They're going to need more than 2 million quid to counter all the Europhobe myths.

A LOT more....>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[Suff]

And 10 times as much to counter all the EU truth's.....

[cromwell]

As a fully paid up pessimist, I reckon the EU referendum could still be won by the "Yes" camp.
On the "Yes" side we have:-

The Eu itself, naturally.
The Labour party, the Conservative party and the LibDems.
The BBC and Sky TV news.
Big business (very important, that).

Set against that lot, a couple of newspapers don't add up to much.

Any referendum campaign would be quite possily, the dirtiest political campaign that the UK has ever seen. The history of the UK's involvement with the EU has been a history of lies, starting off with Ted Heath and his "No loss of sovereignty".
And in my opinion there is no dirty trick that the "Yes" camp wouldn't pull, and no lie they wouldn't tell, to get their own way.
If you think that's harsh, remember some of the people who will be campaigning for the "Yes" camp - 'Lord' Mandelson and the Very Reverend Teflon Tone amongst them.

So my most likely scenario is that after a campaign of lies, scaremongering and dirty tricks, the "Yes" campaign wins. Politicians declare the issue closed forever, until the next opinion poll shows that 66% now want to leave the EU and we are all back to moaning about it...