I don't even undersstand why they are doing this. The domestic public can easily be sold on a deal that keeps the rebate growing a little bit, because they won't know that it should have grown more. The other countries (i.e. the officials negotiating) won't listen to that parsing of the numbers because they know exactly what's behind the numbers.
So a claim that the UK is "giving up 9bn" makes no sense to me, politically speaking: it does not seem enough to win over the Europeans, but it's a huge chunk of money that will certainly mean "betrayal" in the right wing press. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Blair is using bully tactics and spin (with Brown attempting to outdo him), but like so much in the UK presidency, everything is ill-prepared and badly thought-out. But then, when have Blair/Brown ever been really interested in European matters? Is it surprising they don't have their options clearly mapped out?
I'm afraid the entire UK presidency betrays the contempt in which the New Labour leadership holds the EU.
As for the media, they just give us all kinds of numbers that are fed by the pols. The EU should make a real effort to make the budget more transparent. That would oblige pols to be clearer in turn.
