In this fascinating account of the euro debate, Peter Oborne and Frances Weaver analyse the deeply unpleasant ridicule and smear tactics used against eurosceptics, whose views have since been vindicated. They:
- recall the errors, falsehoods and libels uttered by the advocates of the single currency by politicians including Danny Alexander, Paddy Ashdown, Tony Blair, Ken Clarke, Nick Clegg, Chris Huhne, Peter Mandelson and Chris Patten and journalists including David Aaronovitch, Oonagh Blackman, Diane Coyle, Andrew Gowers, Johann Hari, Will Hutton, Philip Stephens and Hugo Young
- show how institutions such as the BBC, the Financial Times and the CBI surrendered any pretence of impartiality in their reporting of the euro
- explain the lessons which must be learnt as the UK enters a defining stage in the debate over its relationship with the EU
As Peter Jay writes in the Foreword:
“This book tells the most recent chapter in that story with a clear eye, sparing few blushes and sketching with rare insight the pathology of mind, a kind of group dementia, which progressively blinded those who should – and could – have known better to the nature of the betrayal they were perpetrating.”
Allister Heath, City AM Editor’s Letter:
“As Peter Oborne argues in Guilty Men, a brilliant pamphlet for the Centre for Policy Studies, the strategy was to create the impression that those arguing against the euro were mad, racist or xenophobic. This moral and cultural bullying almost succeeded. It is high time that those who got it so wrong hid their heads in shame – and that business and the City makes sure it never again backs these kinds of economically irrational, corporatist and undemocratic projects.”
Media Impact:
- Today programme: Peter Oborne vs. Denis Macshane discussing the way the euro debate was framed. Macshane: “you won, we lost.” Oborne: “William Hague warned about it, Margaret Thatcher warned about it and they were treated by the BBC, by the Financial Times as mad.
- City AM: Allister Heath’s editors letter
- Spectator: Front page splash and main article: The great euro swindle – Peter Oborne and Frances Weaver
- The Times: Op-ed by Peter Jay – How Britain was betrayed to the Bonapartists
- Economist: When elites get it wrong
- Telegraph: The great euro swindle – Peter Oborne and Frances Weaver
- Conservative Home: The Right was right about free enterprise, crime and the €uro. It’s right about climate change today – Tim Montgomerie
- The Commentator: Without exposing the Guilty Men in the Eurozone debate, we won’t learn for the future – Ryan Bourne
- Order Order: Oborne has guilty Europhiles squirming
- Huffington Post: Euro Debate: Politicians And Institutions Guilty Of Euro Bias, Says CPS Report
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Lewis James Brown also wrote on the publication for the CPS website.
Video of Peter Oborne speaking at the launch event can be seen on YouTube, while photographs from the event can be seen on our Flickr account.
Top Tweets:
- Jesse Norman MP: Oborne and Weaver pamphlet Guilty Men for @cpsthinktank is completely gripping
- Toby Young: Fantastic evisceration of the FT by Peter Oborne and Frances Weaver
- Nigel Fletcher: Glorious to hear Oborne putting @bbcR4today in a spin by setting out his case against them. The charge sheet is indeed set out in his paper
- Guido Fawkes: To say Peter Oborne is on magnificent form at his CPS pamphlet launch is an understatement.
Video
Peter Oborne speaks at the official launch of Guilty Men at the CPS
