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What you didn't read in the front pages: Spain votes Yes to the EU Constitution
BillieTheBot
Posts: 8,721 Bot
Nearly 80% of Spanish voted yes to the EU Constitution.
Now I know that the Constitution will probably be rejected by one or anther of the 9 remaining countries to stage a referendum, but I thought I'd let you know nonetheless, because few newspapers (especially the tabloids) seem to be aware of it, judging by the lack of news on the front pages.
Had the Spanish voted No, you can bet your bottom dollar the Express, HateMail and the S*n would have cleared their front pages of David Beckham and anything else, and reported this at length.
Funny how journalism works in this country, isn't it? :rolleyes:
Now I know that the Constitution will probably be rejected by one or anther of the 9 remaining countries to stage a referendum, but I thought I'd let you know nonetheless, because few newspapers (especially the tabloids) seem to be aware of it, judging by the lack of news on the front pages.
Had the Spanish voted No, you can bet your bottom dollar the Express, HateMail and the S*n would have cleared their front pages of David Beckham and anything else, and reported this at length.
Funny how journalism works in this country, isn't it? :rolleyes:
Beep boop. I'm a bot.
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Comments
But it's excellent news.
given that only 44% of the electorate bothered to vote I wouldn't call it a ringing endorsement.
Its highly likely we will get about that figure turning out in the General Election.
Not that I'm aware of.
Given the polls which had taken place previously, I would suspect that many didn't bother to vote because they felt it was a "no-brainer".
Not really, because it's hardly groundbraking news.
You wouldn't expect to see front pages devoted to the headline "Sun Sets", would you?
Indeed. It's a matter of record that are larger number of people didn't vote at all in the last election, than actually voted for Labour...
Still, how would you ensure a minimum turnout and what would you do if we didn't get one? After all, everyone eligible has the opportunity...
You could certainly expect the headlines on all the usual suspect newspapers if a euro-sceptic country had voted No and it had been widely expected.
Not so much what makes surprising news as to which news suit our agenda and which don't.
Socialist opposition party wins election in Portugal with absolute majority
Now, perhaps the official result was not known until late... but exit polls would have clearly indicated the landslide well before newspapers went to print.
A double dose of bad news for right wingers/europhobes- thank god for David Beckham eh?
Very few people care that the Spanish voted yes, depressingly enough loads of people care about Becks and his kid.
I suspected the average reader of the Sun is not that interested in the intracies of Spanish politics and how that affects the EU. If you want serious International News you don't read a tabloid.
And it's worth noting that neither story is given prominence on the BBC news website either. Or are you suggesting that they are a right wing euro-skeptic news source too?
The BBC is not a newspaper- it's an 'instant' news service able to provide news as they happen, via TV, radio and internet. The Yes vote got plenty coverage when it happened.
Newspapers on the other hand issue their 'bulletins' once a day and report the most important news of the last 24 hours. The Yes vote should be on their front pages. I have just searched the S*n's website and there isn't even a fucking mention of the vote anywhere.
Pathetic in the extreme. They should not be allowed to call themselves a "news"paper.
But then as NQA commented, it's hardly of interest to the majority of the population because a yes vote in Spain doesn;t actually affect any of us directly because it means that the system just continues as planned. Only a no vote matters.
Just out of interest, though, how many Spanish Newspapers were anti? And many many of the political parties voiced their concern? And not having seen the UK papers today, is it frontpage new anywhere?
The Popular Party was in favour, albeit with gritted teeth. Not because they're against the Constitution but because they're still reeling from losing the election last year and their default policy is to oppose everything the government does or says. They also had a bit of conflict of interest, because the Spanish Catholic Church, absolutely spitting blood at the moment because of the government's new laws legalising gay marriage and making abortion more accessible to women, asked all Catholics to vote No, and we all know what good Catholics the Popular Party boys are.
The tabloids didn't ignore it because they're anti-Europe - they ignored it because Becks and Posh have just had a new baby, which is more newsworthy to the majority of tabloid readers than Spanish politics.
Other papers were a bit more subtle but they also ensured that news were widely reported within their pages- again, on an issue that was of no relevance whatsoever to Great Britain.
The Guardian is pretty poor on defence and Northern Ireland reporting and the Daily Telegraph is no better on local government and housing.
Now it could be because the editorship of one is a bunch of pinko commie loving PIRA supporters and the editorship of the other is are right wing neo-fascist aristocrats dedicated to enslaving the working class.
Or alternatively because much of the readership of the Guardian has little interest in the intracies of Defence and NI and the readership of the Telegraph are not into the social housing and local govt.
The Sun would soon go out of business if it concentrated on European politics. The Mirror is broadly pro-Europe, but it still went for the Beckham story.
Norway are not members of the EU
It was either Sweden or Denmark if it was a Scandinavian country, and most likely Denmark as Englands vote was said to depend on the Danish outcome.
For some bizarre reason (and not because the paper is prone to stereotyping ) the S*n chose to illustrate the story with a massive photo of a Viking cartoon character called Hagar the Terrible.
Then again we all know the intellectual depth of that fine newspaper.
Bascially, 90% of people here don't know the first thing about the Constitution either. But their minds are already made up (just as the minds of the Spaniards were already made up).
thats politics for ya!
On a 40% turnout? Only one in three voters backed it, and in a country as slavishly pro-EU as Spain this is pathetic. Not only did the government and all the media support it, they reeled in loads of celebrities too, and still, only 1 in 3 were for it.
Yet again, another example of the enormous democratic defecit at the heart of the EU.
Probably as good if not better than the turnout when the referendum is held here.
And only 17% lower turnout than those Iraqi elections that were said to be by some (including you) a resounding success...