Andy McSmith's Diary: EU debate needs to inspire more before it will pass the ‘playground test’

It will be interesting to find out whether the EU referendum will ever pass the “playground test”. In other words, will the public ever become so engaged with it that parents will be heard talking about it as they collect their children from school?

Google’s tax arrangements passed the test, at least around where I live, where shopkeepers freely offered their opinions on how much they wished they could screw the same sort of deal out of HMRC that Google had. And in the run up to the Scottish referendum, it seemed that you could barely take 10 steps in a public place anywhere in Scotland without overhearing expressing an opinion on the pros or cons of independence.

On Friday and Saturday I did some experimental ear wigging around the shopping centres and pubs of Newcastle upon Tyne, and on Sunday at Newcastle station and on the train to London, in the hope of overhearing anyone say anything about the drama being played out in Brussels, the extraordinary circumstance of a Saturday Cabinet meeting, or whether Boris Johnson come out for Brexit. I did not hear a word.

Word of the day

The EU is frankly not a subject that inspires great oratory. It is rare indeed to hear anyone utter a compelling sentence on the subject. But there was an occasion, four years ago this weekend, when that adornment of the Tory back benches, Jacob Rees-Mogg, delivered an immortal line as MPs debated the pay awarded to EU staff. He announced that he intended to “indulge in the floccinaucinihilipilification of EU judges”. Whether or not you agree with Rees-Mogg that EU judges deserve to be floccinaucinihilipilificated, all credit to him for being the first to get this essential word into the official record of parliamentary proceedings.

Oh dear, Louise

The blogger Tim Fenton has compiled a choice collection from the 127,000 entries on the Twitter feed of the former Tory MP, Louise Mensch (pictured), who had very decided opinions about Boris Johnson and his attitude to the EU. I particularly enjoyed her take down of the anti-EU commentator, Tim Montgomerie: “Tim you are literally the only journalist I know who does not consider Boris a Europhile”. In another tweet she described the Mayor as a “rabid Europhile”. What must it be like to be such a know-it-all?

open image in gallery

Will art follow life?

There is to be a sequel to the film Independence Day, called Independence Day: Resurgence, which will be coming to our cinema screens on 24 June – the day we will learn the outcome of the EU referendum.

CSI Westminster

Political journalists arriving at work yesterday had something even more exciting than the EU referendum to talk about. Moncrieff’s, the hacks’ café, had become an authentic crime scene, taped off with a police officer on sentry duty. Detectives are hunting a thief who sneaked in there early in the morning and used a metal rod to force open a cabinet and steal wine.

Awkward error

After Lisa Masters, the mother of teenager with Down’s syndrome, had written a letter of complaint to Wirral Council about the respite facilities they were offering for her daughter, a careless official sent her a reply addressed to “Mrs Downs”. The council has apologised, the Liverpool Echo reports.