Nick Clegg has been speaking on the first of his weekly radio phone-ins on LBC, and has been asked about the US comments. That much is dealt with on the BBC website, with the state broadcaster keen to exploit the propaganda opportunities afforded by Philip Gordon's intervention.
On the video clip accompanying the report, however, we see a different emphasis, with Clegg anxious to cut to the issue which he wants to convey as the most important. "Let's remember at the end of the day", he says, "that about three million, one in ten jobs in this country are dependent now, one way or the other, on our membership of the world's largest borderless single market".
He is asked by LBC Nick Ferrari whether he means "membership or trading with", to which Clegg asserts: "No, no, membership of the single market".
Interestingly, Ferrari doesn't have the wit to ask whether membership of the single market and of the EU are the same things. He does not, therefore, ask whether we have to be members of the EU to be part of the single market – which, of course, we do not.
And that is how the debate is being skewed. Clegg, quite dishonestly, implies that the EU and the single market are the same things, and is allowed to get away with it. There is no mention of the fact that Norway is a member of the single market, through its membership of the EEA.
One can see though, how important it is to europhiles like Clegg, that the full facts do not get out. He sets such store on his "three million jobs" that he would be left without an argument if it was shown that whatever number of jobs that are dependent on trade with EU member states is not dependent on membership of the EU.
From this, it is also evident why Cameron must also run the "no influence" meme. At every stage, the debate must be rigged, otherwise the EU "jobs emperor" is seen to be as naked as naked can be. And thus do they lie, by act, default and omission.
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