Discussing Hungary on Russia Today

Finally I got there - that ideal media outlet of the British eurosceptic community, Russia Today, a Kremlin mouthpiece. Actually, I probably would not mind that but I do object to the fact that the people who work for it do not even pretend to have any journalistic professionalism. Any old rubbish, as long as it is anti-Western, anti-American and anti-British will do. At least, pretend that you have done some research on that story about the absconding Somalian, allegedly driven out of the country by MI5 who were carrying out racial profiling who then disappeared from Somalia, yadda-yadda-yadda. At least, I thought, pretend that you have found out who the people who are making libellous statements about the security services are. I mean who were the campaigners for the absconding Somali? Who said that he was in a prison in Djibouti? No name, no pack drill.

My story was about Hungary or rather an entertaining piece of proposed legislation: it seems that some FIDESZ deputies of Parliament are proposing a law that would offer new benefits to foreigners who buy government bonds.

Proposed legislation listed on parliament's website would grant permanent residency and ultimately Hungarian citizenship to outsiders who buy at least 250,000 euros ($322,600) worth of special government bonds.

RT made the same mistake as Reuters does in its headline.Nobody is proposing to make these people Hungarian. You can forget about revolving doors I told the RT interviewer. Permanent residency and possible Hungarian citizenship, which may not be real citizenship is all that is being discussed. It is not unknown for other countries to speed up the citizenship application of people who bring a good deal of money into the country.

What about the French and the Italians, asked the interviewer. Well, what about them? They don't want foreigners, do they? They keep saying they don't want foreigners. Look, said I patiently, when they say they don't want foreigners they don't mean a dozen Chinese billionaires who do not need to be Hungarian citizens to be welcome in most parts of the EU.

Would these people be allowed to be elected into Parliament? Which Parliament, I asked. The British? No. The Hungarian? Yes, I expect so, if they are citizens. The European? The interviewer lost interest.