Time to move on from silly claims made by both sides during the referendum
As I pointed out repeatedly at the time, with some honourable exceptions both sides talked an amazing amount of rubbish during the EU referendum.
The truth about most issues was available to find if you took the trouble, and there were some people both for and against leaving the EU who did make an effort to get their facts right, there were far too many on both sides who were far too ready to put out statements which were at best misleading or exaggerated and at worst complete rubbish.
This post about the nonsense from both sides includes an index of links to the "Worst of both worlds" series of posts I published here during the referendum campaign each of which called out one of the most egregious misleading or just plain wrong statements from each side.
Sadly the silly comments still continue. Today my twitter timeline has been full of tweets from "Leave" supporters quoting a study of UN manufacturing data which showed that the British economy has overtaken France to become the eighth largest manufacturing nation in the world, see article here.
Since we have not actually left the EU yet, this would not have provided conclusive evidence of the success of Brexit even if it had been based on post-referendum data. But in fact anyone who bothered to read more than three paragraphs into the press report they were all linking to should have noticed that the study was based on 2015 data - e.g. the year before the referendum.
Give me strength!
Some of the gloom-mongering by Remain supporters has been equally silly.
It really is time for both sides to move on, quietly drop the things they said during the campaign which anyone with a three-figure IQ knows was daft, and start making the real arguments.
Boris Johnson was ill-advised to repeat the £350 million figure and although the wording of his article was far more nuanced and closer to the truth than the words on the side of the Vote Leave red bus, it still wasn't quite right. His article said
Once we have settled our accounts, we will take back control of roughly £350 million per week. It would be a fine thing, as many of us have pointed out, if a lot of that money went on the NHS…”
People like Guido Fawkes who have been claiming that "Boris's article wasn't wrong" overlook that the amount actually paid to the EU is net of the Maggie Thatcher rebate. The figures for the UK contribution as at 2014 were as follows:
The "Gross contribution" line at the top of the above table is purely notional. The actual gross contribution Britain was really paying, before you take account of money coming back, was the second line because the rebate comes off first.
Hence £276 million a week is the figure which would accurately have slotted into the form of words Boris Johnson's article used.
I must confess that I would love to see the head of the UK statistical service start writing to other politicians who quote rubbish statistics and not just Boris Johnson.
Perhaps, for instance, he could write to Jeremy Corbyn pointing out that the number of students from underprivileged backgrounds going to University has increased and not, as JC said, decreased.
Quoting ridiculous numbers is not the preserve of any part of Britain's political culture but we really need to make more effort to get it right.
The truth about most issues was available to find if you took the trouble, and there were some people both for and against leaving the EU who did make an effort to get their facts right, there were far too many on both sides who were far too ready to put out statements which were at best misleading or exaggerated and at worst complete rubbish.
This post about the nonsense from both sides includes an index of links to the "Worst of both worlds" series of posts I published here during the referendum campaign each of which called out one of the most egregious misleading or just plain wrong statements from each side.
Sadly the silly comments still continue. Today my twitter timeline has been full of tweets from "Leave" supporters quoting a study of UN manufacturing data which showed that the British economy has overtaken France to become the eighth largest manufacturing nation in the world, see article here.
Since we have not actually left the EU yet, this would not have provided conclusive evidence of the success of Brexit even if it had been based on post-referendum data. But in fact anyone who bothered to read more than three paragraphs into the press report they were all linking to should have noticed that the study was based on 2015 data - e.g. the year before the referendum.
Give me strength!
Some of the gloom-mongering by Remain supporters has been equally silly.
It really is time for both sides to move on, quietly drop the things they said during the campaign which anyone with a three-figure IQ knows was daft, and start making the real arguments.
Boris Johnson was ill-advised to repeat the £350 million figure and although the wording of his article was far more nuanced and closer to the truth than the words on the side of the Vote Leave red bus, it still wasn't quite right. His article said
Once we have settled our accounts, we will take back control of roughly £350 million per week. It would be a fine thing, as many of us have pointed out, if a lot of that money went on the NHS…”
People like Guido Fawkes who have been claiming that "Boris's article wasn't wrong" overlook that the amount actually paid to the EU is net of the Maggie Thatcher rebate. The figures for the UK contribution as at 2014 were as follows:
The "Gross contribution" line at the top of the above table is purely notional. The actual gross contribution Britain was really paying, before you take account of money coming back, was the second line because the rebate comes off first.
Hence £276 million a week is the figure which would accurately have slotted into the form of words Boris Johnson's article used.
I must confess that I would love to see the head of the UK statistical service start writing to other politicians who quote rubbish statistics and not just Boris Johnson.
Perhaps, for instance, he could write to Jeremy Corbyn pointing out that the number of students from underprivileged backgrounds going to University has increased and not, as JC said, decreased.
Quoting ridiculous numbers is not the preserve of any part of Britain's political culture but we really need to make more effort to get it right.
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