okocha wrote: wanderlust wrote: okocha wrote:Voting with confidence either way was almost impossible due to the conflicting pros and cons, the lies, exaggerations and negative campaigning on both sides. "Abstain in disgust" should have been an option on the ballot paper.
I generally agree with the points but I take issue on this one Okocha.
The lie that won the campaign was that both sides were lying.
Remain were absolutely honest in saying "the experts
think that leaving the EU will cause irreparable damage to the country
but (financial forecasting isn't an 100% exact science and therefore...) we can't be certain."Obviously no expert in their right mind would claim that any forecast is guaranteed 100% accurate - but it is the most likely option from the information available.
The fact that the experts gave a professional disclaimer was twisted into being "nobody knows" (instead of "our brightest brains think the most likely outcome will be")
And once the concept of "nobody knows for sure" was positioned central in the public mind, it soon morphed into "they're telling lies" - which is the opposite of what happened in the case of the Remain campaign.
I may have overlooked something but I'm genuinely struggling to think of anything the Remain campaign said that has subsequently turned out to be a lie. Remind me....
Wander, here's your answer. Not my words but those of online political platform "Backbench". You might want to add all that DC stuff about WW3.
"
The Remain campaign and many in the establishment inaccurately claim that Brexit would endanger jobs and trade. They suggest that the EU would respond by building trade barriers against Britain. Yet, all EU countries have to follow the rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which prevents them from enforcing trade barriers. Britain is the fifth largest economy in the world and has a trade deficit with the EU of £61.7 billion. It is simply not in the best interests of countries like Spain and Germany to stop selling cars and holidays to Brits. The Germans sell far more to us than we do them.
It has been implied that leaving the Single Market would be an economic travesty for Britain. Yet, Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland all chose to become members of the Single Market, despite being outside the EU. Moreover, even if we didn’t decide to remain in the Single Market, we would still be in good company. The top ten exporters to the EU are: China, Russia, the USA, Switzerland, Norway, Japan, Turkey, India, South Korea and Brazil. Only one of these countries is a member of the Single Market and six of them do not have trade deals with the EU. This shows the desperate win-at-all costs attitude of the Remain campaign, who manipulate tenuous economic assertions to bolster a dangerous myth.
Members of the Remain campaign like to say that 50% of our trade is dependent upon the EU – an exaggerated figure. In 1999, 54.7% of our international trade was with the EU. Today, that figure stands at 43%, and only 5% of British companies trade with the EU. Despite this, 100% of our businesses have to comply with EU regulations. If we left the EU, 95% of our businesses would be free from EU jurisdiction.
Yet, the most spurious claim of all is that three million jobs depend upon EU trade. The figure arose from a study conducted by the National Institute of Economic and Social Affairs in 1999. Nick Clegg, one of the most pro-European politicians in Parliament, threw this figure around to help justify the Liberal Democrats’ desire to integrate further into the EU. Nonetheless, the Institute’s Director, Martin Weale, dismissed these claims as "pure Goebbels." These jobs are dependent upon trade, not EU membership. The EU would be guilty of economic suicide if it ended the former in the event of Brexit.
With a seat at the WTO, we will no doubt organise better trade deals for Britain instead of being tied to the failed Common Commercial Policy of the EU. Those who support Brexit are the true champions of globalisation, not the failed regionalisation of the EU that has caused abject misery across Europe.
Whoever wrote this nonsense needs to keep up to date as it was obviously written before the referendum. This article bases itself on a bunch of assumptions that have subsequently proven to be mistaken.
* Britain WAS the world's fifth largest economy before the vote.
Within three days our economy was devalued so much that we have been overtaken by the French - and Brazil will be the next one to overtake us.
* They didn't bank on our AAA credit rating being downgraded to AA negative so these trade deals they were gambling on are going to be a damn sight harder to achieve than they aniticipated. I suppose the positive side of that is that Osborne will have to stop the monumental levels of borrowing he's been getting into to prop up the Government since they came to power so at least our debt won't increase too much. How we are going to repay the existing loans is another story though.
* The pound has tumbled much further than they thought it ever would. The Leave campaign said we could expect this for a couple of days and then the pound would bounce back. It didn't and it's continuing to fall. Yesterday, the Asian markets closed with pound at a 31 year low against the dollar.
* The pound has fallen 14% against the dollar so far and 10% against the Euro with all analysts predicting further falls until it reaches it's true value about 15% below the level it had pre-referendum where it will stabilise.
Even if we only devalue our economy by 10% it will mean the loss of thousands of jobs, years of austerity and underinvestment in schools, hospitals and infrastructure, reduced pensions, higher prices, negative equity in the housing market and will cost more British lives than the Iraq War.
Love the pre-referendum jingoistic rhetoric but unfortunately they got it completely wrong as the fact that we are still in freefall - and they've all run a mile - proves.
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