Wednesday 15 June 2016

Nobody move or logic, maths and metaphors get it!

From The Evening Standard:

Jeremy Corbyn today claimed free healthcare could be scrapped if Britain leaves the European Union…

“A vote to Leave is a vote to put our NHS in jeopardy,” he told a TUC event, adding it would put it “in the hands of those who want to break it up, to end it as a service free at the point of use”.


Firstly, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have never said they want to break up the NHS, but that is irrelevant. This is not a general election, we are not choosing who runs the NHS, we are voting to stay in or leave the EU. Mentioning Nigel Farage as another Brexiteer who would like to break up the NHS is even more far fetched, he is not an MP, he is not even un the party of government and frankly, he never will be in a UK government, let alone a minister for health.

The leaders of the Brexit campaign signed a pledge that they would not slash grants to family farmers, universities and scientists that get money from the EU. The letter signed by Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Ms Patel followed a backlash when they had promised to save £350 million a day by axing EU spending.

Mounting a rearguard action, Ms Patel insisted there would be “more than enough money” to continue subsidies at the same level as EU grants.


The Leave campaign has bandied around the figure of saving £350 million a week, about £17.5 billion a year, which is the gross amount of our contributions to various EU budgets and programs*. Nobody ever said £350 million a day, which is £100 billion a year (or slightly more than we spend on old age pensions).

* Nearly half that is paid back to UK recipients, mainly agricultural land owners. So it's fair to criticise these Brexiteers for being just as corrupt and wasteful as the EU with that part of their planned spending.

From The Evening Standard:

“Sterling is being tossed overboard as our EU membership nears an iceberg,” said Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight.

“The klaxons are sounding for sterling across the City. The pound is sinking fast and the FTSE is being thrown about in turbulent seas.”


He's going for the nautical theme, but completely messes it up.

4 comments:

Lola said...

The Sterling thing is both understandable and bollocks. Of course it is being 'tossed about' a bit. That's what always happens when stuff changes. But there again the Euro is fairing no 'better' (better or worse being meaningless in this instance). http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=EUR&to=USD&view=1M
Twats.

Tim Almond said...

Does currency actually matter? I mean, isn't it more than anything a reflection on the state of things than something to strive for in itself? In and of itself, it's a double-edged sword. Weak pound means BMWs rise in price, but that exporters of beef make more money.

Dinero said...

Yes, UKip has one MP of the 650

As been said on this blog before - what would actually happen with an exit vote is a good question. All the main parties of the parliament want to stay in.

As the Conservatives are happy with the status quo it could be argued that all current relations with the EU would be re-instated as bi-lateral arrangements.

Mark Wadsworth said...

L, TS and D, exactly and agreed.