Project Fear caricatures itself

The latest round of Project Fear stories are usually re runs of past versions of the same thing. This time they are often repeated in even shriller and more apocalyptic tones, as the clock ticks down to our exit in March 2019.

Let’s deal with a few of them:

1. They said ” The UK will lose the advantage of the EU policy removing roaming charges for use of mobiles around Europe.” This was often mentioned in the Referendum campaign as one of the few examples of a positive from the EU. This week the main mobile companies confirmed they will not be imposing new roaming charges when we leave! There is enough competition in the market to keep prices down. A company like Vodafone anyway offers free roaming for non EU countries like Norway and Turkey as well as Iceland, a country which has left the EU. It is always wise to check your contract, as the so called EU free roaming may well have a usage limit.

2. They said ” The trade deals the EU has with other countries around the world will cease for us when we leave”. Six countries have already confirmed in an international Agreement they will continue these more favourable terms with the UK after we have left. No country who has signed an EU trade deal has said it intends to cancel it for the UK.

3. They said “There will be delays and queues at the UK ports leading to food shortages”. The UK government has made clear it is not going to impose a new range of delaying checks and procedures at our ports to hold up food we wish to buy from the continent after we have left. Why would we want to do that?

4. They said “The NHS could run out of medicines and we need to stockpile before departure”. No EU pharmaceutical company that currently supplies the NHS has said it wishes to cancel its contract the day we leave the EU! They will be legally bound to carry on supplying us. The NHS and UK port authorities have not announced any new checks or delays they wish to impose on medicines approved here for use here and imported from the continent.

5. They said (Treasury and Bank of England) that we would have a recession in the winter after voting to leave, with 800,000 job losses and a house price collapse. None of this happened, with continued economic growth, record levels of employment and a stable house market.

6. The press say the Bank is now forecasting a 35% house price fall if we just leave without a Withdrawal Agreement. This has recently been denied by the Bank, which is relief, as there is no way just leaving the EU could lead to any such house price fall.

7. Some still say airlines will not be able to fly into London after we leave. The leading continental airlines are busy selling tickets for trips into the UK after March next year, and assure those buying the tickets they will be flying.

How much more of this nonsense do we have to listen to? When will more journalists push back on these absurd stories?