After I demonstrated why @ChrisGiles_ of the @FT was wrong when he tweeted a misleading chart with the tag line I hear #Brexit is going swimmingly” he doubled down with another tweet tagged “#I still hear Brexit is going swimmingly”....
....& directed people to a recent FT article for a serious piece of analysis on the failings of Brexit. on.ft.com/3OvEXSD
Below is my rebuttal to this article. Taking each @FT claim and explaining where & why it is either wrong, taken out of context or deliberately misleading.
Where the @FT failed to put the fall in the pound into context (kudos @adrianmschmidt for the chart)
Where the @FT was wrong to say the fall in the pound post the 2016 referendum didn’t boost UK exports.
Where the @FT, whilst correct to say that UK inflation had been higher than the EU, failed to explain that this had been the case since the Great Financial Crash in 2008 and NOT a result of Brexit.
Where the @FT failed to put higher UK inflation into context – both that it had been running at the same rate as the G7 AND that it was still below the Central Bank target at a time when their aim was to create higher inflation.
Where the @FT was wrong to say Brexit has led to higher food inflation in UK (EU food inflation has been more than 5x higher & G7 4x higher) and failed to put UK food inflation into context (UK food prices are already amongst the lowest in Europe as are the current price rises).
Where the @FT selectively presented UK business investment data to imply a Brexit effect on the long term trend rate AND failed to put the figures into context versus EU peers.
Where the @FT was wrong to say UK exports to the EU have not grown since the end of the Brexit transition period.
And although right to say UK export & import growth since end of transition period has been lower than EU peers are wrong to say this has negatively impacted GDP & long term GDP forecasts (e.g. IMF predicts UK to be fastest growing G7 economy in period 2021-2023 AND 2024-2027).
The FT describes themselves as unbiased purveyors of the truth in a fake news world.
Please read the article and then answer the question I asked in my previous one.
Does that sound like the FT to you?
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On Wednesday @KemiBadenoch made a speech to Parliament on the UK’s trade performance in which she stated the data:
“Definitively disprove the claims of those who prophesied a catastrophic economic collapse when we left the EU to become a sovereign nation.” hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024-0…
@KemiBadenoch went on to say that the data confirms that:
“The strategy the public voted for on 23 June 2016 is delivering. Leaving the European Union was a vote of confidence in the project of the United Kingdom, and we are seeing results.
As you can imagine, the response form the anti-brexit brigade which has spent the last 8 years trying hard to present Brexit as an economic disaster and an entirely irredeemable event was angry and vitriolic.
For example this thread by @EdConwaySky
Through 1980s & 1990s Britain generally had the third most competitive industrial electricity costs of G7. But since then we have performed far worse. In the 5 yrs before Tony Blair became PM, our industrial electricity costs were around 9 % higher than avg of advanced economies
By 2010, they were nearly 23 per cent higher, and for the past 5 years have risen to 52% higher.
Our industrial electricity prices are three times higher than in America and Canada.
They are more than twice as high as in Korea and New Zealand.
A number of senior Tory MPs responded that now was not the time to rock the boat but rather stick with the plan because it is working. Including @MPIainDS, @DavidDavisMP, @LiamFox
Electric cars lose as much as half of their value after just three years on the road, new figures show, as the rate of depreciation far outstrips conventional equivalents
“With over 800,000 new electric cars registered between 2020 and 2023, supply returning to the used car market will only increase in 2024, and if demand does not keep up, electric cars could depreciate even further, undermining both consumer and retailer confidence,” it said.
Following my article, I have received comments that whilst my analysis does demonstrate UK exports are performing a lot better than agenda driven MSM suggests, UK is still only country in world whose export volumes have not reached pre covid levels
As you can see in chart below, UK outperformed the G7 on this measure prior to covid, was harder hit by the pandemic (for the reasons why see my article) but has caught up since.
Although neither UK nor G7 have exceeded pre covid (2019) levels.
FT (& others) have been at it again…
I have written before about the FT’s anti Brexit bias & how its “journalists” selectively choose & manipulate data in an attempt to present Brexit as an ”entirely negative & irredeemable event” which must be reversed.
This chart taken from the article Brexit blamed as UK misses out on global trade rebound” purports to demonstrate a fall in volume (not value) of UK goods exports 3mths to Jan 2023 vs same (unusual) 3 mth period in 2020 ft.com/content/021c62…
This chart is taken from article “UK’s goods exports lowest in G7 following Brexit” & again purports to show a relative UK weakness since the end of Brexit transition period in volume of UK goods exports vs G7.