Brexit La-La Land Fawked

It is not only the larger part of the Fourth Estate that is slavishly feeding propaganda to its readers to reassure them that everything in the garden is rosy in the aftermath of the vote in June’s referendum to leave the EU: this malaise has also struck at the Guido Fawkes blog, domain of the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his obedient rabble, who have been relentlessly dishing up the alleged good news.

The diet of Kool-Aid from The Great Guido has been incessant: last week, readers were regaled with news that “71% Of Economists Will Be Proved Wrong About Brexit … The UK economy will probably grow by a respectable 2% or thereabouts this year, a rate many €urozone countries look at enviously”. Later the same day came “PMI Data Shows UK Brexit Fear Has Receded”. The data, it was declared, was “surprising”.

Readers were urged to Look Over There: “Brexit is a small factor in the global situation compared to the €uro debt crisis and China’s economic problems, never mind the ever imminent Italian banking crisis”. And, as for those moaning minnies at the FT, “Over at the FT they have managed to acknowledge the possibilty that things might not be quite as terrible as they predicted”. Yeah, it’s all smiles and sunshine!

By this week there was more of that PMI news, with “Services PMI Strong”, readers being told “This morning saw the biggest jump in the PMI services number on record … So Remainers are running out of bad news”. And Sterling had put on a whole half a cent against the US Dollar! Then came “City Boys Staying In London”, which is rather obvious, because otherwise they would not be “City Boys”. But enough of La-La Land.

The Brexit rumble has already begun out there in the real world. For starters, there was “Ford is to cut the level of investment and will halve the production of its new generation of petrol engines at its factory in Bridgend”. South Wales may not be on the radar of The Great Guido. Not so many Chorizo burger and Chablis joints there.

On top of that, there was the warning from the Japanese Government that loss of access to the Single Market would endanger investment from that country into the UK.

Then came “Britain’s public finances will take a £15bn blow from the Brexit vote, as the economy slows down and tax revenues fall, according to Sir Charlie Bean”, who is joining the Office of Budget Responsibility. Still, just numbers, eh?

I mean, in the real world … Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has said his company “will base all 50 of their new planes outside of the UK because of Britain's decision to leave the EU”. Every one of next year’s new deliveries to be based elsewhere.

Yeah, but that’s an Irish country, how about British ones? Fine. How about our very own low-cost carrier? “British low-cost airline carrier EasyJet is moving its maintenance base from Britain to Malta … Easyjet’s 256 aircraft, including 100 A320s, will be serviced in Malta following the signature of a five-year contract on Monday with Lufthansa’s Technik”.

You could, of course, carry on imbibing the Fawkes Kool-Aid. But don’t be surprised when jobs start migrating away from Britain. Another fine mess, once again.