Julia Hartley Dooda WRONG On Honda

Whenever another piece of bad Brexit related news arrives, the hardcore leavers, those who have committed themselves to continued consumption of Kool-Aid to the exclusion of any and all reason, instantly fire up the spin machine and tell anyone who is still listening that it isn’t really happening. No bad news can possibly be attributed to Brexit; this is an ideal that is without downsides and only Bitter Remoaners™ suggest otherwise.

We know who you are, thanks

So it was that self-promoting TalkRADIO host Julia Hartley Brewer heard the bad news about Honda pulling the plug on its Swindon factory with the loss of 3,500 jobs and declared that it was not down to Brexit, not at all. “Oh look. Why Honda is set to shut its Swindon factory - written by people who actually *know* about the car industry. Spoiler alert: they make diesel cars at that factory & no one wants to buy them anymore”.

Off she went, clearly satisfied with seeing off all those Bitter Remoaners™ once more. However, and here we encounter a significantly sized however, (a) the article she cites is clearly marked OPINION, (b) it contains the nugget “Is Brexit uncertainty a factor? Almost certainly”, and (c) the diesel reference - which is disputed - is “Honda’s Swindon engine plant produced diesel engines”. It does NOT say the plant “make(s) diesel cars”.

Still, Journalism 101, eh? How tiresome. As any fule kno, Ms Hartley Dooda’s opinion is the same as real facts - well, to her, anyway. This was evident when one Tweeter responded “Actually their biggest seller is the civic and only 12% have diesel engines so shh you have no idea” to which she countered “Read the article. The author may know more than you”. But the author was talking ABOUT THE ENGINE PLANT. Not cars.

Blissfully unaware that she had not bothered to do her research properly (again), Ms Hartley Dooda then decided to tell the world how important she was. “I’m on a ski slope all day, just come back from dinner, bad wifi & it took me 30 seconds to find this information. How come not one single Remoaner sitting at their desk has managed to find it out in *hours*? It’s almost as if... oh my goodness... they don’t care about facts”.

Listen up, plebs, she’s GONE SKIING for half term because it’s VERY EXPENSIVE and she’s VERY IMPORTANT. But she still hasn’t bothered to do her research. Andrew Denney was not impressed. “‘It took me 30 seconds to find something I believed supported a position I already held  so I didn’t need need to look at anything else and I also chose to ignore the part that suggested Brexit uncertainty was almost certainly a factor’. And people takes this woman seriously?” Well, one person does - Herself Personally Now.

In any case, the highly reliable Otto English had done some research. “It took Julia 30 seconds to confirm her bias. I've spent an hour on it. And she's wrong. Swindon Honda produces VTEC turbo petrol engines and stopped diesel production months ago. In the words of an employee ‘diesel has F all to do with it’..... 30 seconds is not research”.

Well, it is for Ms Hartley Dooda, and she’s a VERY IMPORTANT REAL JOURNALIST! Sadly for her, Otto English had another slice of bad news. “For financial year 2018/19, the breakdown of cars built at Honda of the UK Manufacturing Ltd is Diesel 6% and Petrol 94%”. No, not 12% diesel. Only 6%. She didn’t do her research. Now she is bust.

Julia Hartley Dooda - why British journalism is so poorly regarded. No change there, then.

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