The partial recovery in the financial markets is being hailed by The Sun, The Mail and The Telegraph as a sign that "project fear" is over. I think this amounts to whistling in the dark.
This morning's Telegraph carries a classic example of spin. They report (HERE) with a headline saying Standard & Poor are "scoffing" at Armageddon warnings. First of all, it's true that S & P think growth will only be down to 1.5% this year and 1% next year but this is with interest rates at zero and £100Bn extra printed money and provided we join the EEA along with Norway something the Brexiters will NEVER accept. Without this S & P say “it could be extremely negative,” They say a hostile EU divorce could push the housing market into a downward spiral as an exodus of migrants compounds the damage from an economic slump.
There will no doubt be ups and downs. For the right wing press, the few ups are pointed to as an indication that the scaremongering was overdone and the future is bright while the many downs are ignored. Meanwhile, The FT, The Guardian, The independent and The Mirror do the opposite.
Personally, I still believe the experts and my own experience in industry that the short, medium and long term will be all downhill. The right wing press (or me) will be in denial until confronted by incontrovertible facts.
I note The Telegraph earlier this week finally produced an after-the-event "Fact Checker" which shows the £350m per week claim was actually wrong. I think we all knew that, but Telegraph readers may have been a bit shocked. Odd that they didn't raise this during the campaign!
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