Monday, August 07, 2017

From Project Fear to Project Reality

Those who warned of the consequences of voting to leave the EU in the referendum last year were accused by the Brexit extremists of carrying out Project Fear. The world did not implode after the result (though the pound did), giving the extremists a chance to spin a message that we have nothing to fear from abandoning our links with Europe and floating off into mid-Atlantic isolation. But the claims by the Remainers was always about the long term consequences. And we have now had a long enough term since the referendum to see how the trends are going.

The most recent news does not make good reading.

  • The Bank of England has cut the forecast growth of the economy from 1.9% to 1.7% in 2017 (actual growth in the first six month was very sickly) and from 1.7% to 1.6% in 2018. 
  • The Halifax has released figures showing that house prices have fallen for 4 quarters in a row.
  • According to Visa, consumer spending has been stagnant or fallen since December.
  • The fall in the pound following the Brexit result now means prices are rising faster than wages.
Project Fear is becoming Project Reality.

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