June 30, 2016 6:41 AM

Brexit: The power of dishonesty, lack of integrity, and the Big Lie

When it comes to the Far Right side of the political spectrum, it very often happens that winning isn’t everything, it’s the ONLY thing. When winning is the Prime Directive, things like honesty and integrity become secondary considerations…when they’re considered at all. In the case of Great Britain’s “Brexit” referendum, it turns out that some of the promises made by the “Leave” side weren’t promises at all, merely propaganda intended to deceive gullible Brits into voting for leave the European Union (EU).

$350 million pounds a week to the National Health Service? Nope, that’s not going to happen.

The United Kingdom (UK) will control its own borders and immigration will be reduced? Turns out that’s a complicated question that can’t be resolved with cheap campaign slogans.

The UK’s economy will be just fine…indeed, it will THRIVE outside the EU? Sure, if you define “fine” as the immediate 12% drop in value of the pound against the dollar, hidden costs, and sharply reduced growth forecasts.

There will be a timeframe for leaving the EU? Well, if by “timeframe,” you mean “negotiations have yet to begin and no one has ANY idea when they will,” then, sure, there’s a “timeframe” in place for leaving.

Promises on NHS spending will not be met, EU immigration may not be controlled and leaving the EU could take several years are among a series of claims made by leading Brexit campaigners in the hours following the nation’s shock decision to leave the EU.

“A lot of things were said in advance of this referendum that we might want to think about again,” said the Conservative former Defence Minister Liam Fox.

Translation: “Yeah, I know we said a bunch of stuff we weren’t serious about…but we had a referendum to win, knowhutimean??”

“Leave” proponents promised the sun, the moon, and the stars, and two chickens in every pot…and people are pretending to be shocked and surprised that a good portion of what was promised wasn’t quite factually sound, if not outright lies?

Few examples of the lies and propaganda employed by “Leave” proponents were more raw and (finally) honest that an interview with UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage on ITV’s “Good Morning, Britain,” in which he proceeded to walk back promises made during the run-up to the referendum:

Host: “The 350 million pounds a week that we send to the EU, which we will no longer send to the EU, can you guarantee that’s going to go to the NHS [Britain’s National Health Service]?”

Farage: “No, I can’t, and I would never have made that claim. It is one of the mistakes that, I think, the ‘leave’ campaign made.”

Host: “Hold on a moment. That was one of your adverts.”….

Host: “That’s why many people voted.”

Farage: “They made a mistake doing that.”

Host: “You’re saying after 17 million people have voted for ‘leave,’ based — I don’t know how many people voted on the basis of that advert, but that was a huge part of the propaganda —you’re now saying that’s a mistake?”

Translation: “Hey, I can’t help it that people voted based on a lie ‘misinterpretation of information.’ That’s their mistake.”

It’s only been a few days, but it seems clear that the “Leave” side determined early on that the truth wasn’t on their side and so their best option was to employ the gift bestowed by Josef Goebbels, the “Big Lie”: Keep it simple, repeat it often and with enough fervor, and eventually it will be widely accepted as the truth.

The truth is that no one really knows what will happen to Great Britain. Given that older, less educated, and less financially well-off members of the older generation voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU, it seems the vote was a big “F—K YOU!!” to younger Brits. That this victory was purchased with lies and deceit should be cause for justified outrage, though if there’s one thing America and Great Britain have in common, it’s our collective unwillingness to hold our politicians accountable for lying (and our willingness to believe lies).

The immediate hysteria aside- the precipitous drop in world markets, the estimates of more than $3 trillion in lost wealth (the world’s richest 400 people lost $127 billion in one day)- no one really knows what’s going to happen. Markets HATE uncertainty, right? Thus the hysteria and the predictions of the sky falling…none of which would be necessary if the “Leave” campaign would have found it within themselves to exercise a modicum of honesty.

On the flip side, at least England’s White nationalists finally have the racially-themed violence directed at minorities they’ve always secretly wanted. This is what happens when you live on an island and want to preserve Britain for the British.

God Save the Queen, eh??

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on June 30, 2016 6:41 AM.

Oops...somebody's got some 'splainin' to do was the previous entry in this blog.

Why a "good guy with a gun" is likely to end up dead is the next entry in this blog.

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