Boris clings on

Boris Johnson seems to have resigned himself to not resigning. The fellow is for turning (unlike Maggie, a strong and stable predecessor of his).

His Telegraph article last week was full of the usual disingenuous nonsense.

The government’s own highly respected statisticians the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimate that we will lose £300 million a week just from leaving the European union (before we get the £250 million a week money back Johnston still havers on about).

Theresa May has called his bluff and settled for passing as much as £30 billion compensation to Europe, so the IFS seems right on this one.

Some letter writers claim that they knew the £300 million a week story was nonsense and the ‘No’ vote was not based on it.

But the real problem is that the Blue-on-blue lies of the referendum obscured the real issue, which is actually about the economic arguments which have been raging.

‘Don’t trust experts’, Michael Gove told us, while making himself a prisoner of a small group of much maligned Neoliberal economists who insist that we have no risks or downsides to leaving Europe.

They claim that their opponents’ arguments that our most developed industries are in industry links and supply chains across Europe don’t matter.

They rebut the claim that it is more difficult to sell far from home than it is to a Europe on our doorstep, by claiming that Britain did it in the 19th century.

Sadly historians would have told them to beware historicist arguments if they had cared to listen.

But then their answer is like Johnson’s to those who fear that the risks are real. It’s, say no to project fear.