EU truth sunk by spin like Britannia

Public all at sea over poll scrap

THE Queen shed a tear when she said goodbye to Her Majesty’s Yacht Britannia for the last time.

The Tories had promised a replacement but that pledge went out of the porthole when Tony Blair won the 1997 election.

What the Queen didn’t know was that she was yachtless because Labour spin doctor Charlie Whelan liked getting legless.

Charlie admitted “plans to sabotage the royal yacht” had its beginnings over a “long liquid lunch” with journalists.

I too enjoyed long liquid lunches with Charlie, who is jolly company. Some stuff he told me was true and some wasn’t.

Charlie liked floating stories as much as he enjoyed sinking Britannia. The question is whether an untruth is still a falsehood if it subsequently comes true.

That’s what happened with the royal yacht.

The public liked the idea of pensioning off Britannia and not replacing her and her fate was sealed.

This EU referendum campaign reminds me of Charlie’s spin doctoring style.

We cannot be sure David Cameron is telling the truth when he says Brexit will cause a recession and cost 820,000 jobs unless we leave Europe and find out. Boris Johnson says it’s a hoax. Yet he supports the side talking of 12 million migrants coming here from Turkey.

We’ll only know that’s true if we stay in the EU and Turkey joins.

But as claims by both sides become ever more outrageous, voters wonder if anyone is telling the truth.

At general elections, parties share common ground and fight only over what they disagree on.

In this campaign they disagree about everything. There’s about as much common ground between the two camps as with Islamic State.

Perplexed

Cameron would be more believable if he argued that the economic benefits of staying outweigh those of leaving.

Instead he says Brexit has no benefits at all.

The Queen must be as perplexed as the rest of us that her government has lost the plot. Nicola Sturgeon is equally concerned.

So Scotland’s First Minister might look favourably on a royal request to borrow the royal yacht now berthed as a museum ship in Edinburgh.

And Her Maj can sail away from these shores until everyone comes to their senses.