Sunday 5 April 2020

Double Standards


As my regular reader will know (Mrs Trellis of North Wales), I like to occasionally dive into the quagmire of logical contradictions, hate and intellectual inconsistency of the Leave.EU Facebook page - or what I call Brexit Taliban HQ. - to do battle with the forces of ignorance and misinformation.


A couple of days ago Leave.EU was castigating the EU for not providing aid to Italy. Now tardiness is certainly an accusation that can be upheld, but this was rectified before Leave.EU decided to take a potshot. Programmes is place comprise:

  1. The EU Corona Response Investment Initiative, making €37 billion available for crisis response - healthcare systems, small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), workers and vulnerable parts of EU economies – bolstered by another €28 billion in unallocated EU funds. On a national level, fiscal support measures now account for around 2.2% of EU-27 GDP. For liquidity support, they total 13.7% of EU GDP. 
  2. On health, they are focusing on getting medical equipment to where it is needed most, by procuring it jointly and keeping goods moving freely across the single market - the programme the UK declined to join. They are also financing research to develop a vaccine. 
  3. Also, they correspondingly amended the rules on structural funds so that national governments have flexibility in using them - akin to Rishi Sunak's policies.
  4. The European Central Bank has taken significant action with its announcement of the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme. This temporary asset purchase programme of €750 billion will help to ensure all Member States can benefit from supportive financing conditions that will enable them to absorb the shock.
The next day, Leave.EU praises far right governments in Hungary and Poland and the more centrist government in Czechoslovakia for taking a stand on refugees - refugees that are causing Greece to creak at the seams.

So, on the one hand they vilify the EU for not helping Italy (which has now been sorted on an EU-wide level) while on the other they praise countries for NOT coming to the assistance of a fellow EU member.

I call that intellectual dishonesty and double standards. What would you call it, Mrs Trellis of North Wales? It's what I've come to expect from any organised movement that supports Brexit on behalf of a cabal of wealthy corporate raiders that use prejudice as their prime weapon.


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