The Spectator

Lies, damned lies and…

George Osborne has felt the need to concoct figures in a way that would embarrass even Gordon Brown

issue 21 May 2016

A Ryanair plane in a Stansted hangar was not the best backdrop for George Osborne’s claim that the economic argument about the European Union is now over and that his ‘consensus’ has prevailed. In recent years, Ryanair has lost its status as the fastest-growing budget airline in Europe: that honour goes to Norwegian Air, which has thrived outside the EU. And on the day of the Chancellor’s speech, a group of Ryanair passengers had announced their intention to take out a lawsuit against the company for what they see as unfair tricks to disguise the true cost of tickets.

The Chancellor does the reverse of Ryanair: he tries to frighten us about the imaginary costs and charges of a ticket to Brexit. Far from the closing down the economic debate, however, his latest batch of scare stories raise interesting new possibilities. If house prices really were to fall, as he now tells us would happen in the event of Brexit, would that be such a bad thing? Not if you are one of the millions of young people unable to afford a home thanks to surging house price inflation over the past 20 years.

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