On the basis that a Prime Minister should not be able to mislead his country every time he opens his mouth, here is a list of the Brownies to which we were treated on the Andrew Marr Show this morning. The sheer volume of them is overwhelming: this is carefully woven-together matrix of exaggeration, misrepresentation and outright porkies in order to create a fake picture of prosperity. Here is the by-no-means-exhaustive list, all in the space of less then half an hour.
INTEREST RATES: “Well interest rates in the last world downturn were 15%. I think everybody remembers that terrible time. Interest rates at the moment, the base is 5%.”
You’ll remember this Brownie – we first met it during its debut with Sky News on Friday. Two Brownies at work here. One is the ‘real terms’. He’s not adjusting for inflation – real interest rates are broadly comparable now and then, though there is no data series online.
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