Yellowhammer is yet another example of Project Fear

The Government’s yellowhammer report on planning assumptions for Brexit will go down in history as a key document in the struggle to achieve Brexit. Farcically it is not a statement of government policy and probably does not reflect the views of government. It is rather a piece of civil service advice, commissioned by we know not who, and compiled we know not where.

What is most striking is the almost complete absence of evidence in the document. What these ‘worst-case’ planning assumptions are based on is not vouchsafed to us. The title ‘HMG Reasonable Worst-Case Planning Assumptions’ does not make it clear whether these assumptions are proposals or have been adopted by government. The fact that the government intends to issue a new document suggests the former, but we are left in the dark.

It is not even clear whether the title refers only to the opening section of the paper or to the entire document.