EU referendum lies have started already
A leaflet came through the letterbox of Vox Political Towers yesterday morning, declaring: “Save our NHS. Help protect your local hospital… Vote Leave, take control.”
Vote Leave’s misleading ‘NHS’ leaflet. There was a web address at the bottom but this has been removed, so nobody can be tempted to visit their site and be indoctrinated by more of this campaign’s drivel.
That’s right – the Vote Leave campaign, which includes such grim creatures as Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Gove, Chris Grayling and Priti Patel amongst its adherents, is trying to pretend that there will be more money to invest in the National Health Service if we vote ourselves out of the EU.
What a bare-faced lie.
Everyone should know that money currently sent to the European Union – much of which returns to us as EU funding – won’t be diverted into the health service if we leave. Not if people like Duncan Smith get their way!
It is far more likely to be turned into a tax cut, helping the very rich rather than the NHS.
Yet the leaflet says, “Invest in the NHS not the EU.”
Here’s more disinformation: “Every week politicians send £350 million of our money to the EU. That’s enough to build a new hospital every week. It’s almost 60 times more than the amount we spend on our NHS Cancer Drugs Fund.” And there’s a bar chart to illustrate the difference.
Of course, we don’t send £350 million to the EU every week. We are a net contributor, but because we receive much of that money back, the total paid in is only around £175 million per week. That’s still a significant amount – but it’s not enough to build a new hospital or 60 times the size of the Cancer Drugs Fund.
“If we stop sending millions every week to Brussels we could spend it on our priorities like the NHS,” the leaflet tells us.
Interesting wording – “like the NHS”? So, not the NHS itself, then. One wonders what Priti Patel would call a priority “like” the NHS – private health companies, perhaps? They’re like the NHS, after all – except they only pretend to be interested in patient care while making a big profit out of it.
“Soon we will all get a vote on the EU in a referendum. If we Vote Leave we will be able to spend a lot of that £20 billion a year on our NHS rather than the EU.”
That’s right – if we vote ‘Leave’, they – Duncan Smith, Gove, Grayling and their friends – will be able to spend more money on the NHS.
But they won’t.
They’ll spend it on themselves.
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Doesn’t being a member of the EU go hand in hand with the acceptance of TTIP, and that agreement will kill the Nhs
No, it doesn’t.
The TTIP isn’t a ‘done deal’, and it is perfectly possible that it may be changed for the better.
If not, your MEP can quite happily vote against it when it comes before him/her for ratification -as can the UK government when it comes to Westminster.
“No, it doesn’t.
The TTIP isn’t a ‘done deal’, and it is perfectly possible that it may be changed for the better.
If not, your MEP can quite happily vote against it when it comes before him/her for ratification -as can the UK government when it comes to Westminster.”
If we were not in the EU, TTIP would be an irrelevance.
As for the idea that the UK government will put up any resistance to TTIP, isn’t that wishful thinking?
In the case of a Conservative Government, that is my opinion, yes.
But then – in or out of Europe – a Conservative Government will sign a trade deal with the USA. You heard Cameron in the Commons saying he’s not afraid of trade deals, unlike Labour, didn’t you?
If we’re out of Europe and the Tories are left to negotiate it alone, the chances are that the conditions of that deal will be much, MUCH worse for UK workers.
Yes sorry Mike. Being naive. Of course Cameron will sign deals whether we are in the EU or not.
Oh this all sounds so familiar. Just like we had the “vote No to protect our pensions”, “vote No to ensure we atay in the EU” etc, etc. We’re in for months of this. Better to do our own research and totally ignore the media.
Not quite, Joan. The National Association of Pension Funds warned against the implications of Scottish Independence for pensioners, so it was a valid issue.
This isn’t.
See for yourself: http://www.plsa.co.uk/PolicyandResearch/DocumentLibrary/0353-Scottish-independence-the-implications-for-pensions.aspx
There is a big difference between a reputable organisation like this pointing out possible implications for pensioners and the manner that the media, and Better Together in general, were saying that if we voted No our pensions would be safe.
Anyone with a brain cell knew that there could be implications in many areas with independence. It was the lies that promised safety of such elements by staying in the UK I was referring to. Where is that promised safety now?
Brexit will be treated in the same way.
Er, Scotland voted No and its pensions were safe.
The document makes it clear that such safety could not be guaranteed if Scotland voted Yes.
One fact conveniently “forgotten” by the Out campaign is that the money we currently pay to be in the EU is unlikely to be reduced of we choose to exit, unless we also elect not to be a part of the Common Market (which would be foolish). Countries that are currently out of the EU but part of the Common Market, such as Norway, Switzerland and Iceland, still have to contribute funds similar to what the UK contributes to access the Common Market, and also must abide by the same trade laws (but have no say in those laws) in order to remain part of the EFTA (European Free Trade Association). So chances are, even if we leave the EU we will still be required to pay towards the EU if we want to be in the EFTA…
The Remain campaign is lying when it claims we will have to pay out £50 million a day in or out, clearly we will not have to pay anything to trade with them, which is all we would be doing because that would breach international law which even supersedes the laws imposed by brussels in trade.
Er, we joined the EU in order not to have to pay to trade with the other member States. That’s what import and export duties, customs and excise are all about.
It would depend on the terms of withdrawal, but the Out campaign focusses primarily on the idea that we could leave the EU but continue to trade with them, since the EU is our biggest trade partner. The simplest way for the UK to do this would be to join Norway, Switzerland and Iceland as a member of the EEA, trading with the EU but outside the EU. However, being part of the EEA requires “d) and to pay to the EU a financial contribution of a comparable magnitude as the contribution of a Member State [30] to the EU budget.” See the attached report http://www.robert-schuman.eu/en/doc/questions-d-europe/qe-355-en.pdf written in 2015 by Jean-Claude Piris, the former Director General of the EU Council Legal Services.
There are other options of course, but each is either completely unacceptable to the UK or to the EU! (to save on space, readers can review the article themselves.)
However, the Brexit campaigners are also guilty of either dreaming or deliberate misleading – the idea that the UK could get favourable trading terms with the EU without having to contribute, when the other EEA countries are required to, is ludicrous.
Indeed the lies have already started and they are coming from the remain campaign, they are conducting a scare campaign, it will not cost us the jobs they claim, only those who work for the eu or are in the parliament will lose their jobs. We will still be able to trade with the 27 other nations in the eu, despite the claims we won;t be able to trade with europe the eu is not europe, and we will be able to trade with them after all why would they stop the trade when we have a negative trade balance with the eu?
Cameron went cap in hand to brussels asked for nothing got less and even that is not guaranteed to last a day after the referendum, it is the vile anti british in campaigners and those who are easily fooled into thinking we can’t survive without unelected failed foreign politicians telling us what to do who are the ones we need to fear, anyone with a brain will vote out.
I think I already covered the issue of Project Fear in another article, including the fact that accusing the other side of scare tactics is also a scare tactic.
The vote No campaign will simply be a scare campaign. It will be dirty, occasionally twisting facts when not directly lying. We’re hardly a sophisticated political society when we allow ourselves to be suborned by the likes of Duncan Smith, Patel and Gove.
Mike. You must be one of the few in the UK that consider their pension safe in the hands of the Tories.
Ha ha ha! No.
if vile creatures like Smith,Grayling,Gove and the biggest non attendee in Parliament,the lazy,idle Patel,support the OUT campaign,then its obvious that anyone with a brain must
support the IN campaign
I hate to remind people – but where WAS IDS the other day for the Workfare Bill – Supreme Court ?
I was a bit confused with all this Yes or No. I didn’t know if Yes meant yes to stay or yes to go. I thought I’d Google a bit to find out. I found All you need to know from the BBC.
“What is a referendum?
A referendum is basically a vote in which everyone (or nearly everyone) of voting age can take part, normally giving a “Yes” or “No” answer to a question. Whichever side gets more than half of all votes cast is considered to have won”.
So far so good. Then…..
“Here’s a video explaining how the EU works in less than two minutes”.
I suspect if that was possible there would not be the confusion there seems to be.
Now to the nitty gritty, I would find out what Yes or No meant. Well, maybe not.
“The options for voters will be ‘Remain a member of the European Union’ and ‘Leave the European Union’.”
That’s fine on the day of voting but I still don’t really know which side is which in general conversation. I can only assume that since Yes was mentioned first, as was remaining a member, that a Yes means to remain a member.
I just wish they would stick to In or Out instead.
There’s a “shake it all about” joke in there somewhere.
Mike one other sort of Idea isn’t there a good chance of total tory breakdown and vote of no confidence if we vote out. Then a sensible Labour government can negotiate a proper treaty including no TTIP for the NHS. Lots say no means out and no other chance but i say look at Ireland where they voted to leave the EU won and then magically had another referendum and magically stayed after they got what they wanted. EU needs us for stability far more than we really need them or so i believe.