Letter to local newspaper, 1st Aug 2016

Last week the front page of a national newspaper proclaimed "BRITISH ECONOMY EXPERIENCES BREXIT BOOST", based on a 0.6% growth in GDP during April, May and June. This is a nonsensical claim - firstly, only the final week of this three month period occurred after the vote; secondly, the figures for June are a preliminary estimate based on forecasts rather than actual data; finally, Brexit itself hasn't actually happened yet - we obviously won't feel its full impact until that time. Meanwhile, our MP hailed figures indicating that venture capital firms had invested $200m in UK tech startups since the vote - without mentioning that this figure is considerably less than the same period last year. Even (especially?) those who voted Leave should be concerned at such attempts to whitewash reality. To make informed decisions about our future we need accurate information, not stories designed to make us feel better.