Wednesday, 13 April 2011

If the EU is one 'state'........

"Lies, damned lies and statistics."
A phrase describing the persuasive power of numbers, particularly the use of statistics to bolster weak arguments. (Wikipedia)

Daniel Hannan posts on the subject of exports and the fact that now we are told our sales to the rest of the world exceed those to the EU. One sentence of his post intrigued me:
"Many British-made goods are routed via Antwerp and Rotterdam to overseas markets. They thus show up in the raw figures as exports to the EU, even though their final destination might be Argentina or Australia."
The UK is now part of the EU (like it or not) and the EU has now declared itself a state. If goods are being moved, within a state, from one part of that state to another part of that state; logically, how can they be exports? The goods cannot be classified as an export until they leave the confines of that state.

I seem to recall, yonks ago, that we were being told by our political elite that our future lay with Europe, that most of our trade was with Europe, etc, etc.  Once again we now find that our political elite have been lying to us and, true to form, have been 'fiddling the figures'.

Just saying..........................

5 comments:

A K Haart said...

I'd like to add a witty comment to this post, but I loathe the EU and our political elite so much I think I need another drink instead. Sorry about that. It gets to you sometimes...

Sue said...

So, our assumption that the EU needs us more than we need it, is and always has been true?

Why the f*ck are we still in this dictatorship?

Anonymous said...

So basically UK is a patsy, being taken advantage of by middle-men in EU instead of exporting directly itself, correct.

WitteringsfromWitney said...

AKH: Witty comments or otherwise, accompanied by a drink or not, are always welcome.......

Sue: Yup and yes, only a cretin believes we should remain within.

Anon: Agreed

derek.buxton1 said...

Well there's a surprise, our own politicians lying to us about the EU, who'd a thunk it! I fear twas ever thus, Cameroon is at it again today, seems to think he's in charge???