Pro-Brexit TalkRADIO host Julia Hartley-Brewer has come up with a bemusing excuse for Vote Leave’s pledge that the £350m we send to the EU every week could be spent on the NHS.
The pledge formed one of the key messages from Vote Leave. Although the £350m figure was disputed, it was a popular message. It also proved to be a misleading one, and the Vote Leave camp quickly abandoned it.
The #VoteLeave team in Dover today! #IVotedLeave #ProjectHope pic.twitter.com/90kGSDi9yU
— Vote Leave (@vote_leave) June 23, 2016
But while most of them simply avoid talking about it now, Hartley-Brewer is still defending it.
The argument
Hartley-Brewer engaged lawyer Jo Maugham QC in a discussion on Twitter with a classic example of a ‘strawman argument‘ – an ‘illogical argument‘ which does not answer the question asked, but an entirely different one instead.
Brexit promises
The discussion quickly moved on to the promises made by Vote Leave:
Another challenger approaches
Left-wing satirist David Schneider also offered his opinion on the matter:
https://twitter.com/davidschneider/status/799903412380958724
And then, Hartley-Brewer came up with an excuse that either shows her own stupidity, or the stupidity she assumes in others:
"let's". As in "let us". As in we can choose how we spend this money ourselves. Which we now can. Not a lie.
— Julia Hartley-Brewer (@JuliaHB1) November 19, 2016
Trying to make sense of it all
Schneider attempted to question her logic.
The important part
Finally, Schneider closed off his argument with a very important message.
Regardless of Vote Leave’s intentions, the campaign knew that many people would take its message literally. Furthermore, the campaign was very publicly warned about that message. Yet at no point did Vote Leave clarify what it actually meant. So some people in the UK voted based on what was at best a misleading message, and at worst an outright lie.
Vote Leave has not apologised for this confusion, and it has not spoken about why it failed to clarify its message. So if anyone is being disingenuous, it’s Julia Hartley-Brewer.
Get Involved!
– Read more Canary articles about Brexit here.
– Support The Canary so we can continue to bring you the news that matters.
Featured image via Flickr
