The EU Referendum: Douglas Carswell’s absolutely right about this ad even if it was meant to be joke

https://twitter.com/DouglasCarswell/status/673591195986206721

This sort of thing can be thrown back at referendum campaigners

When I tweeted the above ad from Leave.EU UKIP’s MP, Douglas Carswell, was one of the first to respond. His annoyance was correct. This is a serious campaign with so much at stake and the argument should be based on facts not made up statements like in the ad even if it was meant to be a joke.

In the coming months, and perhaps years, before we finally vote on the EU there are going to be hundreds of factoids produced by the rival campaigns. In this context it is really important for their credibility that what each side says is true because both IN and OUT campaigns will be scanning everything so they can make the case that their opponents are telling porkies.

You can see the danger. The IN campaign would pick up things like this and seek to discredit their opponents. In this instance they could make suggestions on the lines that BREXIT side was so desperate to win that it even claimed falsely that the EU would abolish Christmas.

In response to the last night’s controversy the Leave’EU Tweets carrying the ad appear to have been deleted.

Mike Smithson

Follow @MSmithsonPB



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