As soon as you hear someone saying “Let’s be clear about this … ”, you can be sure that being clear is the very last thing they will do. This rule of thumb proved true in a recent radio appearance by prominent Leave campaigner and politician Priti Patel when she uttered a version of the phrase ten times in the space of a few minutes on the BBC’s Today programme. She was duly accused of being “Priti vacant”.
Unfortunately Patel’s performance is just one instance of the bullshit that has characterised so much debate about the EU referendum. The following day on the same radio programme, George Osborne also fell back onto empty rhetoric to defend the case for remain. These included “let’s be clear”, “multipronged attack”, and of course his favourites – “long-term economic plan”.
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