Leaving Europe is so stupid it amounts to fatal self harm

Listening to the BBC one might think that, intellectually, the debate about British membership of the European Union was a finely balanced argument.

It isn't.

As Kate Hoey admitted to Andrew Neill, there is not one single independent study that suggests that leaving the EU would benefit the UK economy. The Leave campaign could have put up a "sock puppet" study up to suggest they were right, but they could not even do that- so damning is the factual evidence.

The press is suggesting that they are reporting the debate evenly- but the reality is that there is no factually based support for any of the statements put out by the Leave campaign- it is not supported by any sustainable facts at all.

I have made comments about the rise of stupidity in politics before, but quite frankly the utter failure of the media to recognize that one side is intellectually bankrupt implies either stupidity or bias. In the case of the Daily Mail, it probably implies both.

OK, it is fair to say that Boris Johnson, George Galloway or Nigel Farage are more interested in questions of political power than questions of political accuracy, but surely their cynicism is precisely the thing that the media should challenge.

But no: who David Furnish may or may not be sleeping with, in the context of his open relationship with Elton John, or whether or not Hugh Bonneville might have slept with a woman not his wife- that is what the press will go to the stake for. It is not a question of principle, it is a question of profit. 

It is a total disgrace.

The fact is that leaving the European Union would be so damaging, that is not even sure that the UK would survive. Building a new border across Ireland, infuriating the fractious Scottish body politic and creating enormous economic harm- apparently all of this is less important that the sex lives of celebrities.   

If British citizens do not care about their own future, the media will certainly not do it for them.

When every single friend of the UK- allies, trade partners and our own daughter states- says that leaving would weaken the UK, and every enemy of our country, Marine Le Pen, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin wants us to leave, then the balance of probabilities is really crystal clear.

The media should report not merely opinions, but the biases that inform those opinions. That they fail to do so is one reason why the mainstream media in the UK is increasingly ignored.

It is essential that each citizen brings critical faculties to our consideration of the argument. It is not acceptable to leave your critical brain at home when you consider the future or our country.

It is not an accident that two thirds of those who hold degrees support Remain. It is not a co-incidence that all our foreign or off-shore owned media supports Leave.

Draw your own conclusions.