The BoE downgraded it's growth forecast for the economy (HERE) on Thursday and Mark Carney, the governor attributed much of it to Brexit uncertainty. The forecast came down to 1.7% for this year and 1.6% next (from 1.9% and 1.7% respectively). Most normal people would have expected this - but enter our friend John Longworth, former head of the British Chambers of Commerce until he was forced to resign for giving his own totally biased and misguided views instead of the BCC's.
Immediately after the BoE's report about the economy he was on the BBC saying BoE forecasts always had to be taken "with a pinch of salt" because they were notoriously bad at forecasting. Mr Longworth can never hear any hint of an adverse impact from Brexit without rubbishing or smearing the source. No matter how detailed the research or authoritative the organisation, be it the IMF, the OECD, the Bank of England, the IFS or the OBR, they are biased or stooges of the EU.
I do not claim all these bodies are infallible. They are not. But at least they are trying to be even handed. He thinks all the forecasts of a downturn or any negative impact are wrong. They might be, we could be in for a recession or a slump. The forecasts may be too optimistic but he doesn't see it. On the odd occasion when some small piece of good news is forecast this is seen as highly accurate and therefore compellingly believable.
For him, anything with Brexit in the title is unequivocally good. Nothing about leaving the EU is open to any kind of criticism whatsoever. If John Longworth was told half the nation after Brexit would be starving and reduced to begging he would attempt to put a gloss on it and suggest we all need to lose a bit of weight.
