Now here's a laugh. In May 2016 David Davis gave a speech (HERE) making the case for Brexit. I’ll do a more extensive posting about it later but I thought it was amusing that David Davis, who was highly critical of various people and organisations including The EU, Barack Obama, The Treasury, the IMF and so on, relied on a single “expert” to prop up his case. He quoted that well-known economic authority, professor Stephen Bush. Err...Stephen who? I hear you saying.
Of course - it’s professor Stephen Bush! Actually I had never heard of him, so I did a quick Google search. It turns out he is Emeritus Professor of Process Manufacture and Polymer Engineering at Manchester University (HERE). That’s right, he is an expert in the manufacture of plastics! Before Manchester he worked as a senior research manager at ICI – a company that, thanks perhaps to Professor Bush’s research expertise, is now out of business.
In his speech, Davis said after 40 years of EU membership we are “no better off than when we started”, proudly citing the Emeritus professor for this piece of research and rejecting the opinion of the overwhelming majority of the established economic experts in favour of someone who writes papers on molecular processes but fancies himself as an omnipotent all-purpose expert.
This lack of any economic qualifications whatsoever does not apparently detract from him being quoted as a reliable source on economic matters by David Davis, at that time a former government minister. I assume he couldn't find anyone else prepared to make the kind of assertions that the professor is prepared to. David Davis obviously likes experts, just not ones with expertise in the field under discussion. I presume if he ever needed brain surgery (and this is surely more likely than not) he would insist on having it done by someone skilled in cliodynamics or an exo-meteorologist.
Professor Bush has written a book about Brexit (Britain’s referendum decision and its effects), which is now available on Amazon for £6.99 with four reviews. He has also written a paper about Brexit (HERE) that I’ll look at later. I wonder what his reaction would be if his window cleaner produced a paper on chain growth copolymerisation?
