Davis' performance at the Exiting the EU Select Committee yesterday (HERE) was absolutely pitiful. The final, shaming admission that the government had made no impact assessments on Brexit's affect on our economy really confirmed that we have sunk to the level of a banana republic. But beyond that it was the way he did it.
He still has that incredible, swaggering confidence, even when exposed before the nation as a liar, a fool and totally incompetent.
Having said on television on 25th June this year, "In my job I don’t think out loud and I don’t make guesses. Those two things. I try and make decisions. You make those based on the data." It turns out that is precisely what he is doing. He admitted he has no faith in economic forecasts and said they were worthless, particularly when Brexit is such a huge change! In other words don't worry about the data just make a decision based on blind faith. He talked about contingency planning for no deal but no one asked him how you can plan for the biggest change in our lifetime when you don't have any data on what might happen? The Mirror (HERE) printed a piece with seven occasions when he talked of these impact assessments, never using exactly that phrase but leaving everyone with the impression they were done. He has now admitted they don't exist.
The Committee then voted along party lines that he had fulfilled his obligations to parliament and he won't face contempt proceedings - except the contempt of most reasonable people that is.
If the government introduce a minor change to the law, there is usually an impact assessment to accompany it that explains what impact the drafters of the law expect. But with Brexit, the biggest and most sudden change to our laws and economy ever, there is no assessments at all. It is a national disgrace.
Gary Gibbon of Channel 4 told us last night that he had spoken to someone who had seen the 850 pages of the sectoral analyses released in redacted form and they said they are "unremittingly gloomy" which is what most economists expect. If you can laugh at it, a humourous piece appeared in The Telegraph HERE.
