This has just come to my attention – yes, I know somewhat late, but it really is illuminating.
A good friend of mine came up with a great idea. If you don’t have the time/inclination to find out all the facts about the EU referendum (I don’t blame you) and are possibly unsure which way to vote, perhaps knowing how other notable people are thinking could help out.
Here are a few that strongly believe the UK should remain a member of the EU:
• Governor of the Bank of England
• International Monetary Fund
• Institute for Fiscal Studies
• Confederation of British Industry
• Leaders/heads of state of every single other member of the EU
• President of the United States of America
• Eight former US Treasury Secretaries
• President of China
• Prime Minister of India
• Prime Minister of Canada
• Prime Minister of Australia
• Prime Minister of Japan
• Prime Minister of New Zealand
• The chief executives of most of the top 100 companies in the UK including Marks and Spencer, BT, Asda, Vodafone, Virgin, IBM, BMW etc.
• Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General of the United Nations
• All living former Prime Ministers of the UK (from both parties)
• Virtually all reputable and recognised economists
• The Prime Minister of the UK
• The leader of the Labour Party
• The Leader of the Liberal Democrats
• The Leader of the Green Party
• The Leader of the Scottish National Party
• The leader of Plaid Cymru
• Leader of Sinn Fein
• Martin Lewis, that money saving dude off the telly
• The Secretary General of the TUC
• Unison
• National Union of Students
• National Union of Farmers
• Stephen Hawking
• Chief Executive of the NHS
• 300 of the most prominent international historians
• Director of Europol
• David Anderson QC, Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation
• Former Directors of GCHQ
• Secretary General of Nato
• Church of England
• Church in Scotland
• Church in Wales
• Friends of the Earth
• Greenpeace
• Director General of the World Trade Organisation
• WWF
• World Bank
• OECDHere are pretty much the only notable people who think we should leave the EU:
• Boris Johnson, who probably doesn’t really care either way, but knows he’ll become Prime Minister if the country votes to leave
• A former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions who carried out a brutal regime of cuts to benefits and essential support for the poorest in society as well as the disabled and sick
• The guy who was Education Secretary and every single teacher in the country hated with a furious passion for the damage he was doing to the education system
• Leader of UKIP
• BNP
• Britain First
• Donald Trump
• Keith Chegwin
• David IckeSo, as I said, if you can’t be bothered to look into the real facts and implications of all this in/out stuff, just pick the list that you most trust and vote that way. It really couldn’t be more simple.
And if you are unsure about leaving, don’t.
Please repost this list, if you think it might help.
Clearly the author is unaware of the appeal to authority fallacy. But beyond that, all I can say is if you can’t be bothered, perhaps you shouldn’t bother to vote. Fuck me!
Marks and Spencer, Vodafone, BT: how have their share prices been doing lately? Asda appears to have had little local difficulties, too. The appeal to authority seems a tad threadbare in their cases.
Go on. Tell us who the erudite author is, and when he/she/it penned it.
And he/she/it claims to have a friend?
Or is h/s/i just covering backside so that in future it can be claimed that these were not h/s/i’s own thoughts, but those of an imaginary “friend”?
https://www.facebook.com/Sir.Rom.Nivlac/posts/10157225488510495
A more graphic example of sophistry it’s difficult to imagine.
“300 of the most prominent international historians”?
Didn’t mention the Nige for some reason I can’t imagine.
Hope that friend of his isn’t involved with anything that requires electricity or sharp edges.
I raise this because the idiocy is not only extreme here, but as I’m rapidly discovering, not uncommon either. People really believe this shit. Critical thinking is dead.
Indeed, they forgot ozymandias, king of kings. And what about the smoking man (the aliens don’t want to take over a world where we aren’t in the EU).
Critical thinking I’m afraid has been replaced with spouting infantilised garbage and believing that it’s profound, witty and originally yours (even if repeated for the millionth time).
If I may do a bit of plagiarism myself. “I could eat a bowl of alphabet soup and shit a better argument than that”
Sounds much like the “97% of climate scientists” bullshit…
Unfortunately none of those people in that long list outnumber us plebs who voted to leave .
But… But… But… we didn’t know what we were voting for. We were told lies…
If that’s true, it’s consistent with every election since voting began.
You’ve just greatly expanded the number of people whose judgment and motives I can’t trust.
Pleased to be of service.
This list deserves the classic parent comeback to a child who is complaining that ‘X says its alright to [insert stupid idea here]’, namely: ‘If X said to jump off a cliff would you do it then?’
If you’ve already decided that X is a bad idea, a list of people who think its a good idea is just a list of people who you now know are idiots.
The first list is seriously deficient, omitting as it does important donors and supporters of the remain campaign such as JPMorgan Chase,Goldman Sach and Morgan Stanley, not to mention our own “big 5”.
The question is, of course, why would any ordinary, free thinking person consider that they could possibly be better off inside a system which benefits those on this list? (With the possible exceptions of S Hawkin (dec’d) and M Lewis (brain f@rt day?)
This list of supposedly eminent remainers has done nothing more than convince me that I was correct in voting leave.
Yeah, I mean, the leader of Sinn Fein. That’s me convinced right there…
I’d suggest that if a person doesn’t “have the time/inclination to find out all the facts about the EU referendum” then they really don’t have the right to hold an opinion, still less to vote, on it at all. The response to those who don’t have the “time/inclination” for such an important issue is – make the time and get off your lazy (mental) backsides and find the inclination. If they can’t even do that, they should butt out of the whole thing completely and keep their second-hand views to themselves.
Oh, and – err – who’s this “President of the United States of America” mentioned in the first list? Isn’t that position held by one Mr Trump? The very same one who also appears in the second list ….
At the time the list was sent out originally, Obama was the president.