Over 3 million UK jobs are linked to our trade with the EU. Myth.

How often have you heard that figure trotted out.  Probably quite often.  Nick Clegg had it as one of his favorite lines.  But he is not alone.  It has became a mantra, an accepted "fact" when in reality it is no such thing.  It is a myth.

The dishonesty of this claim is staggering.  So why people keep using it, when it has been proved laughable wrong, says volumes about those who want us to Stay.  Generally it is the same people who said it would be a disaster if we didn't join the Euro.

The number is based on the same false idea that Britain would stop trading with the EU if it were not a member. 

But why would we stop trading?  Wouldn't all the businesses in the rEU still want to sell us stuff?

You bet they would which is why there would be a trade agreement on a the table before you could blink.  No one argues that we have to form a political union with, say, Brazil or Russia in order to do business with those countries. 

The economist from whose work the figure was taken, Dr Martin Weale, has called the claim “pure Goebbels”, adding: “In many years of academic research, I cannot recall such a wilful distortion of the facts.”.   

Ouch!