Project Fear may have hit its apex in the past week, morphing into Project Hysteria, after it was announced that a ‘no deal’ Brexit would leave the UK at risk from falling space debris.
Remainers and the establishment press have jumped on a series of impact reports released by the government over the summer to push the narrative that a no deal Brexit, where the UK would leave the bloc without paying a divorce bill and free from its regulations, would be worse than a ‘soft’ Brexit or not leaving the European Union at all.
An MP close to Prime Minister Theresa May revealed in July that she was planning to “scare people witless” about the consequences of a no deal Brexit with the release of the 70-some impact papers “so people will eventually embrace the Theresa May plan”.
In advance of the June 2016 referendum, then-Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne directed a Project Fear campaign, pushing reports claiming that a vote to leave the EU would cause a recession and result in 500,000 people being put out of work — neither of which proved true.
Project Hysteria takes the anti-Brexit scaremongering beyond the realms of rationality, leading to predictions that a deal-free Brexit would result in such catastrophes as the end of sandwiches, the total breakdown of society, and even a shortage of sperm.
Here are just a few examples:
— The Sky Will Literally Fall In Without a Soft Brexit —
A government guidance report published Thursday hinted that in the event of the UK leaving the EU on March 29th, 2019, without a deal, the UK may be cut off from the bloc’s Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) programme — which is also currently accessed by non-EU members Norway and Switzerland.
A UK-based centre currently provides warning about the fragmentation of space debris — data and research the bloc would lose if it refuses mutual access.
Even without access to EU data, the planning document confirms that “The UK will continue to receive space, surveillance and tracking data from the United States of America.”
However, Labour MP and champion of Remainer group Best for Britain Jo Stevens said the projections were “deeply worrying”.
“Theresa May used to say Brexit wouldn’t be the end of the world – but actually it could be!” she added.
While the Daily Mail — which under Remain-supporting Georgie Greig has backed May’s soft Brexit plan and branded rebel Brexiteer MPs “traitors” — ran with the hyperbolic headline Thursday morning: “Brexit really COULD be the end of the world: EU won’t share information about space debris crashing back to earth if there is no deal, ministers warn.”
— Brexit Is a Threat to Sandwiches, Butter, and Chocolate —
Industry sources said in late July that Brexit was a threat to the ability of Britons to put cheese, salad, and meat between two slices of bread.
BBC business editor Simon Jack warned of a “disorderly” no-deal Brexit resulting in a “breakdown in the food supply chain”.
“Staying in the EU for a bit longer would keep the chiller cabinet full of sandwiches,” he said.
Earlier in the month, the dairy industry warned that butter, yoghurt, and cheese could become “luxuries” — despite Britain’s significant indigenous dairy industry — and Cadbury’s said this week it would stock up on chocolate in the event of no deal.
The idea that there would be a “sandwich famine” was rubbished by Brexit minister Dominic Raab, who said that such a claim was “misinformation”.
Noting that 50 percent of the UK’s food is home-grown, 30 percent comes from the EU, and 20 percent from outside the bloc, the Brexit minister asked with incredulity: “Who is credibly suggesting, in a no deal scenario, that the EU would not want to continue to sell food to UK consumers?”
“Let me reassure you all that, contrary to one of the wilder claims, you will still be able to enjoy a BLT after Brexit,” Mr Raab added.
— Brexit Will Cause a Super-Gonorrhoea Epidemic —
Officials have claimed the UK could be overrun by highly-infectious diseases including super-gonorrhoea.
It was argued that if the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) stopped co-operating with the UK after Brexit, it would be difficult to track the progress of certain infectious diseases, with the example given of a man who contracted the world’s worst case of the sexually-transmitted disease and brought it back to the UK.
“Diseases do not recognise borders,” said NHS Confederation chief executive Niall Dickson — who also conceded that a break in cooperation would result in European patients being affected, as well.
— Brexit Will Kill TV Show Love Island —
Labour MP Jess Phillips alleged in August that Brexit will end popular dating reality television show Love Island, on grounds that it would be harder for the network to send contestants to Spain for filming.
Likewise, the UK leaving the EU will mean that the country can no longer take part in the Eurovision Song Contest, a rumour that was so pervasive it was the subject of several newspaper articles and even addressed in Parliament. The ability to compete in Eurovision depends on membership of the European Broadcast Union, a body which predates the foundation of the European Union by decades.
Such tales of Brexit affecting Britons’ entertainment have been repeated since the vote to leave in June 2016, with opera houses expressing their fear that post-free movement work visa rules could hamper their ability to obtain a last-minute Brünnhilde from Germany, in what was dubbed in 2017 an impending “diva” crisis.
— Brexit Will Result in the Army on the Streets and Civil Disorder —
Brexit could literally destroy the foundations of Western society in the UK.
The Army could be deployed to deliver food and medicines, with the National Police Coordination Centre saying price rises could spark “widespread protest” which could then escalate into civil disorder and riots in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
But former Metropolitan detective inspector Mick Neville accused police chiefs of “scaremongering”, calling the claims that a no-deal Brexit would result in a crime wave “Project Fear”.
“The truth is senior police officers have become part of the metropolitan liberal elite and supporting EU membership is part of their faith,” he said.
On the same day that Raab announced the sandwich would remain safe after Brexit, he also dispelled the myth that the military would be needed to keep food and medicines moving, saying there were “no plans to deploy the army to maintain food supplies”.
— No Deal Brexit Will Cause a National Sperm Shortage —
If leaving the globalist bloc did not already put the UK at risk of super-gonorrhoea, it could also risk a fertility crisis, apparently.
Danish sperm donations account for half of all foreign male reproductive material imported into Britain last year, in part because Danish law allows for anonymous donations with no limit to the number of children a donor can father.
The Daily Mail reports Danish donations to be particularly popular amongst single, middle-class, wealthy women, with the “Viking connection” being something that they “warm to”, according to Professor Allan Pacey, head of andrology for Sheffield Teaching Hospitals.
“Ten years ago, heterosexual couples were our main clients,” says Peter Reeslev, CEO of sperm bank Danish Cryos.
“Then it shifted a little, and we were seeing more gay couples. Now it is the single mothers, women who are going it alone,” he added.
However, leaving the EU would also mean pulling out of the Organ Directives and EU Tissues and Cells Directives, with women in search of sperm donors having to resort to “fertility tourism”.
“It would be devastating if it was made more difficult for women like me,” says Amanda, who decided to become a single parent in her early forties.
— No Deal Brexit Is an Existential Threat to the Integrity of the United Kingdom —
The former president of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy told The Observer last month that a no-deal Brexit represents “an existential threat to the UK”, and that it could have “consequences” for Scotland.
This is despite a recent poll showing only 22 percent of Scots want another referendum on leaving the United Kingdom after Brexit.
“We could end up with a situation in which the EU27 becomes more united and a United Kingdom less united,” said the Eurocrat, who Brexit campaigner and former UKIP leader Nigel Farage had accused in 2010 of intending “the quiet assassin of European democracy and of European nation states”.
“This talk about a ‘no deal’ is the kind of nationalist rhetoric that belongs to another era,” Van Rompuy added.