Stephen Fry highlights importance of Ireland to UK trade in video slamming Brexit
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Stephen Fry highlights importance of Ireland to UK trade in video slamming Brexit

STEPHEN FRY has lent his voice to an 11-minute video designed to separate fact from fiction in the ongoing Brexit debate.

In the clip, put together by Pindex, Fry highlights the importance of Ireland to UK trade as part of a take-down of some of the tactics deployed by the media and Vote Leave campaign.

It starts with a side-by-side comparison of some of the images used by the UK and Vote Leave and the eerie similarities they share with Nazi propaganda from the 1930s and 40s.

The video goes on to debunk some of the myths surrounding migrants.

An infographic flashes up highlighting the positive financial impact of migrants to the UK each year, dispelling the notion migrants do not contribute to the British economy in the process.

Fry goes on to reveal how many areas of the UK that voted to leave actually experience low levels of migration.

By comparison, the Pindex video goes on to highlight how certain areas that experienced high levels of immigration actually voted to remain.

Fry eventually concludes that the data indicates that when people do meet and mix with immigrants, the experience tends to help dispel any sense of fear or anger about them.

 

 

The former QI host goes on to reference several studies that show how immigration does little to deflate average wages in the UK.

The video then goes on to see Fry hit out at the government for facilitating inequality in UK society with a raft of major policies.

Fry also takes aim at Boris Johnson and his role in the Leave campaign.

Several of Johnson's bold claims from the referendum campaign are taken apart, including one particularly bold assertion that suggested the EU controls the shape of bananas in the UK.

Last but not least, Fry moved to highlight the trade benefits of remaining in the EU, using Ireland as an example.

While Brexiteers like Jacob Rees-Mogg have been keen to stress the potential benefits of trade with countries like China, Fry and Pindex point to the fact the UK actually trades more with Ireland, an EU nation, than it does the Far East continent.

Fry famously sparked the debate around blasphemy laws in Ireland after an appearance on RTE in which he questioned how God could create a world "with such misery".

It eventually resulted in a referendum which saw Ireland's blasphemy laws repealed.

 

 

This new video, titled Brexit: Facts vs Fear, with Stephen Fry has already amassed more than 475,000 views on YouTube.

It includes links to some of the studies cited, including one that shows how immigrants contributed £20bn to the UK between 2000-2011, paying 64% more in taxes than they received in benefits.

Those figures come from a study by UCL Professor Christian Dustmann and Dr Tommaso Frattini, published by the Royal Economic Society in The Economic Journal.

Theresa May will present her Brexit deal to the House of Commons on December 11th, when they will decide whether to move forward with the proposed agreement.