Getting a bit politically correct round here...

[DaveB]

I'm on holiday next week, I would love to have a terry p book to read but I think I've read all of them, some twice. Shame eh.

And there are never going to be any new ones.

Terry Pratchett's unpublished works crushed by steamroller - BBC News

[The_Equalizer]

Indeed and let me illustrate this with an example.

It is a well known fact that the UK contributes approx 180 million a week to the EU. This is a fact, you can look it up.

However to suggest that the UK contributes 350 million a week to the EU is not a fact, it isn't some different world view point selecting an alternative fact, it is simply a lie.

Perhaps they thought that 180 million wasn't enough to convince the public so they (more or less) doubled it for extra effect?

[NotAllThere]

I'm on holiday next week, I would love to have a terry p book to read but I think I've read all of them, some twice. Shame eh.

Even the Tiffany Aching ones?

[BR14]

they're (we're) all getting old

and basically, we've discussed everything to death and everyone's knackered

on top of that as we discussed last week in another thread there are basically two camps these days on CUK,

there's the expats who are happy as larry and living the dream and the rest who are stuck in blighty and depressed

Milan.

well i'm happy enough in blighty, after considerable travel elswhere, so that's bollix.

[excon]

A bit like the 100 billion Euro UK's EU exit figure. God knows where that came from.

EU auditors refuse to sign off more than £100billion of its own spending - Telegraph

From the article:

According to the annual report of the European Court of Auditors, seen by The Telegraph, £5.5 billion of the EU budget last year was misspent because of controls on spending that were deemed to be only “partially effective” by experts.

The audit, published this morning, found that £109 billion out of a total of £117 billion spent by the EU in 2013 was "affected by material error”.
It means that the Brussels accounts have not been given the all clear for 19 years running.


Given the fact that the EU has no real idea how much money it receives or spends the 100 billion figure has been plucked out of thin air.

[SueEllen]

EU auditors refuse to sign off more than £100billion of its own spending - Telegraph

From the article:

According to the annual report of the European Court of Auditors, seen by The Telegraph, £5.5 billion of the EU budget last year was misspent because of controls on spending that were deemed to be only “partially effective” by experts.

The audit, published this morning, found that £109 billion out of a total of £117 billion spent by the EU in 2013 was "affected by material error”.
It means that the Brussels accounts have not been given the all clear for 19 years running.


Given the fact that the EU has no real idea how much money it receives or spends the 100 billion figure has been plucked out of thin air.

They drag that out every few years.

[NickFitz]

Given the fact that the EU has no real idea how much money it receives or spends the 100 billion figure has been plucked out of thin air.

Bit of a leap from "there are some inconsistencies in the accounts" to "no real idea how much money it spends or receives", isn't it? Rather like saying that somebody who only completed half of a crossword is therefore illiterate

[cojak]

"Facts" can be brought to bare on either side of most arguments, it comes down to who you believe. We all like to think we are blind like Lady Justice but often frame these decisions in our own world views.

Something to think about.

Indeed.

But then you're not a mod on here.

[excon]

Bit of a leap from "there are some inconsistencies in the accounts" to "no real idea how much money it spends or receives", isn't it? Rather like saying that somebody who only completed half of a crossword is therefore illiterate

Accounts are either accurate or they are not, we aren't talking about rounding errors here, billions year on year for two decades.

[WTFH]

Getting a bit politically correct round here...

EU auditors refuse to sign off more than £100billion of its own spending - Telegraph

From the article:

According to the annual report of the European Court of Auditors, seen by The Telegraph, £5.5 billion of the EU budget last year was misspent because of controls on spending that were deemed to be only “partially effective” by experts.

The audit, published this morning, found that £109 billion out of a total of £117 billion spent by the EU in 2013 was "affected by material error”.
It means that the Brussels accounts have not been given the all clear for 19 years running.


Given the fact that the EU has no real idea how much money it receives or spends the 100 billion figure has been plucked out of thin air.

I guess it depends whether you mean the accounts were signed off by the auditors or that every discrepancy was accounted for.
As you have linked to a report from 2014, here's the comments for 2015:

"In 2015 the EU spent €145 billion—or about £105 billion, at the average exchange rate for 2015. That's a few billion less than what the UK spent on the NHS. The Court said the EU’s accounts in 2015: “present, in all material respects, a true and fair view of the EU’s financial results for the year … We were therefore able to give a clean opinion on the reliability of the accounts (‘signed off’)”.