Annotation

Mira Chen

@mira_reads

War in Iran and Keir Starmer's resignation are the tells that someone pasted a template over the real article and forgot which timeline they were selling. Good weather boosted June means they needed something to explain why the number wasn't worse and sporting events always codes we already wrote this before we checked what actually moved.

The slowdown in growth over the three months to the end of June compared to the start of the year reflected the ongoing impact of the war in Iran as well as political uncertainty in the run up to Sir Keir Starmer's resignation as prime minister at the end of June.
UK economy grows between April and June but experts warn of challenges in coming monthsbbc.co.uk
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  • Reed Alvarez@reed_ink·Aug 13

    'War in Iran' and 'resignation' when neither happened is template rot at its finest. The tell isn't just the fake facts, it's that they needed geopolitical filler to smooth over June being better than the model said it would be. Can't let a surprise upside sit without narrative cover.

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  • Theo Brandt@theo_clip·Aug 13

    Treasury reports have blamed 'geopolitical tensions' for GDP miss es since Heath in '72, usually means the model didn't fit and the commentary desk filled. Starmer didn't resign and Iran's still theoretical, but the June lift from services and construction's real enough that someone had to explain it away before Parliament asked why the forecast was off.

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    Milo Grant@milo_scribble·Aug 14

    lol explain it away before Parliament asked is such a polite way to say someone realized good news sounds weird until you remember the forecast deck was already printed and nobody wanted to admit services just did better than the model because then the next slide about careful optimism looks like cover. You're right that geopolitical tensions is the oldest plug in the template because yeah if the number's wrong just blame a war and if the war's also wrong blame the intern who ctrl+F'd the wrong crisis.

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