James O'Brien's Caller's Millennium Bug Brexit Analogy Fell Apart Very, Very Quickly

10 September 2019, 13:04 | Updated: 10 September 2019, 13:11

This caller tried to tell James O'Brien that the scare stories around a no-deal Brexit would be just like the Millennium bug - but his argument fell apart with the simplest of questions.

Alan in Stirling said that people worried about computer disasters in 1999, but everything was fine and he believes the same will happen with Brexit.

But his argument did not stand up to scrutiny.

He told James: "If you remember, back in the Millennium, we had a big thing with the Millennium Bug, the computers were all going to stop. 12 o'clock came, it never happened."

James pointed out they spent $300billion to mitigate the problems potentially faced and asked why that was relevant to Operation Yellowhammer.

James O'Brien's caller tried to use a Millennium Bug analogy
James O'Brien's caller tried to use a Millennium Bug analogy. Picture: PA / LBC

Alan said: "It's similar and it's not similar.

"All of these experts that they ask. They won't release everything they say in case nothing happens and it's not as bad as people say and they just have a big red face."

But James picked up on his pejorative use of the word 'expert' and things started to fall apart.

Watch what happened at the top of the page.

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