Lies, damned lies, and graphs

My son, @tombeardsworth, tweeted about this picture recently. His tweet said that something was wrong with the ad, and what he meant was the logical inconsistency of the argument about the effects of being in or out of Europe.

I knew he was alluding to this, but I saw a different point, where the ad misleads. It says that Scotland has double the trade with the rest of the UK than the rest of the World; and yet, because the illustration is of a container, doubling the length, has a more than double effect on volume….so the eye is deceived. I say more than double because they have used a square and a rectangle, not two squares, so the crime isn't gross, but still has been committed.

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