Liar, Liar!
I've lost track of the number of people who've told me politicians are all liars. Well, actually, that's a lie. It's 3.
But is it true that all politicians are liars? I don't think so. Giving your own version of the truth doesn't necessarily involve lying. It just means if you're a politician you slant the truth to suit your own party. And that, I'm sure, is what politicians have always done. Usually, they've been quite good at it: a tweak here or there to the facts and you can steal an opponent's policies; a statistic that isn't so much a stat as a guess or a fudge; a promise that the politician - and the public - know will never have to be kept.
The difference right now is that one political party in the UK has given up 'tweaking' the truth and their political leaders have gone for outright lying - and it's working. They learned this at the knee of Donald Trump who taught the world as soon as he got into office that a lot of the public don't recognise a lie and will happily quote it as the truth - and it doesn't matter how often the truth is repeated, it's the lie that spreads and sticks. We all know that Trump's inauguration as president attracted a bigger audience than Obama's, don't we? Although we've seen the photos that contradict that notion. And a lot of Americans are still sure Obama isn't even American, even though he produced his birth certificate - and his passport - to prove he was.
As the old saying has it: a lie is halfway round the world before truth has even got its shoes on.
The people who told me all UK politicians are liars weren't angry. More resigned.
There's tons of evidence that Jeremy Corbyn isn't an anti-semite, including witness statements, but according to the press, BBC, Sky, ITV News and some of his own party who want to get rid of him, he is, so that's that. This kind of treatment has to merit this reply:
It's just that not enough people will see this. And there are those that don't seem to recognise satire anyway.
In Scotland, I do understand to an extent why people sometimes get confused over SNP policies: the media don't always make a difference between news that applies to England - like NHS targets missed again, train fares being hiked - and stuff that is UK-wide. There's also a lot of misunderstanding about the Scottish Government's financial position: it doesn't matter which party is in power, the budget isn't determined here and the 'deficit' is imposed by the Exchequer. And no Scottish Government can get into debt to reduce that deficit or supplement their budget.
Lies pile up: Nicola Sturgeon is prepared to have Scotland sign up to the Euro - despite the fact she has denied that several times over and even the obnoxious Andrew Neil went on twitter to tell people that they never even got on to the subject in the interview because they ran out of time.
The latest 'scalp-hunt' involves the Scottish Health Spokesperson - and make no mistake, the media are out to get her. Every day brings a new story about a child dying. It's a terrible thing for any family to go through but for the most part there's no evidence of incompetence by either the Health Spokesperson or the NHS: what we see and hear are more grieving parents and their 'feeling' that someone is responsible and they have been treated badly. All served up in the full glare of a TV camera.
Is it just possible that the 'confusion' is no such thing? Like the BBC's recent 'mistakes': the wrong clip of Johnson played at the Cenotaph, the wrongly-edited clip of an answer Johnson gave in a q and a, forgetting to sign him up for a debate that all the other leaders were signed up for. Is this really just incompetence on the part of BBC personnel?
Think back to almost any leader you care to name in UK politics. Did any of them send the prime minister's dad to a TV studio with their own camera crew to film his old dad being rejected as a replacement for the PM?
And this is where matters get really worrying: confidence in politics is as low as I can remember. For that, read confidence in the democratic system, the power of the vote, the work of parliament. These are all suffering. Maybe some politicians - not all - need to be reminded they work for us. And this is not a game.
As for the UK press and TV news, I suspect they are beyond redemption. If you need confirmation that they don't have the UK's best interests at heart, just take a glance over the front pages of the newspapers next time you're in the supermarket.
But is it true that all politicians are liars? I don't think so. Giving your own version of the truth doesn't necessarily involve lying. It just means if you're a politician you slant the truth to suit your own party. And that, I'm sure, is what politicians have always done. Usually, they've been quite good at it: a tweak here or there to the facts and you can steal an opponent's policies; a statistic that isn't so much a stat as a guess or a fudge; a promise that the politician - and the public - know will never have to be kept.
The difference right now is that one political party in the UK has given up 'tweaking' the truth and their political leaders have gone for outright lying - and it's working. They learned this at the knee of Donald Trump who taught the world as soon as he got into office that a lot of the public don't recognise a lie and will happily quote it as the truth - and it doesn't matter how often the truth is repeated, it's the lie that spreads and sticks. We all know that Trump's inauguration as president attracted a bigger audience than Obama's, don't we? Although we've seen the photos that contradict that notion. And a lot of Americans are still sure Obama isn't even American, even though he produced his birth certificate - and his passport - to prove he was.
As the old saying has it: a lie is halfway round the world before truth has even got its shoes on.
The people who told me all UK politicians are liars weren't angry. More resigned.
There's tons of evidence that Jeremy Corbyn isn't an anti-semite, including witness statements, but according to the press, BBC, Sky, ITV News and some of his own party who want to get rid of him, he is, so that's that. This kind of treatment has to merit this reply:
In Scotland, I do understand to an extent why people sometimes get confused over SNP policies: the media don't always make a difference between news that applies to England - like NHS targets missed again, train fares being hiked - and stuff that is UK-wide. There's also a lot of misunderstanding about the Scottish Government's financial position: it doesn't matter which party is in power, the budget isn't determined here and the 'deficit' is imposed by the Exchequer. And no Scottish Government can get into debt to reduce that deficit or supplement their budget.
Lies pile up: Nicola Sturgeon is prepared to have Scotland sign up to the Euro - despite the fact she has denied that several times over and even the obnoxious Andrew Neil went on twitter to tell people that they never even got on to the subject in the interview because they ran out of time.
The latest 'scalp-hunt' involves the Scottish Health Spokesperson - and make no mistake, the media are out to get her. Every day brings a new story about a child dying. It's a terrible thing for any family to go through but for the most part there's no evidence of incompetence by either the Health Spokesperson or the NHS: what we see and hear are more grieving parents and their 'feeling' that someone is responsible and they have been treated badly. All served up in the full glare of a TV camera.
Is it just possible that the 'confusion' is no such thing? Like the BBC's recent 'mistakes': the wrong clip of Johnson played at the Cenotaph, the wrongly-edited clip of an answer Johnson gave in a q and a, forgetting to sign him up for a debate that all the other leaders were signed up for. Is this really just incompetence on the part of BBC personnel?
Think back to almost any leader you care to name in UK politics. Did any of them send the prime minister's dad to a TV studio with their own camera crew to film his old dad being rejected as a replacement for the PM?
And this is where matters get really worrying: confidence in politics is as low as I can remember. For that, read confidence in the democratic system, the power of the vote, the work of parliament. These are all suffering. Maybe some politicians - not all - need to be reminded they work for us. And this is not a game.
As for the UK press and TV news, I suspect they are beyond redemption. If you need confirmation that they don't have the UK's best interests at heart, just take a glance over the front pages of the newspapers next time you're in the supermarket.
Comments
Post a Comment