If you’re not sure of your facts then you say something else, it’s not hard. Or you express it as a possibility not as a fact; it becomes second nature to journalists to say things like “it is reported that” to cover their backs, because if they report a wrong fact their paper is liable to be sued.
More broadly, if our politicians had checked a few facts about the EU before they’d gone into negotiations, things might have gone a bit better. It’s strange how little importance the current batch of politicians attaches to facts and being knowledgable in general - so many examples of basic ignorance, such as the minister for NI not understanding the connection between religion and politics, and Raab having little concept of cross-Channel freight. OK so you are forgiving of people making incorrect statements but the trouble is that if a politician doesn’t have the correct picture in his or her head, how can they form good policies and make correct decisions.
What would be really good would be to encourage conscientious people who value integrity into politics, rather than the current batch that think politics is all about putting a clever spin on things.
The stakes were huge and his lying gave Leave a huge boost.
He has to pay the price and add another, hopefully, nail in the coffin of the Brexiteers.
Like Gina Davies whi took the government to court and won, this was left to an individual and I am prpud to have done my little bit.
It may be thst they need more funds, but, obviously, there is a case to answer and let’s all step up to the mark and do our bit for Remain.
It’s one thing to be caught ‘on the hop’ by a political commentator in an interview and quote misleading/incorrect facts but it’s another thing altogether to stand in front of a bus that’s been printed up in big letters stating an out and out lie!
Quite right! Where was Sir Humphrey when the nation needed him? I did once have the idea that there was a Departmental Civil Service supporting each (changing) Minister?
I assumed this ‘support’ was at the very least to provide Facts and Expert Opinion?
Oh yes, now I remember these would have been these wretched ‘experts’ that Gove despises so much. Never fear (or even hope) as characters like these come automatically Teflon coated, happily provided by their other, and main employers - the Media - whose views are far more important than those of silly voters. Remember what the Daily Heil said about Judges?
‘Enemies of the People’?
I will be amazed if Johnson or Farage would ever get more than a ‘naughty boy’ slap on the wrist - if that.
“Gave Leave a huge boost” . . . . A “mere” 635k chose to vote leave rather than remain thereby creating the majority. Meanwhile there were 1.7M frustrated and exhausted employees and other servants of the NHS; 3.5M of their customers who had been forced to wait, some in pain and humiliation, more than 4hrs in A&E; and 460k of inpatients who submitted written complaints in 2015. Add say an additional (conservative) 33% to cover the distressed family members of these employees and patients. How many of these 7.5M individuals were influenced to change their vote on the day, by the deliberate lie of the £350M p.w. The exact figure is perhaps not quite as important a lie as the implication that the whole EU “membership fee” would go to the NHS if you vote “leave”. How many of these were swayed to vote leave by that lie? More than 8.5% would have been responsible for that majority! And that is just within the NHS. MORI reckoned the following day that 47% of voters HAD believed that bus and Boris.
It’s not inconceivable then that the lies of Boris and his cronies are responsible for the whole ******* mess UK is now in. A fresh referendum is the only way forward.
Exactly and that is why they blatantly used it.
One of my abiding memories is of two old biddies who proudly proclaimed thst they had not voted for twenty years, but they had voted Leave to give the NHS more money.
I hope he goes to jail for a long time and, even then, it will be nothing compared to the financial worry, splitting families, losing jobs and freedom of movement and health care that this appallingly arrogant man and his cohorts have caused to so many people who believed their future was secure in the EU.
The Spectator is a right wing vehicle so not exactly without bias but they have a take on this which defends the claim - for one that the actual gross contribution in 2016 was higher and it is “legitimate” to inflate claims or even twist them completely during a campaign.
Cancelling Brexit and pretending the referendum never happened will just lead to years of more turmoil and uncertainty, you may be happy with that but it’s not good for the UK - self before country.
It has been already established that if the Referendum was mandatory instead of advisory it would have already been declared illegal.
I, for one, do not think that a vote that was illegally obtained should count.
It remains to be seen what the outcome of the Boris trial will be, but should he be found guilty, that should be the nail in the coffin of the Referendum.
