The Politician's Lies

“I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche

“If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” 
― Adolf Hitler

All politicians lie; let's start from that position. If you want to claim that your favourite MP doesn't, please come back to me with a fact check on all of their public pronouncements since they were elected proving your point, and we can talk again, but for the moment, let's just assume that all of them lie. Not all of them lie all of the time, not all of them lie blatantly, not all of them lie egregiously, but they all lie sometimes, whether it is by necessity - in the interests of national security perhaps - or to protect themselves, or their party, or for gain or to smear an opponent. They all lie at some point, and it would be naive to believe otherwise.

 

Edmund Burke

Even when they are not patently lying, politicians are not averse to creating misleading impressions, as in the famous case of Cabinet Secretary Sir Robert Armstrong during the Australian 'Spycatcher' trial in 1986.[1]

Lawyer: What is the difference between a misleading impression and a lie?

Armstrong: A lie is a straight untruth.

Lawyer: What is a misleading impression - a sort of bent untruth?

Armstrong: As one person said, it is perhaps being "economical with the truth."[2]

"We have no plans to increase income tax at this present time," a politician might say, when questioned about future policy. When, six months later, income tax has gone up, that same politician can say that there were no such plans when he made that statement, and whether they were telling the truth or being economical with it, we cannot say.

But whereas politician's lies have traditionally been reactive - offering misleading answers to interviewer's questions - they are now more commonly proactively making false statements, floated in speeches or increasingly, in Tweets. According to The Washington Post, as at 1st April this year, Donald Trump had made 9,451 false or misleading claims since taking office. Now you can say what you like about Trump, but in the field of falsehoods, he has few peers, and where he outshines all other political liars is with the sheer absurdity and pointlessness of his false statements, statements that are so easily disproved, such as the size of the crowd at his rallies, or his claim that the Great Lakes  "are beautiful. They are big, very deep, record deepness, right?” Beautiful they may be, of record deepness, not so much, not even the deepest in the United States. Lying often enough actually reduces scepticism; we can only take so many lies before they lose their power to shock and become the norm. Trump has actually gone past the point of simply lying; he now just makes stuff up - often pointlessly - to the point where it has become the norm.

When Trump opens his mouth - or tweets - I just assume he is lying or simply making stuff up

While all politicians have always lied to us at times, it now seems that they all lie, all of the time, so much so that our default position when a politician answers a question or makes a statement is that they must be lying unless there is evidence to prove otherwise. During the EUR Referendum campaign, Boris Johnson made much of the supposed £350 million a week he claimed Britain would be better off once out of EU, a claim that was much repeated even after it had been thoroughly debunked, and one so outrageous that a private prosecution was brought against Johnson on the grounds of misconduct in public office. The case was quashed in the High Court after Johnson's QC, Adrian Darbishire, argued that the criminal offence of misconduct in public office did not cover political lying. We can conclude from this therefore, that lying in public office is to be expected, and there is nothing we can do about it.

Boris Johnson and the bus with the discredited message.

The current process to elect a new leader of the Conservative Party, together with the ongoing uncertainty around Brexit - which has been the principal driver for the need to find a new leader for the Tories - is a pretty unedifying spectacle. While Boris Johnson is favourite for the role, his progress towards the top job seems to be predicated on a campaign of damage limitation. The thinking seems to be that the job is his to lose, but that his chances of losing would be significantly increased in the event of him making any public appearances or pronouncements. There is method in this apparent madness, following some of his past remarks about niqab wearers, and 'flag-waving piccaninnies,' among other gaffes.[3] 

Johnson's 'amiable buffoon' persona has always been more like that of a comedian than statesman, and it's wearing a little thin. In this context, it seems that comedians are, bizarrely, more likely to be taken to task - or at least have what they have said, taken more seriously - than politicians. I cannot confess to being a huge fan of either Jo Brand or Frankie Boyle, both of whom have found themselves on the end of criticism and been threatened with action by the police over jokes they have made recently. Boyle joked, "Where are the IRA when you need them?" after Theresa May had spent a weekend at Chequers with Brexit supporting Tory MPs, while Jo Brand suggested that battery acid rather than milkshakes be thrown over politicians. 

Frankie Boyle and Jo Brand

Meanwhile, ex-British Army veteran Tony McNally had a visit from the police over a Tweet (since deleted) in which he joked that “it’s time for a military coup to sort Brexit out." Police apparently gave 'advice' to Mr McNally regarding his tweet, while there were calls for both Boyle and Brand to be sacked by the BBC. 

Falklands War veteran Tony McNally had a visit from police after his jokey tweet was taken literally.

Brand's remarks, which were made on a radio panel game, Heresy, the object of which is to "challenge established ideas and question received wisdom," were investigated by the police, and condemned by Nigel Farage, one of the politicians who has recently been 'milkshaked.' Farage said, “This is incitement of violence and the police need to act.” This is the same Nigel Farage who said that in the event that Brexit is not delivered to his taste, he would “don khaki, pick up a rifle and head for the frontlines.” 

Having been 'milkshaked' once, Nigel Farage stayed on his bus next time.

I'm fairly certain Farage would say he was speaking metaphorically, but anyone who could take Jo Brand's comments literally would, I imagine, be feeble minded enough to take Farage's equally literally. Shortly after the launch of his Brexit Party, Farage said that "We can again start to put the fear of God into our MPs," another statement that those who might take Brand and Boyle's comments seriously might similarly take as something more sinister than I imagine Farage would claim he meant.

Even more inflammatory were remarks made by Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell at a public meeting in Liverpool in 2014, when he said of Tory MP Esther McVey - who was one of the initial candidates for the post of leader of the Conservative Party recently - "why are we sacking her, why aren't we lynching the b*****d'?" John McDonnell would argue, I suppose, that this was a joke, and that he did not say it directly because he was quoting someone else; he says that he was not inciting violence. But neither was Jo Brand, neither was Frankie Boyle, and neither was Tony McNally, yet there were calls for sackings and police investigations in their cases. McDonnell - and presumably the person he was supposedly quoting - appear to have escaped censure or investigation, although understandably, Esther McVey said of McDonnell, "He made life difficult and dangerous. He was a bully, he was inciting violence."

Recent events suggest that we have now reached the somewhat surreal situation whereby society now demands higher standards of comedians than of politicians. It would be funny if it weren't so damned serious.

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[1] Spycatcher was a book written by form MI5 officer Peter Wright, first published in Australia in 1987. The British government attempted to have it banned.

[2] "Falsehood and delusion are allowed in no case whatsoever: But, as in the exercise of all the virtues, there is an economy of truth." Edmund Burke, 1796

[3] A list of some of Boris Johnson's gaffes and blunders can be found on the Independent website at https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-conservative-leader-mistakes-gaffes-prime-minister-theresa-may-quotes-a8928791.html