There’s nothing new about political lies. But it feels like we’ve crossed a threshold.
Alternative facts = political lies
Last week, US federal agents from ICE shot dead Renee Nicole Good. The killer unloaded three bullets into her head at point-blank range. One through the windscreen, then two through the open driver’s side window.
US president Donald Trump said:
The woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, wilfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer. She behaved horribly. And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over. It is hard to believe he is alive, but [he] is now recovering in the hospital.
Yet it was all captured on video. From multiple angles. The murder of Renee Nicole Good went viral. Her car was stationary, and when threatened, she slowly steered away from the shooter. He was not hit by the car, and was videoed immediately afterwards walking away unscathed.
State lies are not a new phenomenon. We’ve had Hillsborough. Orgreave. The Met Police pumping eight hollow-point bullets into Jean Charles de Menezes at point blank range over a period of thirty seconds while he was seated in a tube train.
But even the Sun or the Met Police had enough shame to try to concoct a story. Trump and co just tell you your eyes are lying. And rely on you listening only to their information channels. Although I did applaud when local Mayor Jacob Frey told the press:
I’ve got a message for ICE. Get the f*ck out of Minneapolis!
Political lies
Truth is more than the absence of lies. Truth is a commitment to uphold trust and good faith in your communication. To present relevant facts. To construct sound arguments.
Keir Starmer’s ten pledges were political lies to get elected Labour leader. Nigel Farage is obviously lying about his history of racism. Last I checked, 34 former school colleagues and staff have gone on the record with highly detailed accounts of his racist behaviour. He tried shrugging it off, claiming standards were different in the past. That didn’t wash, so he’s gone into full Trump denial, calling them “complete made-up fantasies.” From all 34 witnesses? He does not “tell it as it is” any more than Reform’s Nathan Gill told the truth about accepting Russian bribes. That’s not patriotism. That’s lining your own pockets.
Critical thinking
Politics is full of biased arguments. We can deal with that. The entire academic field of the humanities is based on the idea that people have different opinions. The skill they teach is how to make your case based on clear reasoning backed up by verifiable facts. In other words, critical thinking. I think we should teach more of that in schools.
But outright denial of evidence is dangerous. Whether that’s covering up a pattern of deception, unlawful killing, or racism, it becomes a habit. The truth becomes inconvenient. And soon people can’t tell the difference between the political lies they tell to get elected and the lies they tell themselves about the way they are running the country. We don’t just get corruption. We get untrammelled incompetence. Johnson. Truss. Sunak. Now Starmer.
Critical thinking requires a frame of reference. If all your friends are MPs on £93,904 a year who take free Taylor Swift tickets, that becomes normality for you. It’s a short step to taking trips to Israel. Of course, as befits your status, you won’t be staying in a youth hostel. And they seem such nice people. Generous, too. And so misunderstood. And why wouldn’t you take a meeting from a think tank that says giving workers protection from unfair dismissal is just a bit too radical? These people must know what they’re talking about, they’re captains of industry. Or more likely ex-colleagues who are funded by them.
CPD for MPs
These are often ministers who pass rules requiring public servants to undertake continuing professional development (CPD), yet do bugger all of it themselves. Now I get that not everyone can be an expert in everything. But experience counts.
If you want a good health policy, talk to doctors and physios and health visitors. If you want to know how to speed up the buses, talk to a bus driver.
My 18 year old son is applying to study medicine, and to even have a chance of an interview he had to have volunteered at a GP surgery and shadowed a hospital doctor.
So let’s publish the CPD record of the policymakers with regard to their policy area. And I don’t mean like Rachel Reeves’s dodgy CV.
I mean a regulated format of CPD. If you’re on the education select committee, spend a full day as a teaching assistant in a school with 60% free school meals. And eat in the dinner hall with kids. So your mind is more full of images of that than of swanky hospitality. If you want to be a rail minister, do a few shifts as a dispatcher. Defence? Don’t just inspect the troops and have a jolly in a helicopter. Hide in a foxhole under artillery bombardment, and you might think twice before sending someone else’s kids off to war.
A bit more firsthand experience might get us a bit more truth and some better decisions.
Featured image via the Canary
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