ChatterBank1 min ago
How Cameron Helped Boris Lie His Way To The Top
This week Boris Johnson stood up in parliament and boasted “we have been cutting crime by 14%”.
The actual crime figures from the Office For National Statistics show that crime is actually rising so fast that many offences are actually higher than pre-pandemic levels, and that the overall crime rate is actually up by 14%.
Complaints have been submitted to the UK Statistics Authority about Johnson's latest political lie, but past experience had shown that they're absolutely powerless to stop Tory Prime Ministers from lying.
Back in 2013 the UK Statistics Authority issued a stinging rebuke to David Cameron over his outright lie that the Tory government was "paying down Britain's debts", when their economically illiterate "let's cut our way to growth" austerity strategy was stifling economic demand and actually causing the national debt to soar.
Cameron's response to this rebuke was to repeat the exact same lie again about "paying down Britain's debts" in order to prove that he could lie to parliament and the public with impunity, and goad those who would try to hold him to account.
Absolutely nothing has been done to clamp down on political liars since then, so it's impossible to imagine Johnson giving the slightest damn about a UK Statistics Authority rebuke after his Eton chum Cameron laughed in their faces, goaded them by telling the exact same lie again, and completely got away with it.
The worst thing about it is that if any other MP tried to intervene to call out Johnson's crime claim as the lie that it is, or explicitly criticise any of his myriad other political lies, they'd be booted out of the House of Commons for breaching Westminster's ridiculous and archaic civility rules.
In a system that endlessly refuses to discipline political liars, and actively punishes those who speak out against political lies, is it any wonder that the most notorious liar in British politics has floated to the top of the Westminster cesspit?
The actual crime figures from the Office For National Statistics show that crime is actually rising so fast that many offences are actually higher than pre-pandemic levels, and that the overall crime rate is actually up by 14%.
Complaints have been submitted to the UK Statistics Authority about Johnson's latest political lie, but past experience had shown that they're absolutely powerless to stop Tory Prime Ministers from lying.
Back in 2013 the UK Statistics Authority issued a stinging rebuke to David Cameron over his outright lie that the Tory government was "paying down Britain's debts", when their economically illiterate "let's cut our way to growth" austerity strategy was stifling economic demand and actually causing the national debt to soar.
Cameron's response to this rebuke was to repeat the exact same lie again about "paying down Britain's debts" in order to prove that he could lie to parliament and the public with impunity, and goad those who would try to hold him to account.
Absolutely nothing has been done to clamp down on political liars since then, so it's impossible to imagine Johnson giving the slightest damn about a UK Statistics Authority rebuke after his Eton chum Cameron laughed in their faces, goaded them by telling the exact same lie again, and completely got away with it.
The worst thing about it is that if any other MP tried to intervene to call out Johnson's crime claim as the lie that it is, or explicitly criticise any of his myriad other political lies, they'd be booted out of the House of Commons for breaching Westminster's ridiculous and archaic civility rules.
In a system that endlessly refuses to discipline political liars, and actively punishes those who speak out against political lies, is it any wonder that the most notorious liar in British politics has floated to the top of the Westminster cesspit?
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Sure. Tho arguably not all that obvious.
But would it not make more sense to make these top level subjects in their own right? My own view is wr don’t need “news” AND “current affairs” for example. Ditto “phrases and sayings” AND “quotes” and others besides.
If the top level was simply a set of headers in their own right that at least would be more logical (tho admittedly disastrous given the iPhone issue)
Sure. Tho arguably not all that obvious.
But would it not make more sense to make these top level subjects in their own right? My own view is wr don’t need “news” AND “current affairs” for example. Ditto “phrases and sayings” AND “quotes” and others besides.
If the top level was simply a set of headers in their own right that at least would be more logical (tho admittedly disastrous given the iPhone issue)
Well at least Johnson hasn't yet lied on such a scale as his hero, Trump. Mind you, once he has been ousted I wouldn't put anything past him; they have the same shamelessness and unlimited ego and sense of entitlement, whether about possession of women or possession of power over the great unwashed.
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If you scroll down to the graph Figure 1, the Office of National Statistics shows crime (excluding fraud & computer misuse) has been declining steadily since Dec 1997.
If you scroll down to the graph Figure 1, the Office of National Statistics shows crime (excluding fraud & computer misuse) has been declining steadily since Dec 1997.
"Responding to the Liberal Democrats' complaint, UKSA chair Sir David Norgrove said in a letter the official statistics "quite properly" included fraud and computer misuse and the prime minister had excluded them but "did not make this clear".
"If fraud and computer misuse are counted in total crime as they should be, total crime in fact increased by 14% between the year ending September 2019 and the year ending September 2021," he wrote.
He added the Home Office press release presented the statistics "to give a positive picture of trends in crime in England and Wales".
He said the omission of fraud and computer misuse was "stated" in the release but in the title and two other places it had not been made clear crime had only fallen if these offences were not included.
Sir David also noted the Home Office had suggested the fall in other types of crime was related to the government's so-called Beating Crime Plan.
He said "it would have been helpful" if it had been made clear the Office of National Statistics actually believed falls in the relevant crime types were due to the pandemic."
"If fraud and computer misuse are counted in total crime as they should be, total crime in fact increased by 14% between the year ending September 2019 and the year ending September 2021," he wrote.
He added the Home Office press release presented the statistics "to give a positive picture of trends in crime in England and Wales".
He said the omission of fraud and computer misuse was "stated" in the release but in the title and two other places it had not been made clear crime had only fallen if these offences were not included.
Sir David also noted the Home Office had suggested the fall in other types of crime was related to the government's so-called Beating Crime Plan.
He said "it would have been helpful" if it had been made clear the Office of National Statistics actually believed falls in the relevant crime types were due to the pandemic."
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