Democracy is subverted when politicians abuse their own failure to pass strict campaigning laws
If Britain’s politicians believed in defending democracy, there would not be an election on Thursday. Our leaders would have held back until laws controlling propaganda and foreign subversion were in place. They haven’t waited, because they don’t want to protect the integrity of the ballot. With wolfish smiles, they have welcomed the opportunities for spreading fake news that the web has brought them.
As the paper was going to press, the final online advertising blitz had begun. Full Fact, the campaign group that fights the necessary battle to keep public life clean, was monitoring online adverts from the Conservatives saying that the cost of a Corbyn government will be £1.2tn – a figure based on assumptions that are dubious to the point of fatuity – and promising to recruit 50,000 new nurses – a straight lie. Labour was claiming that a Tory trade deal with the US would increase NHS costs by £500m a week – a statement that is as good as a lie, as there is no trade deal to cost – and merrily chirruping that 95% of people won’t have to pay more tax to fund its dazzling spending spree, which, as the Institute of Fiscal Studies points out, isn’t true either.
Without prompting from Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump or Xi Jinping, both major parties want to spread big lies
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