The mic drop
Like many people of my age I just loved The West Wing. I used to get a box set for Xmas and watch a whole series in a day or two. One of my favourite bits is when President Bartlett so destroys the Republican challenger for the Presidency in a TV debate, that his team leave the briefing room without spinning the President’s victory.
So complete was his victory that they don’t have to bother and instead they send a massive signal by walking out and leaving their opponents floundering to put any positive gloss on their candidates dismal performance.
Which brings us to the Sunak/Starmer debate. What looked like a draw is now a slam dunk for Starmer, the PM lied, we all know he lied and Sir Kier let hime lie, so he would have enough rope to hang himself. Then Labour gets at least two days of the Tory party spin doctors trying to explain why it wasn’t really a lie, was almost true, that Sunak misspoke or is just an idiot.
For any of that to be true, you would have to believe that a man who read PPE, who has been an MP for years, who has been Chancellor of the Exchequer and then PM, has never heard of Civil Service impartiality. That he thinks the Treasury will support a Tory election campaign, that civil servants are at the beck and call of the Tory party, will help ministers get re-elected, are not bound by a very strict and scrupulously observed code of conduct, and are not in purdah during a general election.
On top of that you would have to believe that not a single person in the PM’s extensive team of Spads, advisors, lawyers, ministers and Tory party organisers knew anything about the subject either and that the letter from HM Treasury pointing out that they were lying was somehow missed.
If I were Labour I would refuse to answer any questions based on Tory claims about their policies until the PM admits that he lied, that he libelled the civil servants who have loyally served his government despite its incompetence, attacks on them and its impossible demands, and apologises unreservedly and promises not to lie again.
Unlike the lie on the side of that bus, the £2000 claim will not work, because the bus lie meant that the public was constantly reminded that we did pay a lot for membership of the EU, even if it was not what the Brexiteers claimed it was.
This one will only do that if the media doesn’t do its job, which is a distinct possibility.
But Labour can help them by just dropping the mic, and saying “We don’t react or comment on Tory lies or Tory liars.”
Let the Tories try to prove they are telling the truth, if they can.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media
And “how can we believe their promises” will be a line to take
Sorry, I know this is perhaps old ground, but the suggestion on the bus was quite specious, and just as impossible as the £2000 claim.
Yes, the public were aware that the UK paid into the EU. But the budget contribution (it wasn't a membership fee) was dwarfed by the economic benefit of membership. Membership was basically self-funded.
So, on leaving the EU the UK stopped contributing to the budget while losing considerably more year on year in economic benefit. The idea that there could have been even £0.01 dividend from ceasing budget contributions was a fantasy. Let's say a deliberate lie to exploit the lack of public understanding. There was only ever going to be a huge deficit.
So, of course, when people ask what happened to the money, what happened to the savings... there never was any money or savings.
The idea that the UK paid for EU membership out of public taxation always seemed to me to be a colossal deceit. Presenting it as a membership fee, and with no quid pro quo, was a deliberate lie that most UK politicians advanced. Or was it just old-fashioned ignorance and prejudice?