Nightmare of deception and disinformation
Iam in London and the city is literally sparkling thanks to the spectacular displays of Christmas lights and festive decorations. But as I write this, there is more than just Christmas going on in Britain. British voters are about to head to the polls to decide who should hold the reins of power: the Conservative Party’s Boris Johnson or Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn.
The choice could not be starker. Johnson, who runs the most unpopular new government on record, is promising voters to ‘‘get Brexit done’’ by January 31, as if Brexit is an event, not a drawn-out process of transition and negotiations that would take many years to complete. And if the promise of a quick Brexit was not ridiculous enough, Johnson recently promised his Brexit would also bring a baby boom.
‘‘Cupid’s darts will fly once we get Brexit done’’, he said in an interview with London’s Sunday Times. ‘‘Romance will boom across the whole nation.’’
This type of frivolous talk completely ignores how traumatised the country has been over Brexit.
Jeremy Corbyn, who I support, is also unpopular. Many Labour supporters believe his radical manifesto is too much, too soon. Having said that, virtually all the policies put forward by Labour seem necessary to reverse the damage caused by years of Tory austerity and neglect.
According to the UK’s independent factchecking charity, Full Fact, ‘‘the number of children living in poverty is between 3.7 and 4.6 million in the UK. That is anything from a quarter to a third of all children’’.
This is a startling fact that deserves close attention. But British voters can be forgiven for their lack of interest in child poverty figures because both parties make either false or misleading claims when it comes to statistics.
For instance Johnson claimed there were 400,000 fewer children in poverty than in 2010. Yes, there are different ways of measuring poverty in the UK, but none of them support Johnson’s claim.
Labour’s claim that there were 500,000 more children in poverty can be misleading because Full Fact says the figure only stands up according to one measure of poverty. Still, all the main measures suggest child poverty has been on the rise since 2015. This is a significant fact that voters need to be made aware of, especially when, according to the UK’s Institute For Fiscal Studies, the increase in child poverty has come as a result of reductions in people’s entitlement to tax credits and benefits.
My husband and I, despite being British citizens, are unable to vote in the UK elections because we have lived outside the country for more than 15 years. However, I remain intensely interested in the outcome of this election.
Talking to many Londoners, from taxi and Uber drivers to close friends, it truly saddened me to discover many held views based on disinformation rather than actual facts.
The black cab drivers I talked to expressed deep resentment towards Corbyn, assuming him to be an arrogant communist who supported IRA violence and voted against the Good Friday Agreement. None of these claims are true.
So where did this disinformation come from? They all said they read it on the Internet. Listening to how similar their lines of argument were, I guessed they were targeted by online advertising designed to discredit the Labour Party leader.
I was horrified to learn both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats produced some campaign material resembling local newspapers or a family or lifestyle magazine, with only a tiny label declaring it to be political party literature. This appalling level of trickery undermines the integrity of the media and the entire democratic process.
It is mind-boggling to think that the Conservatives chose to rebrand their Twitter account to masquerade as an independent factchecker during the first leaders’ TV debate between Johnson and Corbyn.
The Tories have also taken to doctoring videos. In one example they edited a video of their opponent to make him appear confused and unable to answer a question.
This level of blatant willingness to mislead the public has not been seen before.
Yes, the Labour Party has also been guilty of aggressive campaigning and misrepresentation, but it has not engaged in this level of shameful deception and trickery.
The Economist called the imminent election ‘‘Britain’s nightmare before Christmas’’.
On Friday December 13, our time, unlucky Britons will be voting in a country torn apart by bitter divisions created mostly by disinformation and deceit.
With our own election not far away, the time is now to set up independent fact-checking organisations and put in place legislation that will cover full transparency of all online campaigning and advertising. Moves to ban foreign donations were an excellent start but we need to do more to protect our democracy.
... if the promise of a quick Brexit was not ridiculous enough, Johnson recently promised his Brexit would also bring a baby boom.