Politics has become feral, the old rules are gone and the cheats and liars are thriving
There’s nothing new about lying politicians. You could write a book about them. In fact, lots of people have – a quick click on Amazon can fill your shelves with weighty volumes on the subject.
I suspect there will be more than a few additions to the canon following this general election campaign. This is, of course, the age of Donald Trump, who has normalised lying to such an extent that it is safest to presume everything he says is untrue unless advised otherwise.
He, and populists like him, are helped in their manipulations by modern technology. Social media such as Twitter allows politicians to make instant, calculated and inflammatory statements that are shared among millions of supporters in the blink of an eye, regardless of veracity. The old adage that a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is getting its boots on has never been so apposite.
In Britain we have often looked across the Atlantic with a sort of amused superiority. The cartoonish nature of US politics, its dayglo politicians, the vast sums of cash spent on hokey TV adverts and brutal attack campaigns – America might be the world’s most powerful nation, but its political process is corrupt and ludicrous. Currently, though, British politics is every bit as rank.
Consider the video put on to Twitter by the Conservatives last week that showed Keir Starmer, Labour’s Brexit spokesman, being interviewed on TV about leaving the EU. The Tories edited the clip to make it look as if Starmer failed to answer the questions. It was a straightforward and mendacious distortion of the truth.
We will see more rather than less of this. Politicians are, I think, like bankers – we do our best to regulate their behaviour but they will always find loopholes that give them an advantage. When the technological wild west is offering new opportunities to get one over on the opposition, it is sadly unimaginable that political campaigners would pass up the chance. How long until we see the first deployment of “deep fake” video, where digital manipulation can make it look like a person has done and said things they never have?
I know a large number of politicians, of all stripes, and the overwhelming majority are deeply committed to serving the public good. Most believe they are doing the right thing, for the right reasons.
However, there’s a reason so many of the best MPs are quitting before December’s election: the old rules and decencies no longer apply, the game has become feral, and it is those most willing to play dirty who are thriving.
Every blatant lie told by a campaign is targeted to rile further the ravening hordes who have already made our public space intolerably unpleasant. The resulting abuse, both verbal and physical, of politicians is exactly what the populists want.
Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, wrote last week that “those who feed, encourage and amplify these accounts are as guilty as the trolls themselves for the harassment, fear and alarm. We are in a dangerous place.” She is right.