Lies and facts

varian you're a Legend. Respect.

Here is just one example of a false claim I've heard Tories make many times-

“There are now more people in work than there were before the pandemic began.”
Boris Johnson, House of Commons 24 NOVEMBER 2021

Facts-

During Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson claimed that there are more people in work now than there were before the Covid-19 pandemic began.

When asked by FullFact, Number 10 said the PM was referring to the number of UK workers on employer payrolls which was 29.3 million in October 2021, above the 29 million in February 2020, before the start of the pandemic.

But the number of workers on employer payrolls doesn’t include everyone in work. Notably it excludes the self-employed, the number of whom has fallen from 5 million just before the pandemic to 4.3 million as of the third quarter of 2021.

Other data from the Office for National Statistics, which includes all people in paid work in the UK, shows the figure is still about half a million below the level just prior to the pandemic. It has gone from about 33 million between December 2019 and February 2020 to 32.5 million in the latest figures from July to September 2021.

The proportion of working-age people in employment is also lower than it was in early 2020, falling from 76.6% to 75.4% in this period.

Therefore, it is not correct to say that there are now more people in employment than there were before the pandemic began.

War in Europe, world high energy and food prices, we are working alongside Covid, honestly I think some people would argue about the price of eggs, whilst around them people were murdering each other.

People, around the globe, are always murdering one another, for various reasons.

That shouldn't stop us trying to get a decent PM - of whatever party.

Allsorts

War in Europe, world high energy and food prices, we are working alongside Covid, honestly I think some people would argue about the price of eggs, whilst around them people were murdering each other.

What's that got to do with Johnson's lies?

growstuff

Allsorts

War in Europe, world high energy and food prices, we are working alongside Covid, honestly I think some people would argue about the price of eggs, whilst around them people were murdering each other.

What's that got to do with Johnson's lies?

All the more reason for us to have a PM we can trust, surely?

There is always a war somewhere in the world, we are at war with our-mum and his lies

Allsorts

War in Europe, world high energy and food prices, we are working alongside Covid, honestly I think some people would argue about the price of eggs, whilst around them people were murdering each other.

whilst around them people were murdering each other.

As our PM is perfectly happy with murdering people by pretending that covid no longer exists and letting it rip through the population, I find that quite an ironic statement...

Maizie I agree with you. I knew we’d agree again.

Allsorts

War in Europe, world high energy and food prices, we are working alongside Covid, honestly I think some people would argue about the price of eggs, whilst around them people were murdering each other.

If we argue about the price of eggs we can resolve the argument by looking at the facts. If you say that the price of eggs in UK supermarkets has doubled in the last year and I say it has not, we can factcheck and that will be, or should be, the end of the argument. One of us is factually correct and the other one wrong.

The problem we seem to have in UK politics - and elsewhere in the world- is the rejection of facts on the part of a sizeable portion of the electorate who have been brainwashed into believing things which are not true.

Most folk in this country are amazed that the majority of the Russian people seem to support Putin, but that is because they have been in effect brainwashed for years by his very effective lying propaganda.

I would prefer the phrase ‘letting people die’ though to murdering. But in many ways it amounts to the same.
I’m fed up of seeing approximately 150 people die every day from Covid.

world high energy prices

France's Government capped the domestic price rises at just 4%. UK price cap was increased by 54% per cent.

So let's not talk about eggs, but if you want to talk about energy then why are our government not protecting us from energy costs as other governments are doing for their countries?

A leader who lies is surely even more of a liability when the world is in a state of flux.

France has an election on. How long will the reduction last after that do you think?

maddyone assuming Macron gets in, this reduction in energy prices WILL continue. Macron is no fool and he has already faced huge public service costs from the Gilet Jaune protests. He is not going to provoke another massive uprising when he has got a far bigger agenda to deliver on. Oh that the British took to the street more. But wait: this government hasten our right to protest, so you'd end up in jail. Just like in Russia!

Rwanda is apparently one of the safest countries on earth!

Who knew?

The Conservative’s 2019 manifesto promised “at a minimum” to match the average EU subsidy of about £1.5bn a year to help the most deprived parts of the UK.

But details of the government’s Shared Prosperity Fund show that it will hand out only £2.6bn over the next three years and will not match the previous EU funding level of £1.5bn a year until 2025.

Coastpath

*world high energy prices*

France's Government capped the domestic price rises at just 4%. UK price cap was increased by 54% per cent.

So let's not talk about eggs, but if you want to talk about energy then why are our government not protecting us from energy costs as other governments are doing for their countries?

A leader who lies is surely even more of a liability when the world is in a state of flux.

Nothing to do with the election, the fact is that France has very high energy independence due to nuclear power, they do not have to pay others the market price that we do.

So freezing the price rise to 4% costs them very little, the profit it makes from the energy it sells us helps a lot too!.

Varian I agree 100%.
But what can we do about it?
Most of us, me included , have lied at times, to get what we want.
So the question is, do we expect a PM to be morally correct, or is it more important for him/her to be tactically able?
Not that I like BJ -but is that a reason for him not to be our PM?

Fennel

Varian I agree 100%.
But what can we do about it?
Most of us, me included , have lied at times, to get what we want.
So the question is, do we expect a PM to be morally correct, or is it more important for him/her to be tactically able?
Not that I like BJ -but is that a reason for him not to be our PM?

We expect a PM to be law abiding. Especially when he devised the law himself.

We also expect them to tell the truth when discovered breaking the law.

I would never describe him as tactically able.

Fennel the fact that anyone can possibly believe Boris Johnson to be tactically able puts me in mind of paid up members of the Flat Earth Society.

Fennel, I expect that you would have not lied in a situation where honesty was a condition of your employment .

Your're all right but I'm just being provocative.
But genuine in that many of the public seem to think that our PM should be a moral example to us all.. As well as 'getting things done'
No human being can do that. Be realistic.
So what do we need from a leader?

Fennel So what do we need from a leader?

Honesty
Respect for others
A sense of reality
A sense of pride in representing a country

'Getting things done' is a great catch phrase, but its value rather depends on what those things are.

Talking of energy and France - our local supermarket is building a roof of solar panels over its car park. On the outskirts of another nearby town there is a large array of solar panels, built upon land owned by that commune which is situated between the autoroute and the railway line.

Traveling back from Italy by train from a holiday taken before covid we noticed small arrays in waste land alongside the railway lines.

Not having been in back to the UK for about 4 years I don't know whether such enterprises are being developed there but, if not why not?