Book cover of The Assault on Truth, by Peter Oborne
The Assault on Truth, by Peter Oborne
Author: Peter Oborne. Review by John H Hall
When the Truth and Integrity in Public Affairs committee was laid down by Meeting for Sufferings in 2004, it seemed the right decision. Broadly speaking, public affairs were conducted correctly by a civil service dedicated to ‘integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality’, and by politicians who, if they lied to parliament, resigned. If we accept that ‘Democracy can function only when all sides agree some common basis of truth’, as Peter Oborne says here, then his description of current ministers’ disregard for the truth is disturbing.
It started, Peter Oborne suggests, when Tony Blair came to power. The Labour Party did not trust the press to tell the truth and, consequently, complying with the ministerial code began to change. Of course voters had already become accustomed to ministers being ‘economical with the actualité’ as Alan Clark put it, but Oborne warns that ‘treating all politicians as liars is a gift to ones who are’. He makes a point of identifying honest ministers from both major parties.
This pocket-sized book provides detail of the current government’s ministerial falsehoods. Each is supported by footnotes, some of which take half a page. While Oborne over-emphasises political misinterpretation as untruths, the enormous range and frequency of falsehood is startling.
One chapter describes the large number of times Boris Johnson was sacked for inventing journalistic and political lies prior to becoming prime minister, and how he repudiated the ethics of the ‘journalistic values at Westminster: fairness, accuracy, scruple, scepticism, fact checking’. As an example, he describes how ministers made false claims about Britain’s record on testing for Covid-19. He asserts that despite repeatedly telling falsehoods, Johnson and his ministers have been able to remain in office because newspapers supported the liars against honest former ministers such as Dominic Grieve. To gain privileged access and favourable treatment, these papers have become ‘a vital though subsidiary part of the government machine’ rather than the ‘verifiers of the truth’, as they used to be. For government advisers, the truth is whatever a Downing Street source says it is.
Oborne’s solution takes five forms: the speakers in parliament should oblige ministers to correct false statements; voters with government MPs should write asking for corrections; public servants should ask for a written instruction before acting on a falsehood; the subject of lies should sue the minister; and all voters should write to their MP should a minister attack the judiciary.
The whipping system in parliament limits the ability of MPs to hold government ministers to account, so we need an active external source to work towards returning democracy to honesty. After reading the book you may feel that the problem needs the discernment of a reconstituted Truth and Integrity in Public Affairs committee.
