Denzil McDaniel: The culture of lies is leaving democracy in a dangerous place

Such entertainment, no?

MPs such as the hardline Brexiteer ERG (European Research Group) member Andrew Bridgen were regulars in front of the cameras outside, insisting on a “no deal” withdrawal.

Fair play to Andrew for finding the time; the Honourable member for North West Leicestershire has been busy, otherwise embroiled for several years in legal action against his own family, claiming they forced him out of their £27million business.

For siding with his brother, Bridgen allegedly called Board members a “team of w**kers, liars and thieves".

Last week, the judge in the case ruled that Bridgen lied under oath and was so dishonest that his claims could not be taken at face value.

Years ago, the American writer Gore Vidal mused about his father’s view of the relationship politicians have with the truth. “They lie,” he told the young Gore, “even when they don’t have to.”

It would be all too easy, and entirely wrong, to peddle the idea that every politician lies as automatically as he or she breathes; that would be unfair to the many men and women of integrity who sacrifice much to go into politics in order to make a difference for their communities. And, indeed, before we set ourselves up on a pedestal we should all acknowledge that we can all be a little economical with the truth at times.

But this is different. Serial lying and deceit has become so endemic at the top of this Government that there is a serious risk of a major breach of trust between politicians and the people they’re supposed to represent. Or has such dishonesty in public life become so much the norm that the truth doesn’t matter any more? There was a time when being caught out in a lie meant the end of a politician’s career.

Not any more; and if the Chinese proverb is true that a “fish rots from the head”, it would explain the disingenuous nature of a series of social media posts and media interviews by Johnson acolytes this week, including one Brandon Lewis, who was still Secretary of State for Northern Ireland the last time I looked.

Questioned on Sky News, he was asked by Kay Burley if Boris Johnson accepted he broke the rules when partying during lockdown.

Lewis: “He’s accepted that the police have said the rules were broken.”

Burley: “Does he accept that he broke the rules?”

Lewis: “That’s very different. When he spoke to Parliament he said what he believed to be the truth at the time.”

Huh? So Boris didn’t realise he was breaking the rules he imposed on others and he’s very sorry, blah, blah, blah.

Lewis, of course, told us that Protocol restrictions between Britain and Northern Ireland didn’t exist, and then when proposing to change the Withdrawal Agreement it meant the UK would break the law, but only in a “very specific and limited way".

Johnson himself, of course, has form and plenty of it.

From his Oxford and Eton days, his mentors recall a student of dubious character. His former boss at the Daily Telegraph Max Hastings once wrote: “Johnson would not recognise truth, whether about his private or political life, if confronted by it in an identity parade.”

It’s almost 10 years since Eddie Mair interviewed Johnson on the Marr programme and challenged him about getting sacked from The Times for making up a quote, later sacked by his party leader Michael Howard for a “bare-faced lie” and also co-operating with someone who wanted to beat up a colleague.

“You’re a nasty piece of work,” said Mair, after Johnson muttered that he’d “mildly sandpapered” a quote at The Times.

More dangerously, now Prime Minister he proceeds to stand up and make a series of untruthful claims about everything from the growth of the economy, levels of poverty, falls in CO2 emissions, Britain’s leading role in numerous issues……all fact-checked and found to be lies by vlogger Peter Stefanovic.

You’d expect in this age of information that people would be able to get the facts, consider things rationally and come to reasonable conclusions. In fact, the opposite is true, with trust diminishing in the institutions of Government, the media, the health authorities, the church, while paradoxically people are almost thirsting to accept something they read on Facebook because it goes with their gut worldview.

We truly live in the post-truth age, where people either don’t know what to believe or find their own truth in confirmation bias.

So, in 2016 people in England voted to leave the EU after being told such lies as the one on the side of a bus that they’d get an extra £350 million for the health service. They didn’t care much about being conned, they were more convinced by the “take back control” claptrap.

And even when they knew that Boris Johnson was a serial liar in 2019, they voted him as Prime Minister anyway in a landslide victory on the basis that he’d get Brexit done.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the result was the “red wall” of traditional Labour seats, many of them still affected by the Thatcherite policies, turned out to support Johnson, even though they hardly believed his promise of forming a “people’s Government”.

And as a result, as people struggle to pay for food and heating, Britain gets a front bench of the rich and entitled –Sunak, Rees-Mogg, Patel, Truss, Dorries and the rest whose only possibility of being at a foodbank is for a photo opportunity. That’s the same Dorries, looking half-cut, who said “The Prime Minister tells the truth.”

Basically, a lie about the liar.

Here’s the thing, though. Despite knowing all they know, there is a real chance of the British people voting this party back in again. If I was a betting man, which I’m not, I wouldn’t risk your money on it never mind my own pension.

Even in Northern Ireland, the impact of Johnson’s lies doesn’t seem to turn some people against him. He almost smirked as he tickled the tummy of the DUP over the EU withdrawal – “there will be no checks on goods between NI and GB” and throw any customs forms in the bin.

Even with all his betrayal of them, where is the DUP’s anger?

And this week, Sammy Wilson fawns over Johnson’s so-called apology, and some in the wider Unionist and loyalist community want to scrap devolution so we can be ruled directly by Johnson.

It's mad, and that’s the truth.

Johnson isn’t the only person, or the Conservatives the only party, averse to the truth. There have been a fair few chancers over the years in political life; but this Government has taken arrogant deceit to a whole new industrial level.

And so-called democracy is in a dangerous place if trust in the established order is eroded.

And so to partygate this week. Today (Thursday) the House of Commons will debate whether the first Prime Minister to break the law in office, laws which he made, misled.

Expect Tories to line up in a nauseating spectacle of self-preservation and say things they know in their hearts to be untrue.

They know Johnson is lying, they know they’re lying, they know that we know they’re lying; and trust in politics goes further down the pan.

One recent poll found that 75 per cent of people in Britain believed Johnson lied about breaking the law.

But does it really matter?