UK politician's shouldn't copy Trump

Adam Boulton, Editor At Large

Verbal ticks are catching. From time to time I find myself using phrases that I've picked up from others.

Once you've noticed what is happening, the only thing worse than hearing them come out of your own mouth is when they come out of someone else's.

At present the most virulent strain of verbal influenza is adding "to be honest" or "to be fair" to statements that would be perfectly reasonable standing alone. The virus even has its own immediately understandable text abbreviation: "TBH".

So why do we need to keep reassuring people that we are not lying or being unfair, when most of us don't make a habit of doing either?

I think there is a serious reason, and TBH I blame the Americans (who are the origin of many crazes) and especially American politicians.

Americans are Americans and they've elected their President. My concern is that British politicians are admiring the Trump team's success and starting to think it would be a good idea to copy their tactics.

Adam Boulton

Until recently in the US as here, mainstream politicians could argue with each other and disagree with their opinions without suggesting that their opponent was either factually wrong or deliberately lying.

It was extremely unusual to impugn the integrity of journalists for merely reporting what was being said. Nobody ever accused mainstream news organisations of being "fake news".

That, of course, is no longer the case in the age of President Donald Trump. All politicians try to present information in the most favourable light and try to suppress inconvenient facts.

This President doesn't bother - he just makes stuff up. The rain did not hold off during his inauguration speech as he claimed, and the crowd was not the biggest ever (not something to get het up about really since Washington DC and surrounding states didn't vote for him).

More seriously, the networks did fail to report the terrorist incidents he accused them of ignoring, and America is not suffering the highest murder rate for 47 years. Just ask the FBI.

In the last week there were two fascinating interviews in which Mr Trump and his adviser Kellyanne Conway were challenged on their untruths by two journalists on different sides of the spectrum: Bill O'Reilly of Fox News and Jake Tapper of CNN.
facts still matter to both reporters - making stuff up is still something for which journalists are sacked automatically. Just ask Boris Johnson, who was sacked from The Times for inventing quotes from other people including his godfather.

Neither Mr Trump nor Mrs Conway are the least bit phased by the challenges - they barely acknowledge them and insist that they were basically right all along.

Having coined the phrase "alternative facts" in an earlier interview, Mrs Conway explained her inventing of "the Bowling Green massacre" - which never happened - by saying that "masterminds" behind a massacre abroad had been found living in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Americans are Americans and they've elected their President. My concern is that British politicians are admiring the Trump team's success and starting to think it would be a good idea to copy their tactics.

At the last PMQs, Theresa May accused Jeremy Corbyn of making up "alternative facts" when he brought up true text messages. They weren't "alternative facts" - they were awkward facts for the Government.

When challenged on the rumours sweeping Westminster that his heart is not in staying in the job of leader for long, Mr Corbyn accused the reporter of purveying "fake news".
Mr Corbyn is more naïve that his grey beard suggests if he thinks reporters need to make up speculation about party leaders - it's usually topic number one with any politician, even when a party isn't struggling so badly as Labour is.

Mrs May and Mr Corbyn need to stop this right away. If not, the danger is that we will sink into a stupid polarised world where nobody accepts that anybody else has anything worth saying, and where facts are just matters of debate.

No good will come of it, to be honest.